Google's Annual Core Algorithm Update Now Live: Webmasters Advised to Monitor Traffic Changes

Google typically rolls out significant search algorithm updates yearly, although it updates its algorithms more frequently than just once a year, with most being smaller in scale.

Today, the Google Search Central Blog announced that this year's annual core algorithm update is live. Google is advising webmasters and website administrators to pay close attention to their site's traffic in the coming days to identify any areas that may need changes or optimization.

The primary goals of Google's core updates are:

Core updates are designed to ensure that Google fulfills its mission of delivering useful and reliable results to search users on a broad scale. These updates are generally wide-ranging and not targeted at specific sites or individual pages.

As the web's content continuously evolves, Google comprehensively evaluates and updates its systems to stay current.

2024 Google Search Core Algorithm Update Timeline:

The update started rolling out on November 11, 2024, Pacific Time, and it may take up to two weeks to fully deploy. Webmasters are advised to start observing changes in Google's organic search traffic data a week later. Significant fluctuations could indicate adjustments caused by the algorithm update, necessitating a check for various issues in the Google Search Console.

What is Considered Normal:

According to Google, minor ranking fluctuations for popular web pages, such as dropping from the second to the fourth position, should not necessitate any major SEO actions. However, if rankings significantly drop, for example, from the fourth to the twentieth position, a thorough assessment by webmasters is required.

For a complete explanation, visit Google's documentation at:
https://developers.google.com/search/updates/core-updates