Google Core Updates December 2020 Review of Changes
On December 17, Google announced that the rollout of the December 2020 Broadcore Update had finally ended.
Many websites affected by this update. Some website’s ranking increased and some websites affected negatively. We review what are changes took place due to this Google core update in December 2020.
The announcement of the update came two weeks ago on December 3, and an official tweet from Google confirmed that the rollout could take up to two weeks to complete.
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
Since the December 2020 core update, we have seen some dramatic changes in the SERP results.
Check out this tweet from SEO Consultant Marie Haynes:
Spent the morning reviewing sites affected by the Dec core update. Seeing changes for many medical sites. Several of our alt med sites saw nice gains. But we saw changes in other YMYL verticals as well (not all positive).
Still too early to share specifics. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/1NVKs82ru8
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) December 7, 2020
Many sites have seen a good/average increase in organic traction after the update, and they thought the good times were back. But
The first three days after the update was useful and then it seems that Google has launched the reverse update.
Many site owners took to Twitter and forums to improve their rankings. In some cases, the ranking is worse than before
An update based on one of the reversals I shared yesterday. Ouch, their visibility gains completely reversed as of today (even lower slightly than before the update rolled out). Again, this niche was heavily impacted. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/bEKFUE9051
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 11, 2020
December 2020 compared to other Core Updates

What Types of Websites are affected by Google Core Update December 2020
Google’s December 2020 basic update is a big deal. This seems to be even bigger than the last major update that took place in May.
Rank Roger analysts report a 98% rank fluctuation metric for the top 10 results in Google search. That beats the 93% metric for the May update.
In addition, Ranking says the volatility in the top 20 positions has more than doubled: from 153 in May to 345 this month.
However, the impact of SEMRush on each industry is different. The company’s research shows that Google’s December 2020 basic update found the most affected desktops in the health, real estate, finance, travel, law, and government sectors.
Different story on mobile. This is where the biggest fluctuations in health, government, law, education and real estate were seen.
Additionally, SEMRush shared the domains that won and lost the most since the update.
Winners:
- zoominfo.com
- whitepages.com
- linkedin.com
- ebay.com
- vimeo.com
- loginbrain.com
- yahoo.com
- foursquare.com
- businesswire.com
Losers:
- yellowpages.com
- newsbreak.com
- gettyimages.com
- wish.com
- echovita.com
- urbandictionary.com
- local.com
- dnb.com
- aliexpress.com
Suggested article: 20 Interesting Fun Facts
The search matrix also analyzed the most affected domains with the May update and how far Google has failed since its December 2020 core update. The results are:
(According to gnitevisibility.com)
- Spotify lost 15% in rankings in May, but gained just half a percentage point in rankings in December
- Poki lost 40% in May and gained nothing this month
- TheBalance lost 19% in May but gained 12.5% in December
- Twitch lost 28% in May and another 1.7% after the recent update
- Rakuten lost 27% in May but gained back 16.6% of it this month
- Carfax lost 20% in May and gained just 1.4% in December
- CreditKarma lost 33% in May and gained 16.6% this month
Interestingly, Search Matrix also found that the recent update severely damaged Pinterest. Although the site saw a significant increase in May, it dropped by about 4% this month.
By the way, if you are wondering why analysts do not find data at all, the reason is that they are aware of each different metrics, keywords and sites. So it is understandable that their results will not come.
How does Long will It take?
The entire update will probably take a few weeks.
While this is happening, don’t be surprised if you see your keywords jumping day in and day out. These things are just as trivial.
For some of you, though, the results are already stable. In fact, we are already seeing some positive results from Hedge Agent.
Let me know why I think this Google December 2020 core update will help us get more traffic.
According to Asbar Ali a Digital Marketer
List of affected website by Google Core update December 2020
Following are the reason of drop ranking by google algorithm Core Board update
Redirection:
Effects on domain Which are using Redirection. That website that is using their expired domains to redirect traffic to their new website directly affected by google Core update December 2020.
Brand searched Websites:
It is also noticed by Asbar Ali that brand searched websites are damaged by this update. Brand searched means where users search websites by using keywords of a brand product.
Educational Websites:
Google Core Update December 2020 also target the educational website who used to maintain their ranking on the top level. This update drops the ranking of educational websites.The universities of Canada, the UK, and even of US are affected.
Backlinks from Govt & Edu websites:
It is clear that cheap backlinks are useless at all. If your website has got backlinks from educational websites or Govt websites then you should check your ranking in google analytics and try to fix it.