Mackerel Media’s Search and Digital Marketing Roundup – December 2024
As 2024 comes to a close, December has delivered some significant developments in the digital marketing space. These include search updates from Google and Microsoft, and some notable controversies surrounding TikTok.
Google’s Christmas Gift: Another Core Update
The main news this December is that Google rolled out its fourth core update of the year, following on the heels of the previous November update. This new update has been reported as being more volatile than the previous November update, with some websites seeing major fluctuations in their search positions. Early results show that news, arts and entertainment websites have been predominantly affected. Whilst it is still unclear what impact this update will have, Mackerel Media are able to assist clients with identifying any issues and opportunities to optimise the performance of their domain.
As an extra December surprise, Google rolled out their December Spam update. This new update helps to detect any search spam, which are low quality, deceptive pages which can often harm or mislead users when visited. This new update will address the removal of parasite SEO content, which is when publishers create low-quality content on third-party domains to manipulate their search rankings.
Track Data Around the Clock
Google has made some significant changes to their Search Console interface, including the new addition of a 24-hour data performance filter. This feature allows users to see the most recent data and provides hourly data breakdowns across Search, News reports, and Discover. This is especially useful for users to track recent performance changes such as during peak sale periods or to monitor the launch of new pages and services.
To round off the year, Google published their Year in Search 2024 report which highlights the most popular search trends in 2024 across different industries. It was the U.S. presidential election that dominated the news and people category, whilst the most searched movies were Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine and Saltburn. Some of the more surprising results were ‘Mob wife aesthetic’ being the most popular global lifestyle search term, and over in the UK, Oasis hold the top spot as the most searched artist/band.
TikTok Gets A Global Time-Out
There’s also been drama around TikTok. The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against TikTok due to allegations of the app breaching EU laws by enabling foreign interference in Romania’s presidential elections. If this is to be proven, it means there could be significant penalties for the platform and its use in Poland. The United States is also coming close to banning TikTok. This is due to a law mandating that its parent company ByteDance divest ownership of the platform. If this isn’t resolved TikTok faces the risk of a complete United States ban starting January 19, 2025. This is not the first time a ban has been put in place, as India fully banned TikTok in 2020, which only slightly slowed its growth. This means that anyone using TikTok in the USA may need to look for alternative advertisement options should the ban be put in place.
