Google typically releases one or more changes every day designed to enhance our search results. Most are not noticeable, but they help us continue to improve gradually.

An update can be more apparent often. When we feel like there is actionable information that webmasters, content creators or others might take in relation to them, we strive to confirm those updates. We got months of advanced notice and guidance, for instance, when our "Speed Update" occurred.

We make major, large improvements to our search algorithms and systems multiple times a year. We refer to these as "core updates." They are structured to ensure that we deliver on our goal, overall, to provide searchers with appropriate and authoritative content. Google Discover can also impact these key changes.

We confirm large core updates because some generally noticeable effects are usually produced. Many sites can find falls or gains during them. We know those with sites that experience drops will be looking for a fix, and we want to ensure they don’t try to fix the wrong things. Moreover, there might not be anything to fix at all.

Google confirms a core algorithm update, the December 2020 Core Update, is rolling out today. According to google tweet;

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the December 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUAlt0G

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 3, 2020

As mentioned in the announcement, the guidance from Google about the update remains the same as it always was. This is the calendar year's third core algorithm update. Compared to the average time between such forms of updates, a decent amount of time has elapsed since the last core update.

On what the internet refers to as "Star Wars Day also known as May 4th, the last core update rolled out.

The pandemic is likely to have postponed the release of the next core update from Google. As more time has passed than normal, might that mean that today's update's effect will be more impactful?

Today, or even tomorrow, we won't know the answer to that as the release phase of a core update will take weeks.

If the update officially starts rolling out later today, expect Google to publish tweets, and another tweet some days later when the rollout is complete.

Background Information on Core Updates

Unsurprisingly, the SEO community's immediate reaction to this core update's announcement is anxiety and panic. Although brushing up on the fundamentals of core updates can help to quell some of the problem.

Historically, SEOs and site owners assume the worst when it comes to core updates. Though these updates are also opportunities for sites to be rewarded for their optimization efforts over the past several months.

First let’s take a look at a reactions so far:


What are Google Algorithms?

Google algorithms are a dynamic method used to obtain data from its search index and produce the best possible results for a question immediately. A mixture of algorithms and different ranking signals are used by the search engine to deliver web pages ranked by relevance on the results pages of its search engine (SERPs).

Core updates & reassessing content

With pages that may perform less well in a core update, there's nothing wrong. As can happen to pages that violate those guidelines, they have not violated our webmaster guidelines or been subjected to a manual or algorithmic action. In fact, there's nothing that targets specific pages or sites in a core update.

Instead the improvements are about improving how material is assessed overall by our systems. Such modifications can cause some pages that have previously been under-rewarded to do better.

One way to think about how a core update works is to imagine that you made a list in 2015 of the top 100 movies. A few years later, in 2019, the list will be refreshed. It will change naturally. Candidates for selection will now be some new and wonderful movies that have never existed before. You might also reassess some movies and remember that they deserved a higher position than they had before on the list.

The list will adjust, and movies higher than before on the list that travel down are not bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them.