The Google June 2025 core update started on June 30, 2025 and completed on July 17, 2025, after a 16 day rollout. Early indications from the data providers show this update was one of the larger core updates we’ve seen in some time.
In fact, it seems like some sites hit by the September 2023 helpful content update saw some partial recoveries. We also saw some sites hit by earlier reviews updates and other core updates realize some partial recoveries.
That is not to say all sites saw positive results, many did not – and many sites saw significant declines in rankings and search visibility with the June 2025 core update.
Data providers on the Google June 2025 core update
Similarweb. Similarweb’s SERP Seismometer showed when this tool picked up on the largest spikes in volatility for this June core update. The largest spike was on July 11th, according to this tool. But you can see the initial spike on July 2nd, a couple of days after the core update was announced.
Darrell Mordecai from Similarweb sent us over some data to dig deeper when comparing this core update to previous core updates. This chart rates the volatility of each Google core update since 2022, and it shows this was the most volatile core update since August 2024 and November 2023.
When comparing it to March 2025 core update to June 2025 (they labeled it July 2025 but Google named it June 2025), the June core update was more volatile:
While fluctuations in the top three positions remained consistent with previous patterns, the June core update showed greater volatility across the top five rankings.
“Among the health, finance, retail, and travel niches, the finance industry exhibited significantly low levels of fluctuation, especially in the top three and top five results. In contrast, the health industry experienced markedly high volatility in the top five positions,” Darrell Mordecai from Similarweb also told me.
Sistrix. The Sistrix posted a detailed post of winners and losers and more analysis. They sent me an updated US chart showing the biggest movers but check out their detailed post over here.
In their radar tool, it shows two waves of this update:
They also sent us an example site that showed a recovery from a previous update, maybe spam update in 2024 and then the March core update in 2025.
Steve Paine from Sistrix told us, “The June Core update was on a large scale and, according to data, had at least two waves of effects across a wide range of domains and content types. Recoveries from the March core update were also easy to spot.”
Other tools. There are a lot of Google search ranking volatility tools. Here is what they looked like after the core update finished rolling out and over the course of the update:
Semrush. Semrush (our parent company):
Industry. The initial rollout seemed to kick in within a few days after the update was announced, specifically on July 2, 2025. Like with all core updates, some sites saw huge declines in ranking visibility, some saw some big improvements and many saw no changes.
The interesting thing with this update is that we saw some accounts of partial recoveries from the September 2023 helpful content update and previous core updates. Then we saw a lot of heated volatility from July 11th through July 14th.
After the update was completed, we continued to see heated search ranking volatility.
Glenn Gabe did a deep analysis of this update, documenting some partial recoveries from previous helpful content updates, review updates and other updates. “the June core update was a red-hot broad core algorithm update causing a lot of volatility across verticals and countries. And that’s fitting since it rolled out right before the July 4th holiday when we already see fireworks. From HCU(X) surges to heavy YMYL impact to AIOs and AI Mode impact, the June core update was an interesting broad core update to analyze,” he wrote.
Marie Haynes also did a deep dive looking at some of the partial recoveries on her blog. “I believe the June 2025 Core update marks the start of some significant changes in search where Google shifts further away from using traditional ranking signals and more towards using AI to identify content that’s likely to be helpful,” she added.
Aleyda Solis posted her analysis related to e-commerce and SaaS sites on LinkedIn. She wrote in regards to e-commerce changes, “Brands are also seeing visibility improvements for many of their own branded terms, due to fewer shopping packs/carousels shown above the first position.” “Major/More Authoritative retailers or small but highly specialized/niche ones gaining visibility for broader product terms (“summer dresses”, “swimsuits for women”) instead of brands, which I can understand to give more diversity of options that are still specialized at that stage of the search journey,” she added.
Video. Here is a short video I made to summarize this update:
What to do if you are hit. Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. Google has not really given much new advice here.
- There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
- Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
- Google said you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change would be after another core update.
In short, write helpful content for people and not to rank in search engines.
- “There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page,” Google said previously.
More on Google updates
You can read more of our coverage in Search Engine Land’s Google Algorithm Updates history.
Why we care. While the data above shows how sites in general are doing with the last core update, it does not represent how your individual site did with the update. If your site was hit by this past update, it can be devastating. If you were hit by previous updates and so no improvement with this update, then again, devastating once again. But some sites saw big improvements.
Feel free to compare this to our March 2025 core update report.
We hope you saw improvements with this March 2025 coe update.