December 2024 Google Core Update: analytics and winner and loser sites
Celebration or sorrow? If December has always been the month of budgets, this year Google decided to put the load on, unleashing the December 2024 Core Update right on the heels of the holidays and just seven days after the completion of the November 2024 Core Update. This update, moreover, had a very fast rollout (completed in less than a week) and extraordinary impact, moving the SERPs with a power not seen in a long time, which did not allow much room to recover from the “earthquake” of the previous update. In short, 2024 came to a close among SEO professionals and webmasters divided between those who toasted their achievements and those who saw months of hard work fade away under the weight of volatility. But why two core updates so close together and a new update so turbulent? More importantly, what lessons can we learn from its effects to better prepare ourselves? We analyze as usual the core of the algorithmic intervention, with an overview of affected industries and cases of the most emblematic winner and loser sites.
December 2024 Google Core Update, the surprise update
Before we delve into the data, let’s do a little recap of general information.
The December 2024 Core Update is the fourth major algorithmic update released by Google this year, announced on December 12, 2024 and officially concluded just six days later, on December 18. This update, like all core updates, represents a significant overhaul of Google’s core systems that determine page rankings in search results. The stated goal is to further improve the quality and relevance of SERPs by showing more useful content and reducing the visibility of content that does not meet Google’s standards.
What distinguished the update, however, was the timing management, and in particular the exceptional speed of the rollout and its temporal proximity to the November 2024 Core Update, completed just seven days earlier. Such a close sequence is a rare occurrence and has raised numerous questions in the SEO community, both because of the intensity and the apparent urgency of these algorithmic changes.
What the update was like: a concise overview and key data
The core update, by definition, is an update that acts on a large scale, touching all types of content and affecting multiple domains.
Compared to more recent cases, however, this December 2024 Core Update was distinguished and characterized by two key elements:
- The speed of the release. With a duration of only six days, this is one of the fastest updates ever documented, in stark contrast to the November Core Update, which had taken as long as 24 days to be fully deployed.
- The immediate impact on SERPs. Since the first days, monitoring tools, both abroad and in Italy, have shown above-average volatility, with substantial changes to rankings and strong instability in the top positions.
Google’s official statements emphasize that this sequence of close updates depends on continued progress on the different core systems of the algorithm. However, the strong effect recorded since December-even greater than the one recorded and analyzed in November – highlights how the search engine’s focus is evolving, giving visibility toward content that is increasingly tailored to users’ needs and penalizing outdated or inappropriate strategies.
With this key data, the December update is positioned as a weighty intervention that closed 2024 with a massive impact on SERPs.
Why the December Core Update was so quick
With an official duration of only six days, from December 12 to 18, 2024, the December Core Update ranks as mentioned among the fastest rollouts ever documented in the history of Google’s core updates. For a term of comparison, consider that the November Core Update, while having widespread impacts, took a full 24 days to conclude, signaling a more traditional approach to the release sequence.
This exceptional speed could indicate several technical possibilities:
- Google has stated that its updates aim to quickly improve specific algorithm core systems, and this acceleration may have been driven by the need to implement fixes or extend tests initiated during the November Update.
- The short duration of the rollout could imply a more targeted focus on specific types of content or algorithmic signals, reducing the need for lengthy settling-in and verification phases on a global scale.
- The narrow interval between the two core updates probably reflects an update prepared in advance, but released when ready without waiting for further settling on SERPs resulting from the previous update.
While this speed allowed the effects on SERPs to be observed almost immediately, it also amplified the sense of uncertainty among webmasters. Such a fast deployment made it difficult to analyze or react to ongoing changes in a timely manner than with slower rollouts, where there is more room to monitor fluctuations and implement corrective strategies.
A direct comparison with the November 2024 precedent
If we look at the two consecutive core updates-the November and December core updates-a step change in the way Google handled the releases and related SERP dynamics clearly emerges.
The November 2024 Core Update had shown a more gradual trajectory, with intense but distributed activity and fluctuations that remained above the historical average for more than three weeks. This trend reflects a large-scale and more structured intervention, with phases of volatility alternating with moments of settling and gradual stabilization.
With the December Core Update , on the other hand, we saw an immediate explosion of volatility:SEOZoom’s SERP Observatory recorded a sharp increase in Big Variations, with intense peaks as early as December 14 and 15. This behavior demonstrates a more decisive and direct algorithmic imprint, which led to intense and rapid movements in the top 10 positions – with significant fluctuations in the keywords of high competition and more frequent exits and entrances in the Top 10 than in November – and less “gradualness” of change – unlike in November, SERPs settled down quickly, showing concentrated and less distributed variations over time.
This difference is not only a matter of timing, but also of impact. SEOZoom ‘s data confirm that the December Core Update resulted in a more immediate and sharp “shake-up” for many site categories, often going on to reverse growth or loss trends triggered during the November update. For example, sectors such as e-Commerce and information experienced particularly pronounced swings, with effects felt as early as the first days of December.
Overall, the short duration of the rollout amplified the impact on SERPs, turning the December Update into a more “radical” intervention in the short term than November, which had instead shown fluctuations diluted over a longer, more “manageable” period.
December 2024 Core Update: the analysis of the SERPs
And in short, the last and most surprising update of the year brought a significant level of volatility in foreign and Italian SERPs, manifesting itself with profound changes detectable already in the first days of the rollout.
Data and observations collected by SERoundtable and Search Engine Land experts paint a picture characterized by extreme volatility and substantial movements, especially in the top positions. Moreover, as mentioned, the changes were significant right from the start, as early as around December 15, 2024, a few days after the official announcement of the rollout, with above-average spikes of instability for the U.S. and U.K. markets.
Highly relevant domains such as pinterest.com and bbc.com showed positive trends during and after the update, registering significant increases in visibility indexes. For example, pinterest.com benefited from increased coverage for lifestyle-related keywords, while bbc.com improved on informative and high-volume queries, strengthening its position as an authoritative source for global news.
There were also interesting results for the international e-Commerce sector, with mixed movements: in the United States, alongside domains such as steampowered.com, related to gaming, which recorded moderate but steady gains, other less structured portals experienced significant declines, suggesting a refinement by Google in its assessment of the relevance and authority of transactional content.
Another area highlighted by foreign sources is government and academic sites, with strongly mixed performance. Core.ac.uk, for example, saw its visibility improve due to an algorithmic perception of reliability and usefulness to the end user, gaining visibility in the UK. In contrast, some more specific local domains-such as municipal or regional government sites-often saw decreases, likely due to a recalculation of relevance relative to generalist searches.
However, what might be called a temporary overvaluation effect was observed in some markets . Some international domains, such as reddit.com, experienced significant increases in visibility on keywords automatically translated to non-English-speaking markets (e.g., Europe). This trend was subsequently offset by a slight decline in the visibility of content perceived to be less curated or specific to the local user. Other global platforms that rely on artificial intelligence to localize content-such as those in the e-learning sector-have also experienced similar dynamics.
The reaction of the international SEO community confirmed the magnitude of the impact. Dedicated forums and channels, such as WebmasterWorld and Barry Schwartz’s site, collected numerous comments from webmasters reporting sudden drops in traffic or unexpected gains. Among the main feedback, some sites experienced a real reversal of the results observed in November, reiterating how Google is probably refining some recently introduced algorithmic signals. Many others, however, complain of an increasing difficulty for niche sites to maintain stable positions where big brands seem to have gained additional visibility.
In sum, the effect of the December Core Update on foreign SERPs reflects a global intervention that crosses geographic boundaries, rewarding locally relevant content and penalizing sites with less user-experience-centered strategies. In saturated markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, the most obvious trend is polarization: authoritative and robust domains with robust and useful content were further rewarded, while less structured or adapted platforms suffered considerable backlash. These dynamics highlight the growing importance of content quality and contextualization to compete internationally, even in light of such hard-hitting updates.
The situation in Italy: impact understood and varied
Thanks to data collected with SEOZoom’s SERP Observatory , we can look at the full picture of the movements that have occurred and the categories most affected by this new algorithmic revision on Google Italy.
The data confirms that the December Update had a disproportionate effect on the Big Changes, which exceeded historical average values. For example:
- On December 19, 2024, the last day of the rollout, the Great variations registered an increase of+8.60% over average values, one of the highest peaks in recent months.
- In contrast to the November Update, Small Variations recorded a -2.79% decline on the same day, suggesting that this update acted less incrementally and more focused on significant ranking changes.
Going into more detail, the figure for Big Variations indicates significant upheavals in the positions occupied by some web pages, often related to rapid ranking repositioning in response to the new algorithmic signals introduced by the update. It is, therefore, an element of strong instability that has tested the most competitive sectors.
At the same time, the Small Variations figure showed an opposite trend from November, a signal that the December Core Update did not focus on minor adjustments but acted in a targeted and deep way on certain portions of the SERPs. This behavior could indicate a Google strategy geared toward implementing less incremental and more strategic changes.
The SERP Observatory also highlighted a relevant increase in movements for both exits from the Top 10, with +1.53 percent on December 19, and internal fluctuations within the Top 10, which reached +0.43 percent on the same day. These movements denote a general instability within the Google front page, where competition to remain visible is greater. For many companies and brands, the loss of Top 10 positions can translate into a considerable drop in organic traffic, underscoring the need to analyze the causes of these variations and identify any corrective measures to be implemented.
Overall, the data from the Italian SERPs confirm that the impact of the December Core Update was incisive in nature, with effects still emerging for many of the most strategic keywords.
Another key element of the analysis concerns the instability of the SERPs during the central days of the rollout, particularly between December 13 and 15, when movements were particularly intense. These days were marked by an accelerated increase in fluctuations, leading many sites to suddenly lose or gain positions.
Emerging patterns: sectors affected and types of sites
Although the same premise always applies-it is impossible to pinpoint the logic of Google’s action, just as it is hard to find an actual correlation signal between winner or loser or even to do a simple check of sites by sector to see if the gains of one domain match the losses of another, despite some overlapping themes between sites that win and those that lose rankings-we can still identify some categories particularly stressed during the December Core Update.
The e-commerce and information sectors proved to be among the most exposed. In e-commerce, for example, there were frequent ranking changes in transactional results, where pages are often evaluated for their ability to fulfill specific intent related to purchases. Information sites also showed strong instability, with tipping dynamics favoring large generalist players in many cases. As noted by SEOZoom, the impact on niche publishers has been less uniform, but not without significant effects: some sites experienced sudden declines, while others suddenly benefited from increased visibility as a result of the algorithmic adjustment. These fluctuations could indicate that Google has refined its assessment of content quality, more prominently rewarding pages that better meet users’ needs.
In addition, the December Core Update has breathed new life into UGC platforms such as Reddit, which gained +30.54 percent in traffic and recorded a symbolic leap in Zoom Authority (+2). This phenomenon reflects Google’s growing preference for social content, often valuing community contributions.
What’s more, if a few weeks ago we were wondering if Benedetta Rossi ‘s site – fattoincasadabenedetta – was losing Google’s trust after two consecutive post-update declines, now instead we have a (slight) turnaround, with an auspicious +3.44. Plus sign also for trovaprezzi.it, which climbs about 8 percent and touches traffic share of 5 million, although it still remains a long way from the splendor of just three months ago: at the end of October, the comparator site had in fact an estimated traffic volume of 7,110,457!
Winners and losers of the December 2024 Core Update: who won and who lost in the Italian SERPs
We certainly can’t say that the effects of the December 2024 Core Update have gone unnoticed in Italy either: the data we have collected show significant variations for many sites, with some realities registering important gains in terms of traffic and keywords, while others have suffered downturns.
Let us look in detail at the analysis of the winners-those domains that benefited from the update-and the losers, or those who saw a downsizing of their organic traffic. It is interesting to note the correlations between the domains and the behavior of the algorithm, which in many cases seems to have rewarded useful and authoritative content, while penalizing less robust optimization strategies.
Winner of the December 2024 Core Update
- Leroy Merlin: a rising giant in the “household necessities” sector
Leroy Merlin ‘s site is one of the undisputed winners of this update, with an estimated +20.36% increase in traffic and a significant increase in keywords placed (+12.7%).
The expansion of large search volumes, combined with targeted content strategies, has helped consolidate its authority in the “household necessities” sector, leading to a sharp recovery even from the decline reported in the analysis of the August 2024 update.
The rise in SERPs is particularly evident for keywords related to design and household needs, such as wallpaper (position 3, 90,500 monthly searches) and bookshelf (position 1, volume of 135,000), indicating the algorithm’s increased confidence in the informational and commercial value of content.
- Aranzulla.it: the king of tutorials continues to grow
Salvatore Aranzulla confirms its central position in the Italian SERPs, with a Zoom Authority jump to 82 (+1) and an estimated traffic increase of +12.93%.
This result underscores how the site continues to be a reference in the field of technology and practical tutorials. Very high volume keywords, such as libero mail (pos. 7, 20,400,000 vol.) and virgilio mail (pos. 8, 5,000,000 vol.), highlight the solidity of the authoritative and user-centric strategy, which can guarantee continuity even in the face of fluctuations caused by the algorithm.
- Trustpilot: the “trust” that rewards in services
The it.trustpilot.com platform experienced astonishing growth from 8.5 to 14.1 million estimated traffic (+66.6%).
This increase indicates a substantial gain in organic visibility, and the notable changes in keywords (+13.5 percent) reinforce its position as a benchmark in the universe of online reviews. The algorithm seems to have rewarded the “public service” role of the site, which continues to expand as a central resource for consumers and businesses, and it could also appear with a signal of the importance of “trust” for a brand, which is also assessed by the opinions of the users the site hosts.
- Mediaworld: the weight of brand and strategic keywords
Mediaworld.it ranks among the big winners of the December Update, with an estimated +9.13% increase in traffic and an improvement in Zoom Authority (from 76 to 77).
SERPs rewarded brand presidium in searches related to large traffic volumes, such as electric scooters (pos. 1, 135,000 vol.) and playstation 5 (pos. 7, 201,000 vol.), but also for branded queries such as samsung (pos. 5, 550,000 vol.) or apple (pos. 6; 823,000).
This case demonstrates how the update enhanced optimized content and a strong correlation between search intent and supply.
- Reddit.com: global rise of user-generated content continues
After evident growth in previous months, Reddit further amplifies its position in Italy: estimated traffic rises to +6,798,501 (+30.54%), with an impressive jump in Zoom Authority (from 80 to 82).
Only a year ago, in December 2023, the UGC platform had a ZA of 69: in 12 months it has proven to be perceived by Google as an authoritative resource for various topics and specific discussions, also entering for generic high-competition searches, also proving the openness of SERPs to this type of “source” of results.
- markets.ilsole24ore.com: steady growth in the financial sector
Mercati.ilsole24ore.com, a particularly strong domain in the investment sector, recorded an estimated traffic growth of +16.3% (from 5.4 million to 6.2 million), bucking the trend and recovering from the decline suffered during the March 2024 Core Update, as evidenced by our analysis at the time.
Rising keywords, including dow jones (pos. 3, 368,000 vol.) and stock market (pos. 3, 165,000 vol.), highlight how the update favored reliable and vertical content on economic-financial topics. Zoom Authority increased by 1 point (from 72 to 73), signaling a consolidation of Google’s perceived authority.
- Ansa.it: the weight of authority in the news sector
The portal Ansa.it, already one of the most visible newspapers in Italy, managed to further strengthen its relevance in SERPs, with estimated traffic increasing by +20.3% (from 11.2 to 13.5 million), restoring the situation “cracked” by the recent November Update.
Important keywords on the rise-such as news today (pos. 3, 823,000 vol.) and stock exchanges today (pos. 7, 246,000 vol.)-reflect efforts to position themselves on key topical issues.
The update seems to have rewarded the large news portals capable of systematically covering the highest volume searches.
- ilfattoquotidiano.it: a recovery after previous fluctuations
After a phase of relative stability, Il Fatto Quotidiano has largely benefited from the December Update, with traffic growth estimated at +46.5 percent.
This recovery is especially significant considering the recent volatility in the publishing industry. The increase in Zoom Authority to 75 (+2) indicates greater confidence on the part of the algorithm, perhaps related to an improvement in content quality and diversification of keyword placements.
- liberoquotidiano.it: a relaunch among editorial titles
Libero Quotidiano is also among the winners, with an estimated +86.9% increase in traffic and a significant improvement in Zoom Authority (from 68 to 71).
This growth stands out in an Italian publishing landscape that has seen, for other domains, significant losses in the last period. For a historically solid domain, the update may have marked a turning point in internal optimization strategies.
- drcommodore.it: a particular case of peak “to be verified”
The Dr Commodore site , dedicated to pop and cultural content, represents one of the most curious cases of this update.
Estimated traffic has exploded from 14,025 to over 907,000, with a corresponding dramatic increase in Zoom Authority (from 44 to 60).
However, it remains to be seen whether this spike is actually a stable signal of reconsideration by Google or whether it is a temporary phenomenon, related to the positioning of specific keywords, such as gojo vs sukuna (pos. 9, 1,600 vol.) and anime belli (good anime) (pos. 9, 1,600 vol.).
- Lascimmiapensa.com: strong instability but evident growth
Similar to the case of Dr Commodore, Lascimmiapensa.com saw a significant surge after the update, with Zoom Authority rising from 52 to 63.
Estimated traffic increased sharply, probably driven by placement on keywords such as nocturnal animals (pos. 8, 18,100 vol.), riley reid (7; 60,500) and simpsons character (9; 27,100), although it remains to be observed whether this is a lasting or temporary effect.
Loser of the December 2024 Core Update
- Unieuro.it: slight losses, but on important keywords
In the consumer electronics sector, Mediaworld’s victory was accompanied by a decline in Unieuro.it, which recorded a localized loss in estimated traffic of -6.69%, falling from 5.2 million to 4.9 million.
Although this is a small decline compared to others, the criticality emerges from the impact on some strategic keywords, such as electric scooter (-11 positions, 201,000 monthly searches) and smartwatch (-1 position, 165,000 vol.), elements relevant to the brand’s core business.
Although the site maintained a high volume of keyword placements (+1.65% compared to November), the decline in visibility on key queries could indicate a problem in satisfying search intent or increasingly intense competition with other industry players.
- Open.online: a slight downsizing
The performance of Open.online , already observed in previous algorithmic updates, suffered further setbacks with the December Core Update.
The site, positioned in the entertainment and celebrity news sector, saw a drastic reduction in estimated traffic, -39.7% (from 1.1 million to just over 673,000), and a parallel decline in Zoom Authority , down from 65 to 64. Although the consistency in the number of keywords (+0.44%) seems to suggest resilience on some less competitive queries, the drop on high-volume searches and a loss of prominence compared to competing portals, such as Il Fatto Quotidiano and other larger generalist newspapers, could be an indication of less optimization of the content offered to end users.
- La Stampa: setback for editorial dominance
The newspaper La Stampa, a historic name in the Italian publishing scene, represents one of the most interesting cases among the losers of this update.
If in August it had been “rewarded” by Google, now estimated traffic has decreased slightly (-2.63%), from 4.53 million to 4.41 million, and it should be noted that La Stampa was already down during the November Core Update, probably signaling a structural difficulty in competing with other information giants, such as Corriere.it and Ansa.it. Zoom Authority dropped further from 75 to 74, confirming a reduced perception of reliability and relevance by the algorithm on some categories of searches. This pattern reflects an established trend in algorithmic updates: large generalist portals with less vertical focus seem to struggle to maintain their centrality in SERPs.
- The Newspaper: marked reduction in the opinion sector
The Newspaper suffered a decline in estimated traffic of -18.9 percent , from 4.89 million to 3.97 million, despite a slight increase in placed keywords (+5.82 percent).
This figure reflects a downsizing not unlike that observed on other generalist news portals, such as La Stampa. Among the causes of the weakening we can hypothesize a poor ability to retain positions for relevant keywords, with a gradual erosion of ranking on highly competitive queries. In the context of an already saturated publishing sector, this decline highlights the limitations of publishing models that are less adaptable to the quality standards required by Google’s algorithm.
- International: the decline in specialized journalism
International.it experienced a significant decrease in estimated traffic (-33.1 percent), from 633,271 to 423,586. Zoom Authority dropped to 63 (-1), signaling a possible downgrade in the qualitative perception of the domain.
The phenomenon may be related to an algorithmic change that prioritized larger generalist newspapers, as evidenced by the improvement of Ansa.it.
- Quora: a drastic reduction in visibility
Quora remains among the hardest hit domains, with a net drop of 60.4 percent in estimated visibility. SERPs seem to have penalized the site for some categories of content that are less relevant or perceived as less specific.
This episode follows global trends already observed: the algorithm seems to favor platforms that are more localized or can offer immediately usable content, such as Reddit.
- Facile.it: difficulties for strategic keywords
Facile.it’s estimated traffic decreased by -6%, with a cross-sectional contraction on strategic keywords such as eni plenitude (-28 positions, 301,000 vol.), eni gas and light (from second to 30th position for a keyword worth 301,000), motor vehicle insurance (-1; 246,000) and very mobile (-5 positions, 201,000 vol.).
This signal may reflect increasing competition and a reassessment of the algorithm with respect to the perceived relevance of certain content.
- HDblog: loss in the tech sector
In the consumer electronics sector, the update seems to have penalized HDblog.it, with a considerable drop in traffic (-31%) and lost positions on relevant keywords such as iphone 12 (-3), samsung (-8) or youtube (-17).
This might suggest that Google has recalibrated its treatment of news, rewarding larger or more diverse editorial projects, or that it has changed the underlying search intent of the query, favoring, for example, more transactional or commercial results.
- Corrieredellosport.it: downturns in the sports sector
The Corrieredellosport.it website recorded a drop in traffic (-33.6%) and a loss in Zoom Authority (-1).
Among the hardest-hit keywords are those related to Serie A, whose presidium has decreased. This phenomenon is part of a trend observed in other sports sites as well, signaling a possible internal competition with large aggregator portals.
- Sport.sky.it and Tg24.sky.it: associated site domain similarities
Sport.sky.it, an authoritative reference for sporting events, also experienced a significant drop in traffic (-12.3%) and Zoom Authority (from 75 to 74). Among the declining keywords, serie a (-5 positions, 30,400,000 vol.) and juventus (-23 positions, 6,120,000 vol.) signal a ranking distribution toward competitors more capable of covering dynamic and updated content.
Speaking of Sky, the same publishing group also saw a decline on the generalist news portal Tg24.sky.it, with a -13.9% loss in traffic and a negative impact on strategic keywords such as superenalotto (-17 positions, 3,350,000 vol.). This trend confirms a loss of the portal’s centrality in SERPs, perhaps due to a structural reassessment by the algorithm.
