This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Drew Madore
Your traffic dropped 40% overnight. Your rankings for money keywords? Gone. Your carefully optimized pages that were sitting pretty at position 3? Now languishing on page 4.
Welcome to December 2025.
Google’s latest core update hit on December 12th, and the SEO community has been collectively losing its mind ever since. I’ve spent the past week analyzing data from 47 sites across different industries, and here’s the thing: this isn’t like the updates we saw earlier this year. The patterns are different. The recovery playbook is different.
And most of the advice you’re seeing right now? It’s the same recycled nonsense that hasn’t worked since 2023.
What Actually Changed This Time
Let’s cut through the speculation. Google didn’t release detailed documentation (shocking, I know). But the data tells a clear story.
First, the E-E-A-T emphasis shifted hard toward the first “E” – Experience. Sites that demonstrate genuine, hands-on experience with their topic saw gains. Sites that read like they were written by someone who Googled the topic five minutes ago? Decimated.
I’m talking about specific, verifiable experience markers. One client in the home improvement space lost 35% of their traffic. Their content was technically accurate, well-structured, decent backlink profile. But it was written by freelancers who’d never actually installed a deck or retiled a bathroom. Meanwhile, a smaller competitor with content from actual contractors (including photos of their work, specific product recommendations based on projects, even mistakes they’d made) jumped 3 positions for nearly every keyword.
Second, Google appears to have dramatically refined its ability to detect AI-generated content that hasn’t been meaningfully edited by humans. And I don’t mean it’s penalizing AI content outright – I mean it’s getting scary good at identifying content that lacks genuine human insight, regardless of how it was created.
Third, and this one’s interesting: topical authority clustering got more sophisticated. It’s not enough to have 50 articles about “digital marketing” anymore. Google wants to see depth in specific sub-topics, with clear relationship structures between content pieces. Surface-level coverage across broad topics? That’s not cutting it.
The Recovery Mistakes Everyone’s Making
Here’s what I’m seeing in every SEO forum and Slack channel right now:
“Just add more content!” Sure, because what your struggling site needs is more of what isn’t working.
“Update your old posts!” Okay, but update them how? Adding today’s date and calling it “refreshed” isn’t a strategy.
“Build more backlinks!” Cool. To content that Google has already determined isn’t valuable enough to rank? That’ll fix it.
Look, I get it. When traffic drops, panic sets in. But throwing tactics at the wall isn’t recovery – it’s just expensive flailing.
The sites I’ve seen recover fastest (and yes, some are already bouncing back) took a completely different approach.
The Actual Recovery Framework
Step 1: Audit for Experience Signals
Go through your top 20 pages by historical traffic. For each one, ask: “Could this have only been written by someone who actually does this thing?”
If the answer is no, you’ve found your problem.
I worked with an e-commerce site selling camping gear. Their buying guides were comprehensive, well-researched, perfectly optimized. They also could have been written by anyone with access to Amazon reviews and manufacturer specs. We brought in their customer service team – people who actually camp, who field questions from customers, who know which products fail in real conditions. The rewrites included specific scenarios (“The Coleman Sundome is great until you’re setting it up in 20mph winds at dusk – those clips are nearly impossible to see”), product combinations that work well together, and honest limitations of products they sell.
Traffic recovered to 85% of pre-update levels within three weeks.
Step 2: Add Verifiable Credentials
This feels obvious, but most sites are doing it wrong. Having an “About” page that says “Our team of experts” means nothing. Google wants verifiable signals:
- Author bios with specific credentials and experience
- Links to professional profiles (LinkedIn, industry organizations)
- Attribution to real people, not “The [Company Name] Team”
- Photos of actual team members (not stock photos of people pointing at laptops)
- Specific examples of the work they’ve done
One financial advice site I analyzed added detailed author credentials, including links to their CFP certifications, years of experience, and specific client scenarios they’d handled (anonymized, obviously). Rankings for competitive finance keywords jumped within 10 days.
Step 3: Build Content Depth, Not Breadth
Here’s where the topical authority piece comes in. Instead of creating more surface-level content, go deep on specific sub-topics.
Let’s say you have a site about project management. Instead of having one article each on “Agile,” “Scrum,” “Kanban,” and “Waterfall,” create a comprehensive cluster:
- A pillar page on Agile methodology (3,000+ words, genuinely comprehensive)
- Deep dives on specific aspects (sprint planning, retrospectives, user stories, estimation techniques)
- Practical implementation guides (“Implementing Agile in a 5-Person Team,” “Agile for Remote Teams”)
- Common problems and solutions (“When Agile Ceremonies Become Time Wasters”)
- Tool comparisons and recommendations based on actual use
All properly interlinked, all demonstrating actual experience implementing these methodologies.
The sites that are recovering aren’t creating more content. They’re creating better content clusters around fewer topics.
Step 4: The AI Content Problem
If you’ve been using AI to generate content (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t), you need to audit it. Not to delete it – to enhance it.
Google isn’t penalizing AI content. It’s penalizing content that lacks human expertise and insight. The difference matters.
I’ve seen sites successfully use AI as a starting point, then layer in:
- Personal experience and observations
- Specific examples from their work
- Nuanced takes that go beyond surface-level advice
- Acknowledgment of complexity and trade-offs
- Industry-specific insights that only come from doing the work
This connects to broader shifts we’re seeing in how AI is reshaping content strategy – the tools are powerful, but they’re tools, not replacements for genuine expertise.
Step 5: Fix Your Internal Linking Structure
This update seems to have amplified Google’s ability to understand topical relationships through internal linking. Random internal links aren’t helping. You need strategic architecture.
For each content cluster:
- Pillar page links to all supporting content
- Supporting content links back to pillar and to related supporting pieces
- Use descriptive anchor text that indicates relationship
- Create clear hierarchies that signal which content is most authoritative
One B2B SaaS site restructured their internal linking to create clear product-focused clusters. Within two weeks, their product pages started recovering. The content didn’t change – the signals about topical authority did.
What About Technical SEO?
Yes, Core Web Vitals still matter. Yes, mobile optimization matters. Yes, site speed matters.
But here’s what I’m seeing: sites with perfect technical SEO and weak content are still struggling. Sites with good-enough technical SEO and genuinely authoritative content are recovering.
I’m not saying ignore technical factors. I’m saying if you’re choosing where to invest your recovery efforts, content quality and experience signals are showing faster, more significant impacts than technical optimizations right now.
Fix your technical issues, absolutely. But don’t expect that to be your recovery strategy.
The Timeline Reality Check
How long does recovery take? The honest answer: it depends on how deep your issues go.
Sites that primarily needed to add experience signals and credentials: 2-4 weeks to see movement.
Sites that needed content rewrites: 4-8 weeks.
Sites that needed complete content strategy overhauls: 3-6 months.
And some sites? They’re not coming back. If your entire content model was built on thin, AI-generated, or outsourced content with no genuine expertise behind it, you’re looking at a complete rebuild.
That’s not what anyone wants to hear. But it’s what the data is showing.
What’s Working Right Now
I’ve been tracking recovery patterns across different industries. Here’s what’s consistently working:
In B2B/SaaS: Case studies with specific results, implementation guides written by people who actually use the products, comparison content that acknowledges real trade-offs (not just “our product is better”).
In E-commerce: Detailed product guides from people who’ve used the products, category pages with genuine buying advice (not just product grids), content that addresses specific use cases and customer questions.
In Publishing/Media: Author expertise front and center, specific reporting and original research, depth over breadth, clear editorial standards and fact-checking processes.
In Local: Genuine local expertise, specific neighborhood knowledge, content that demonstrates actual presence in the community, real customer testimonials and examples.
The pattern across all of these? Authenticity that can be verified.
The Bigger Picture
This update feels like an inflection point. Google’s getting better at identifying genuine expertise and experience. The tactics that worked for the past few years – comprehensive content, good optimization, decent backlinks – aren’t enough anymore.
The sites that will thrive going forward are the ones built on actual expertise. The ones where real people with real experience create content that could only come from having done the work.
Everyone else? They’re going to keep chasing algorithm updates and wondering why nothing works.
Your Next Steps
Start with your top 10 pages by historical traffic. For each one:
- Identify what experience signals are missing
- Determine who on your team (or in your network) has genuine expertise
- Plan specific additions that demonstrate that expertise
- Add verifiable credentials and author information
- Enhance the content with specific examples and insights
Don’t try to fix everything at once. Focus on your most important pages first. Measure the impact. Then scale what works.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: if you don’t have genuine expertise in your topic area, you might need to rethink your content strategy entirely. Hiring better writers won’t fix it. Better AI prompts won’t fix it. You need actual experts creating (or at least heavily editing and enhancing) your content.
The December 2025 update isn’t just another algorithm change. It’s Google getting significantly better at identifying what we’ve always known matters: real expertise, real experience, real value.
The question is whether your content can demonstrate those things. If it can’t, no amount of optimization is going to save you.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Drew Madore