It’s a new year and we’re seeing the affects of another core update from Google, which completed on the 29th December. With ever changing tools and increasing volumes of content across online spaces, this update will be seen by many as a welcome change, as Google just got a lot better at spotting whether you really know what you’re talking about. If you’ve been coasting on thin content, AI-generated pages, or just rephrasing what everyone else says, you’re in trouble. But if you understand what changed, there’s a clear path forward.
What has changed with the December Core Update?
Google introduced what experts are calling an “authenticity score” – a smarter way of working out whether your content comes from real experience or whether it’s just written to show up in search.
The key difference we are seeing is that Google doesn’t care how polished your writing is. It cares whether you’ve actually done the thing you’re writing about.
What Google Looks For Now: The Proof of Experience
A big focus is now on showcasing the proof that you’ve tested or used what you’re writing about.
- First-Hand Evidence: Does your content say things like “from my experience,” “our clients found,” or “after working with hundreds of customers”? Generic advice that anyone could have written is a red flag.
- Original Visuals: Screenshots of your own work or photos you took from the project matter much more now than stock photos.
- The “Specifics” Rule: Real expertise shows up in numbers. As we’ll see in the examples below, Google can now tell the difference between a vague claim like “We improved results” and a specific one like “We improved results from 2.3% to 4.7% by testing 43 different options.”
- Verifiable Authorship: Who wrote the piece? Vague “our team” credits don’t cut it. Every piece needs a specific name with a background, qualifications, and a searchable professional presence (like a LinkedIn profile).
Why This Update Hits Harder Than Previous Ones
Previous updates penalised bad content, but this one specifically penalises fake expertise. A bad content update might affect a few weak pages, but an “authenticity” update affects your entire domain’s credibility.
If Google thinks your site lacks real expertise across your main topic areas, your whole domain loses authority.
This is why affiliate sites which often review products they’ve never touched are getting hammered. But it extends to any business where the content team hasn’t used the product or truly understands the service they are describing.
What You Need to Do Right Now
1. Audit for Authenticity Gaps Read through your top 50 ranking pages and ask:
- Could this have been written by anyone with an internet connection, or does it require my specific career experience?
- Are there original ideas and data, or is everything sourced from somewhere else?
2. Build Real Knowledge into the Process
This is harder work than outsourcing to a content agency, but it’s essential. If you’re writing about products, use them yourself and document the problems or surprises you hit. If you’re giving business advice, the writers need to have really done the thing they’re advising on. Documenting your methodology of how you test, what you measure, and why you make certain decisions is no longer just “nice to have”; it is your new SEO strategy.
3. Be Specific and Measurable Replace every vague claim with a specific outcome.
This is where you prove you aren’t just summarising other websites:
- Instead of: “The best way to optimise for mobile”
- Write: “When we tested three approaches across 40 B2B websites over 12 months, lazy-loading images combined with reducing CSS file size by 35% produced an average 18% gain in mobile performance.”
The Timeline for Recovery
If you’ve been hit, recovery takes time. Don’t expect instant results. Sites that are recovering are the ones that:
- Have genuinely improved their expertise signals across most of their content
- Have added real author bios with verifiable qualifications
- Have created original research and testing they’ve actually published
- Have removed or completely rewritten weak content
Recovery typically takes 2-4 months once you’ve made these changes. Google needs to re-crawl your pages, re-evaluate what you’ve written, and recalibrate how authoritative your whole site is. This doesn’t happen overnight.
The sites making fastest progress are treating this as a systematic overhaul, not a quick fix and rebuilding entire content sections. They’re replacing generic content with expertise-backed content and investing in original research and case studies.
Why This Matters Beyond Rankings
This update is actually good news for businesses with genuine expertise. If you know your stuff, you now have a competitive advantage. The low-cost competitors that relied on “SEO tricks” are being filtered out.
This means higher-quality traffic, better conversions, and stronger customer relationships.
As always, if you’re website has been affected by the core updates or if you’re not sure on the next best steps and would like some guidance, then our SEO team are here to help. Drop us a message or call us on 01276 402 381 to arrange a catchup and we can review your site, assess your content and put forward recommendations that will support your customers and follow Google search engine guidelines.
