November 2024 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

What Google changed#

Google announced the November 2024 core update on the Search Status Dashboard on 11 November 2024 with a one-line entry: “Released the November 2024 core update.” It did not publish a separate Search Central blog post describing what changed.

Google describes core updates in general as “significant, broad changes to our search algorithms and systems,” made several times a year to keep delivering helpful and reliable results. Nothing Google published names a specific system or type of content this update changed.

When it rolled out#

The Google Search Status Dashboard logged the release on 11 November 2024 at 13:23 PST with the note that “the rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.” It took longer: Google posted on 5 December 2024 that the rollout was complete as of that day, a total of 23 days and 13 hours. No other confirmed ranking update overlapped it, but the December 2024 core update followed only a week later.

What is known about its impact#

Google did not publish impact figures for this update. Its own framing is that core updates “don’t target specific sites or individual web pages,” and that pages which move down aren’t necessarily bad; other pages may simply serve the searcher better. Treat any percentage you see attributed to this update as a third-party estimate, and check its method.

What site owners should do#

With no update-specific post, Google’s standing core update guidance is the advice that applies:

• Confirm the rollout has finished, then wait at least one more full week.
• Compare the week after with a week before the update began, not with the rollout window.
• A small drop (position 2 to 4) needs no drastic action; a large, sustained drop warrants a site-wide self-assessment against Google’s helpful content questions.
• Avoid quick fixes. Improve content in ways that help readers; delete content only as a last resort.
• Recovery can take several months and may not show until a later core update.

How to check whether it affected you#

In Search Console, set the Performance report to a date range spanning October to December 2024 and compare clicks for the week before 11 November with the week starting 6 December. That week ends inside the December 2024 core update, so read it with that overlap in mind. Look at Web, Image, Video and News search types separately. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists every confirmed update with its dates.

Related updates#

• The August 2024 core update was the core update before it.
• The December 2024 core update was the next one.