Google Releases Broad Core Update Called: "December 2020 Core Update"

[engine]

Google has just announced a broad core update it's calling "December 2020 Core Update" and we'll be monitoring it and discussing it in our Google Updates and SERP Changes - December 2020 [webmasterworld.com] thread here.

[mobile.twitter.com...]

[Brett_Tabke]

Google does it again. Releasing an update during Cyber week - during a pandemic - during the holidays when people are just trying to survive.

It is clear, the only result will be Google increases their bottom line - takes more SERP share, and has no more care or concern how many people lose their jobs.

Ignore it and go back to building your audience without Google.

[MayankParmar]

I really hope they don't crush businesses during December. The impact of the core update should be reduced.. :)

[NickMNS]

Is there ever a good time to be crushed? [rhetorical]

[rustybrick]

The roll out has begun at around 1pm ET [twitter.com...] I hope those crushed by the May 2020 update can find some relief with this update...

[robzilla]

One site's loss is another's gain. Seems silly to suggest they ought to postpone updates until after "the holidays", or after the pandemic even.

(Also, which holidays? US holidays? Indian holidays? All global holidays? Cyber week's a holiday?)

Anyway, not seeing any noteworthy changes myself, but looking forward to the analyses.

[martinibuster]

Also, which holidays?

There is no also, there is only one major retail holiday.

The Christmas holiday shopping season represents 30% or more of many businesses sales for the entire year. There is no comparison with any other holiday. The Christmas holidays affect economies around the world, regardless of religion, as many of the products are manufactured in China and elsewhere.

[not2easy]

Danny Sullivan [support.google.com] is saying this is a routine update, and refers us to an August 2019 googleblog post for more information: [webmasters.googleblog.com...]

[ichthyous]

I'm not seeing much of anything yet today by 5pm EST. I saw traffic plunge in the last two days though, and today back to normal and only down 7%, which will probably be made up by end of day. USA and UK traffic are both up, while Australia is down 81% and Germany down 56%. Perhaps Google is reporting updates after the fact now.

[robzilla]

There is no comparison with any other holiday.

Christmas spending is eclipsed by Black Friday in quite a few Western countries. Then there's Singles' Day in China and Southeast Asia. Here in The Netherlands, Saint Nicholas Day is huge, on par with Christmas. The same goes for Diwali in India. So quite a few comparisons can be made globally, where these updates also take effect, but that wasn't really the point.

Why would one expect Google to take any holidays into account at all? Because people are "trying to survive"? If I stand to gain from an update, I certainly don't want them to sit on it until after any major shopping period is over; it might allow for my survival, maybe I can even hire some more people. One's death is another's bread, is a saying here (the rhyme's better in Dutch). And wouldn't it be in the best interest of their users, like all those Christmas shoppers, if they did release a major update that's believed to improve the search results?

[tangor]

I'm disappointed the change doesn't have a barnyard animal name. Are those days gone forever?

[loliover]

Seeing traffic spiking.

I hope this is the fix for the spam bug in my niche. I am currently not seeing any significant changes in the SERPS, but clearly something is happening.

SERPS still look spammy as hell, but not quite as bad. Less deleted parasite spam, but more spam websites again.

[martinibuster]

Christmas spending is eclipsed by Black Friday

Black Friday is a part of Christmas spending. That's the underlying point of Black Friday, to buy Christmas gifts.
;)

Why would one expect Google to take any holidays into account at all?

That's a fair question. Presumably the algorithm should make it better for users to find what they are looking for. So that would be a win for ecommerce sites. I suspect that's what should happen for most businesses, that better and more relevant traffic will be the net result of an update.

That's what's supposed to happen, at least.

However, for those of us with long memories, there have been updates in the past, including Update Florida, that were catastrophic for many businesses as it took months for Google to iron out the bugs and return relevant sites to where they belonged in the SERPs.

[jmorgan]

Anyone see any significant changes?

[MayankParmar]

Movements, but nothing major.

[ChokenBako]

No major movements on my websites...

[loliover]

So far recovered from 10% pre-may with a steady down trend to what seems about 40% pre-may.

Recovery seems to continue.

I suspect this is the spam patch, since the same people that were not seeing any spam in their niches are not seeing any changes either.

May Update took 6h to roll out completely for me... by this metric the update should be done now. However, my traffic continued to slowly drain over the last 7 months, so there may be some long-term component to this. I would not mind some long-term growth this time.

Maybe rank less spam over time this time Google, not more! -.-

[jediviper]

I see an important drop for markets like Australia, Canada and less for EU countries that we are active.
But as usual, let's wait and see how it will evolve. It's very early to make any assumptions.
I hope it won't bring back the disaster of the May Update.

[mosxu]

Last two days full of zombies, very special updates

[Cyril TechWebsites]

Facing with great increase in traffic since today's night. But it's early to say something concrete. Since May 4 update this is the first time I'm facing with upward trend on my main website during update. How about other folks who were crushed in May 2020? Is this update stopped your negative trend?

[saladtosser]

Wow, I've been hit hard on this one, I wouldn't mind so much but the 7 sites that have today been placed above me score well below me on all lighthouse metrics,

example site position #1

Performace - Accessibility - Best practices - SEO
73 - 68 - 64 - 86

My site (which is a 100% desktop and mobile AMP site) position #8 (as of this morning)

Performace - Accessibility - Best practices - SEO
87 - 100 - 100 - 100

Id post screen prints of the scores but not sure how to :(

Others down the list but now placed above me are even worse scoring, two of the sites aren't even mobile-friendly, so I'm guessing this update has nothing todo with user experience.... Any ideas so far what this hit? Should I not panic yet?

[ChokenBako]

@Cyril

since noon I also see an increase from about 20-30% in visitors. I was hit in June Update last year very hard and also in the May Update. Hopefully the uptick trend of this update will remain... fingers crossed!

[goodroi]

@saladtosser Lighthouse metrics are kinda like worrying about the butter being used at a steakhouse restaurant. There are much more important ranking factors like links & content (steak & potatoes). Sure the butter is used on all the stuff and you want nice butter but if you want a successful restaurant, spend more time working on the things that make a bigger impact.

[MayankParmar]

Lighthouse metrics / Web vitals not a ranking factor yet... and I don't think it will have a major impact on our rankings when it is released in May 2021.

[engine]

Currently, making this update is resulting in very poor SERPs quality today. It's not even listing the site which would normally come up in the SERPs, but a whole stack of what appears spammy sites.

"It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search"

Some of the links that you can't click through to result in "Server not found"

I'd like to think it's not the core update that's faulty, but just a case of a bad index served, and that index will go away.

[iamlost]

This is pretty much an annual behaviour from G as is the webdev response...

That said, I’m with tangor; though not about a barnyard name although ‘fowl’ might seem apropos given this thread.

Given the long history of PubCon supplying succinct marketing identifiers I truly am disappointed in Google missing such an obvious opportunity: why not run a PubCon ‘name this update’ as part of the usual G outreach?

‘December 2020 Core Update‘ just rolls off the tongue... I dub thee D2CU and may you join R2D2 in the rebel alliance, hacking the Evil Empire at any access port at will...

[NickMNS]

@Iamlost I think we should follow the naming convention as for the corona virus => CoVi d19
Core Update December 20 => CorUptD20

[JorgeV]

Core Update December 20 => CorUptD20

GG NickMNS :-D

[whoa182]

Not looking good so far! No need to worry yet? lol

Traffic is significantly down today after growing and then being steady since BERT update a while back.

Didn't even know there was an update yesterday and traffic looked normal. Today, however, it's not pretty. :)

[optimist]

One retail site hit hard - Amazon got a boost on the keyword up 5 spots on Page 1 and the ONLY product on page 1, the rest is a major network with social media styled blog posts with affiliate links many top 10 ranking link to Amazon.

Just saying.