December 2024 core update. The Google December 2024 core update started on December 12 and completed 6 days later on December 18. This update was a bit of a surprise, since it started a week after the November core update completed.
Why did Google release this core update so soon? “If you’re wondering why there’s a core update this month after one last month, we have different core systems we’re always improving,” Google told us.
This December update was more volatile than the November core update, but less than the August and March core updates in 2024.
Here is a chart from Similarweb comparing the volatility of these past core updates:
Three Google spam updates in 2024
March 2024 spam update. The Google March 2024 spam update started the same day as the March 2024 core update but completed in less time, only taking about 14 days to complete – it ended on March 20. Google did not say anything specifically new when it came to announcing the spam update. Chris Nelson from Google wrote on March 5, “Along with our new spam policies, we are also launching the March 2024 spam update today.”
June 2024 spam update. The Google June 2024 spam update started on June 30 and completed 7 days later on June 27. This update was a general and broad spam update, it was not a link spam update and did not automate the site reputation abuse policy, which is still only done via manual actions.
December 2024 spam update. The Google December 2024 spam update started the day after the December 2024 spam update is expected to finish any time now, but has not yet been completed at the time of this story (we will update this story and infographic above, when it is complete). This update was a general and broad spam update, that applied globally and to all languages, Google said. It seems this update hit very hard within a few days and was much more widespread than some previous spam updates.
Other Google algorithm changes, updates, tweaks or topics
Other Google updates. While we had four core updates and two spam updates, Google also pushed out other search specific updates in 2024. Here is a list of those:
Google Search bugs. Google also had several search bugs throughout 2024: