Plus, Google's new core update, burnout prevention, and more  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ Raptive News DECEMBER 17, 2025 By Emily Rose VP, Content Marketing Hi Raptive, As we tie a bow on our final newsletter of 2025, we just want to say thank you. This year brought plenty of change, uncertainty, and more than a little slop (Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year 🙃). Through it all, you kept showing up—creating thoughtful, helpful content, supporting one another, and reminding us why this work matters. We’re so grateful to be your partners through the highs and lows, and we’re heading into 2026 optimistic and energized about what’s ahead. As the holidays approach, we hope you find time to rest, reset, and feel genuinely proud of everything you’ve built this year. This newsletter will be back on January 7, ready to take on everything that comes next—together. Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and a hopeful start to the new year! What’s new Closing out 2025 with Google’s final core update Last Thursday, Google announced its December 2025 core update—the third (and likely final) core update of the year. Google describes it as “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.” Core updates typically take up to three weeks to roll out, but our SEO team is fully prepared to dig into ranking movements and network-wide trends. Once the rollout settles, we’ll analyze our findings and share clear insights, context, and next steps with you. Want to see how recent updates played out? Check out our recaps of Google’s August 2025 spam update and June 2025 core update. Ctrl Alt Ask Episode 7: How do I keep creating when I’m burnt out? We know that many of you are feeling burned out this time of year. So how do you get out of that state and tap back into your creativity and love of making content? That’s the question we tackle in this week’s new episode of Ctrl Alt Ask. Our guest is food and lifestyle entrepreneur Laura Fuentes, who confesses that creating has been feeling the same old, same old. Josh Zimmerman, aka The Creator Coach, joins our host Stephanie Woodin to help Laura (and you!) get the spark back. Learn more about why creators are especially susceptible to burnout and get actionable advice on how to reconnect with your flow state. Listen now → Want to be our next guest? Send your question to ctrlaltask@raptive.com. Top resource The most popular posts of 2025 We’ve shared a lot of Resource Center content with you this year, and it’s so helpful to see what resonated. You gravitated toward content that helped you navigate search changes, improve content quality, and make thoughtful updates to existing posts—especially in ways that balanced creativity, performance, and sustainability. Here’s the content that stood out most this year: #1 Unlocking the power of Google Discover #2 How to improve content quality, according to Google’s latest Search Quality Rater Guidelines #3 Recipe roundups outperform single recipes: here’s how to make yours stand out #4 The ultimate guide to refreshing content to boost rankings and drive traffic #5 How using one date improves SEO and click-through rates Your questions and challenges continue to shape what we create and share. If there’s a topic you’d love us to cover—or revisit—next year, just hit reply and let us know. Quick tip Ask for help at the first signs of burnout “The most successful creators build support systems to protect their creativity. Burnout can happen when those systems are missing. Our goal is to help creators grow in a way that feels sustainable, and you don’t have to do this alone.” Becca Clark VP, Creator Partnerships Management Don’t miss Earn a bonus for every qualified creator you bring to Raptive As you set yourself up for a strong start in 2026, help other creators do the same. Plus, you’ll earn a bonus for every qualified creator you bring into our community. How it works: 1. Share your unique referral code (RAPTIVE-2883E611CB) with qualified creators who are ready to grow their business with Raptive 2. They’ll enter your code when they apply (we’ll notify you when it’s accepted) 3. You’ll earn your bonus once they successfully install ads within 90 days Referral bonuses: • $1,000 for every referred site with 100K+ pageviews • $250 for every referred site with 25K–99.9K pageviews (available through January 31) To make sharing even easier, use this link—your code will be auto-filled on the application. Need to find your referral code later? It’s always in the Account Settings of the Raptive dashboard. If you have any questions, please review our FAQ page or simply reply to this email—we’re here to help. Raptive in the news Our concerns about AI slop are going mainstream More media outlets are paying attention to what we’ve all been saying for a long time: AI slop has no place in recipe search. The Guardian is the latest to spotlight how these AI-generated summaries are reshaping recipe discovery, featuring Tara and Jim Delmage of Sip and Feast, Karen Tedesco of Familystyle Food, and Joanne and Adam Gallagher of Inspired Taste, alongside Tom Critchlow, Raptive’s EVP of Audience Growth. “People will ultimately place a higher premium on being able to know that these recipes have been tested and made by somebody that I follow or somebody I respect or somebody that I like.” Tom Critchlow EVP, Audience Growth The piece highlights the real impact these changes are having on trust, traffic, and the value of original, tested recipes. Why we’re hopeful for the future → What we’re reading Catch up on news from around the industry • Programmatic ads are coming to AI chatbots (AdExchanger) • Meta strikes multiple AI deals with news publishers (Axios | Gated) • Google is testing AI-powered article overviews on select publications’ Google News pages (TechCrunch) Question of the week What’s at the top of your holiday wish list? 🎁 Creators getting credit And compensation, please and thank you! ✨ Smarter algorithms Less slop, more real human content winning 📌 Platforms on our side Put real creators back in the spotlight 📈 Less chaos, steadier growth Fewer surprises that don’t jump-scare us daily Was this email helpful? You’re receiving this email because you help manage a site that works with Raptive. To ensure our emails reach your inbox, add hello@email.raptive.com to your email contacts. Want to stop receiving Raptive News emails? 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