Google December 2020 Core Algorithm Update [Analysis by Eliav Lankri]

My personal point of view summary:

The recent rolled update (which by many reports is still ongoing) made a lot of buzz, as it is one of the biggest to occur in the past few years (probably larger than May 2020’s core update).

I will begin from the end – Google’s goal in such an update is providing users with higher quality results.

In this summary, I will refer to my point of view, including competitive niches like:

Loans/gambling/make money/health/privacy/Forex

Type of sites affected by this update:

1.    Affiliate websites with less above the fold content, and more CTAs in their top sections (meaning, aggressive affiliate efforts) got hit hard.

My recommendation: Remove CTAs and external links to lower sections, and consider providing real value in the top sections, or at least explain what the reader is about to read before getting him outside the page. Google will interpret your page as a bridge page.

2.    Sites with ads at the top section (not in an aggressive manner) that pushes the main content below on mobile got hit as well. That’s not specific to this update, but there is a chance Google emphasized their efforts on these types of sites this time.

My recommendation: Google AdSense has various advertisement types, and in case you insist on leaving the ads in the top section, you can decrease its size (many sizes are offered). Considering it is not virtual for you, I would suggest permanently removing it or moving it to the sidebar.

3.     Keywords of lower relevance. I recognized many sites got very nice traffic for keywords Google promoted to top places in the SERP. But in practice, I would expect a totally different result to appear – which is what happened, and I am glad Google got into a deeper level of understanding of the user’s intent. The downside is I am the loser here as well 🙂

My recommendation: Accept reality.

4.    High EAT websites are enjoying this update very much. Sites with fictional users got hit.

I see it in our ‘make money’ website as we have invested many efforts in anything related to the EAT principle, ranging from pages explaining who we are, and what are our content writers’ background to how do we rank our content and what is the ranking method for products on the site. This site just entered the top 10 in Google for a term with 200K in search volume.

My recommendation: YMYL (sites about money, health, and other influencing domains in our lives) are expected to foster their transparency aspect (author’s bios/about us/who we are/how we rate/etc).

This should be added to the basic pages such as terms of use/privacy policy/contact us.

What have I found during my investigation?

1.    Old domains that have been bought and renewed. (still working, and even better than before!)

2.    I see tons of junk results in the style of cloaked redirects. Have you had the chance to search for something on Google, and entered a website that offers you to participate in a raffle to get a chance to win a brand new free iPhone? Looks like Google forgot some piece of code regarding this kind of site.

3.    In competitive results, there are more web 2.0-pages results. This is a spammy way of making the SERP overwhelmed. It is interesting since I have almost not encountered them before the update, and now I see them more and more in the SERP (page 2 and onwards, for now).

Think you got hit? Here are a couple of things to execute today:

1.    Make extensive technical fixes (3xx/4xx/5xx/canonicals errors).

2.    Site speed is all the buzz right now. Make it a priority to improve it by May 2021, as another core update is expected.

3.    Analyze every page, and check if it meets the user’s needs (query). Supposing it does not, get your content through an improvement track – do not elaborate too much about obvious ideas at the top section of the page. Make less “fluffy” content and more valuable content

4.    Backlinks – I have already heard they eulogized… make it strong and smart – do not give up on quality backlinks

5.    Invest in EAT – This is not an I/O method where you can determine whether it works or not. Do it wherever possible, and make it with good quality. Do not underestimate the reader or Google.

6.    After doing all of the above, you need to wait. Rumor has it that the changes will make an impact in the short-range, but the major impact will apply in the next Google algorithm update.

7.    In my opinion, I think this update hasn’t been rolled out completely, and there are more waves to come within the next few weeks to fix its many derived bugs. So, as long as you can fix things in the short run, go for it.

I hope I managed to shed some light regarding this update and in better understanding the situation.

I am open to questions here or on a private message.

Go forth and succeed!

Eliav Lankri \ SEO EXPERT @ GHA