March 2025 HIGH IMPACT
March 2025 Core Update
Google's first core update of 2025 began rolling out in mid-March, with significant volatility for sites that hadn't recovered from the March 2024 core + helpful content overhaul. Pages with strong topical authority and clear EEAT signals saw lifts; pages relying on aggregated or thin content saw further declines.
Source ↗December 2024 HIGH IMPACT
December 2024 Spam Update
Targeted manipulative ranking practices — primarily expired-domain abuse, site-reputation abuse, and scaled content abuse. Major media sites with 'parasite SEO' subdomains saw rankings stripped within days. Rolled out December 19-26, 2024.
Source ↗December 2024 HIGH IMPACT
December 2024 Core Update
Mid-December core update, the second core update in two months. Affected many of the same niches as November's update but with partial reversals on previously-demoted sites that had restored quality signals.
Source ↗November 2024 HIGH IMPACT
November 2024 Core Update
Rolled out November 11 - December 5. Significant volatility across health, finance, and news verticals. Sites with strong author authority and original reporting performed well; aggregated and AI-generated content continued to be demoted.
Source ↗August 2024 HIGH IMPACT
August 2024 Core Update
August 15 - September 3, 2024. Google described it as targeting helpful, satisfying content. Many recovered from the March 2024 hit; many were hit for the first time. The update reinforced the 2023 helpful content system as a baked-in part of Core.
Source ↗June 2024 MEDIUM IMPACT
June 2024 Spam Update
June 20-27, 2024. Targeted scaled content abuse and expired domain abuse explicitly. Sites using AI to mass-produce thin articles at scale lost large percentages of organic traffic.
Source ↗May 2024 HIGH IMPACT
AI Overviews General Availability
Google launched AI Overviews (formerly SGE) to all US users on May 14, 2024. Traditional organic click-through rates dropped 10-40% on queries that triggered AI Overviews, depending on intent. Local + transactional queries were less affected; informational queries hit hardest.
Source ↗March 2024 HIGH IMPACT
March 2024 Core Update + Spam Update
March 5 - April 19, 2024. Largest update in Google's history. Combined core + spam + helpful content system integration. Eliminated entire AI-content farming sites overnight. Many publishers lost 60-90% of organic traffic. Set the new bar for original-content + EEAT requirements.
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