The dramatic changes in website rankings within SERPs are caused by Google’s December 2024 Core Algorithm Update. The update is based on content quality, user experience, and how well it follows Google’s E-A-T criteria of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. It aims to increase the accuracy of search results by emphasizing valuable and relevant content over outdated or thin material. This will be beneficial for well-researched, informative, and user-centered sites; however, the low-quality or irrelevant sites may degrade. The wide number of businesses that are affected is, more specifically, Your Money Your Life websites.
The update is centered on four primary areas: content quality, user experience, E-A-T principles, and relevance to user intent. Websites that are fast in terms of page speed, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate win better user experiences. Therefore, only experts can achieve authority for that trustworthy content. In addition, pages that best fit the intent of the users conducting searches significantly lead to better rankings. These developments indicate that Google is interested in making search results as accurate and user-friendly as possible while rewarding companies that invest in solid content strategies and penalizing badly maintained websites.