Das "December 2025 Core Update" und wie man die Sichtbarkeit zurückgewinnt

Here you will find all parts of our blog series:

Part 1 -  Why "Zero-Sum" is a misconception and the search is just beginning | find it here
Part 3 - Advertising in the age of conversation – Why keywords are no longer enough | find it here
Part 4 - 2026 and the Age of Agentic Search - When customers are no longer people | find it here

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Blog Series: The Transformation of Search 2026 (Part 2/4)

While Liz Reid emphasized the economic stability of Google search in interviews, dramas were unfolding in server rooms and marketing departments worldwide. The "December 2025 Core Update" will go down in history as one of the most volatile and toughest updates. It was not merely a correction; it was a system change. 

In this second part, we analyze the forensic data of the update, explain why "Redundancy" is the new "Spam", and show you a way out of dependency with the new "Preferred Sources" feature. 

Holiday Havoc: The Timing of Terror 

The update began on December 11, 2025, at 9:25 AM PT and extended until January 1, 2026. For e-commerce and ad-funded publishers, this timing – in the middle of the busiest quarter – was the "Holiday Havoc".

The impacts were brutal and immediately measurable: 

• Traffic Collapse: Hundreds of webmasters reported declines in daily visitor numbers between 70% and 85%. 

• Discover is dead (for many): Google Discover was particularly affected. A publisher documented a drop in impressions by 98% within days before the official announcement. Since Discover now accounts for up to two-thirds of traffic for many news sites, this was tantamount to a threat to existence. 

• Volatility Index: The SISTRIX Update Radar recorded a value of 3.54 on the day of the announcement – a massive spike far beyond normal fluctuations. 

The "Second Wave": Why it hurt twice 

Our analyses at internetwarriors show an unusual pattern. After the initial crash on December 11, there was deceptive calm, followed by a "Second Wave" of volatility around December 20. 

We interpret this as a two-stage filtering process: 

1. Phase 1 (Content): The algorithm scanned for static quality features and especially for redundancy. 
   
   

2. Phase 2 (User Signals): In the second wave, the user data of the new AI Overviews was analyzed. Pages that ranked but didn't generate clicks or had high bounce rates compared to the AI response were downgraded retroactively. 

The new ranking poison: Redundancy 

Why were so many established sites hit? The answer lies in the nature of AI overviews. Previously, a page was valuable if it summarized information well. Today, the AI does that. 

The December update punished redundancy. 

If your page merely repeats facts already present in Google’s "Knowledge Graph" (e.g., "How tall is Liz Reid?"), your page is technically redundant. It doesn’t offer added value over AI. 

Google has now firmly integrated its "Helpful Content" signals into the core algorithm. "Helpful" today means: Does this page offer a perspective, experience, or data that AI cannot hallucinate or aggregate? 

The Glimmer of Hope: "Preferred Sources" 

But Google didn’t just take, Google also gave. Parallel to the update and volatility, Google rolled out the "Preferred Sources" feature globally. 

This is perhaps the most important strategic innovation for 2026. 

• What is it? Users can mark their preferred news sources in search settings or directly in "Top Stories" (through a star). 

• The Effect: Content from these sources gets a permanent ranking boost in the user's personal feed and appears in a separate section "From your sources". 

This fundamentally changes the SEO game.

Until now, SEO was a battle for the algorithm. From now on, it is also a battle for brand loyalty. A small niche blog can outperform large publishers if it has a loyal community that actively marks it as a "Preferred Source". 

We see here a democratization of the algorithm: the users decide who ranks, not just the AI. 

Your Survival Strategy for Q1 2026 

Based on this data, we recommend our clients the following immediate actions: 

1. Redundancy Audit: Check your content. If you have an article that ChatGPT could write just as well in 10 seconds, delete or revise it. Add exclusive data, expert opinions, or videos. 

   
   

2. The "Star" Campaign: Launch campaigns to encourage users to mark you as a "Preferred Source". Explain to users how it’s done. This is the new newsletter signup. 

   
   

3. Diversification: Do not rely solely on Google Discover. The 98% drop shows how volatile this channel is. 

   
   

The December update was painful, but it has cleansed the market. Whoever still stands now has substance. But how do you monetize this substance in a world where keywords are losing importance? In part 3 of our series, we dive deep into the new advertising world of AI Max and AI Mode, and show you how ads are placed when no one is searching anymore.