Search Engine Recap – December 2024

As we step into a new year in search, we begin with a comprehensive recap of the second half of December - a period marked by Christmas, New Year, and some crucial updates businesses should note as we head into 2025. Here is an overview.

Google Releases "Year in Search" 2024

Google has published its annual “Year in Search” report for 2024, highlighting the most popular global search trends across various categories.

Major sports and news events, such as the Olympics and the U.S. presidential election, dominated the top searches.

In entertainment, search trends spanned established stars to emerging personalities, while lifestyle searches centered around comfort-driven topics, including recipes, gaming, and life simulation games.

This report provides valuable insights into global interests and demonstrates how user behavior shapes search patterns, offering businesses a deeper understanding of their audiences.

Google Completes December 2024 Spam Update

Google’s December 2024 spam update has now fully rolled out, marking the end of a year heavily focused on anti-spam measures.

This update, launched earlier in the month, targets manipulative tactics and low-quality content, aiming to enhance the credibility of the search experience. It has impacted numerous domains.

Google encourages businesses to align their optimization efforts with spam policies and emphasizes the importance of high-quality, user-centered content.

This update reflects Google’s continued commitment to improving search quality and delivering reliable information as we enter 2025.

Google Formalizes Guidance on Faceted Navigation

Google has turned a decade-old blog post on faceted navigation into official documentation, emphasizing the SEO risks of poorly implemented systems, which can waste crawl budgets and hinder content discovery.

Google recommends either blocking filter URLs entirely or carefully optimizing them to avoid indexing duplicates or low-value pages.

This updated guidance is designed to help developers manage filtering systems effectively, ensuring site performance is maintained and search visibility is optimized.

Bing Updates Its Search Infrastructure

Microsoft has upgraded Bing’s search infrastructure by integrating large language models and small language models, improving both search speed and accuracy.

Using NVIDIA technology, these enhancements reduce operational costs and response times, resulting in a better user experience.

This update demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to leveraging AI to enhance Bing’s performance and competitiveness in the search engine market. It’s particularly relevant as SearchGPT also relies on Bing’s algorithms.

Updated CDN Documentation from Google

Google has released updated documentation on how Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) impact crawling and SEO.

While CDNs improve site speed and performance by caching content closer to users, improper configurations can lead to challenges like inconsistent indexing.

To optimize crawling, Google recommends correct setup of HTTP headers, canonical tags, and effective cache management.

Attention to these areas ensures CDNs are compatible with search crawlers, benefiting both user experience and SEO results.

AI Crawlers Dominate More of Googlebot’s Traffic

A new study from Vercel reveals that AI crawlers now account for 28% of Googlebot’s web traffic, signaling a significant shift in how the web is indexed.

These AI-powered bots focus on advanced tasks such as context understanding and personalized content delivery.

As AI crawlers become more prominent, businesses must adapt their optimization strategies to accommodate both traditional and AI-driven crawling mechanisms.

This development highlights the growing importance of dual-focused SEO strategies to ensure effective indexing and ranking across platforms.

Google’s CEO Shares Vision for 2025

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has unveiled a vision for 2025 that goes beyond traditional search, focusing on consumer-centric AI and advanced solutions like Gemini.

The strategy includes rapid development of agent-based AI systems and tools such as Chrome AI (Project Mariner) and Project Astra.

These innovations aim to position AI applications as the primary interface for search and interactions, representing a significant evolution in how users navigate Google’s ecosystem.

The approach emphasizes personalized, context-aware experiences, continuing to redefine the future of search and digital assistance - a development we at Bonzer will be closely following in 2025.

Takeaways and Recommendations

While the second half of December included Christmas and New Year celebrations, the search engines didn’t slow down with their updates.

Google’s spam update and renewed documentation emphasize a pattern we’ve seen all year: frequent updates and a focus on delivering the best content for users.

The "Year in Search" report also provided valuable insight into what people searched for most in 2024. Unsurprisingly, it revealed a mix of sports, entertainment, home-related interests, and international politics, reflecting global user interests.

Finally, it’s clear that major search engines ended the year with a strong push into AI, setting the stage for 2025. As AI continues to play a larger role in search, SEO strategies will need to adapt accordingly.

Need help understanding how these updates affect your business in the coming year? Get in touch with Bonzer. As a specialized SEO agency, we’re dedicated to helping ambitious businesses achieve top rankings on search engines.