It lasted 23 days and 13 hours... Thus ends the November 2024 Google Core Update! Dear SEO friends, it's time to take stock (although, according to Google, we should wait another week). So, what do we do now?
Key takeaways:
- The Core Update started on November 11, 2024 and ended on December 6, 2024.
- If you're patient, Google recommends waiting until you have one week of "post-update data" before starting any analysis.
- Prioritize the largest drops, on keywords with the highest search volume.
- Identify patterns that are potentially "spammy" or over-optimized on your pages and in your content.
Google ends its November 2024 Core Update
End of the roll-out on December 5! The announcement was made via Google Search Central's X (Twitter) account:
The rollout is complete.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 5th, 2024
Find all the latest Google updates on our dedicated page.
Analyzing your SEO after an update: recommendations from Google (and Abondance)
As mentioned in our previous article announcing the release of the November Core Update, Google has expanded its documentation regarding what it recommends doing once the Core Update is finished. We have supplemented these recommendations:
Wait to have one week of "post-update" data
Google recommends waiting another week! If you're the patient type, choose this strategy: wait a full week to compare the week that has just passed with the week preceding the deployment.
Not clear? Wait until Monday, December 16 to compare the week of December 6–13 with the week of November 1–8, 2024. Better? 
Thus, you analyze the SEO of two full weeks, from Friday to Friday, just before and just after the update from the heart of Google's algorithm.
Are you as impatient as we are? Keep reading 
Filter ranking data to identify the largest drops
We hope you've only experienced ranking increases… But if not:
- Go to your favorite rank-tracking tool (hi Monitorank) or to the "Performance" report in Google Search Console,
- Sort your keywords by search volume (for rank-tracking tools) or by impressions (for Search Console) so you can begin your analysis with the keywords that generate the most traffic,
- Focus on the most significant ranking changes: Google notes, for example, that a drop from 2nd to 4th position shouldn't trigger a strategy change — on the contrary, well-ranked content should be protected. In our view, you should prioritize keywords that have fallen by more than 10 positions.
Analyze major SEO changes among competitors
We can't repeat it enough: a drop in rankings doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong… Sometimes it's competitors who did something very well! So you have two possibilities: either you did something wrong, or competitors did something right.
By analyzing the changes your competitors made over the last 6 months, you can spot good practices you may have missedIf you're an Ahrefs user, access your competitors' "Top pages" report: you'll find indications of "major" or "minor" changes on the URLs:
Use the Wayback Machine as a complement to compare changes on your competitors' pages (note: WM doesn't archive every page, so you may not have the data).
Finally, don't forget link building! Analyze your links and your competitors' links to identify significant actions in recent months.
Conduct an honest audit of the quality of your pages
Core updates mainly deal with the relevance and legitimacy of a result versus a keyword. Do an honest, clear-eyed audit of your content: is it really useful? Does it offer something different from your competitor's? Is it sourced? Does it properly address the search intent?
To help you, we've compiled Google's "questions about content quality" into a Notion. You can evaluate the overall quality of your site's content (duplicate the template into your own Notion to use it — copy icon at the top right of the page):
Once the analysis is complete, prioritize your SEO improvement projects based on the issues identified: content gaps, level of expertise, people-first content, etc.
Identify patterns that could cause problems
The analysis is sometimes complex because it requires taking a step back from your website, An external perspective can help spot problems through an SEO audit, but it is essential if you notice significant drops in rankings.
Do you have a huge block of informational content on a transactional page like an e-commerce category page? Are contact details missing from the local page for one of your stores? Is there duplication across your pages? Could your practices appear spammy to the search engine?
Explore all possibilities and try to find those patterns: common practices among pages that were impacted by the Update.
[Reminder] What we advise against:
- Remove content : sometimes updating the content is more effective — no drastic decisions!
- Apply the strategies of other affected SEOs. Every site is unique! After the update, analyze what makes sense for your users rather than copying what other SEOs do on their sites; what works for them may not work for you.
Need help? Our senior SEO experts are available to assist you for an SEO audit
The article "The November Core Update is over — what now?" was published on the site Abondance.
