Google June 2025 Core Update

Google’s June 2025 core update began rolling out on 30 June 2025 and completed on 17 July 2025, a rollout of just under 17 days. It was the second broad core update of 2025, following the March update.

Multiple data providers, including Semrush, Similarweb, and SISTRIX, flagged it as one of the more significant core updates in recent memory. Search Engine Land reported that the consensus across tracking tools placed it well above average for volatility.

Scale of the volatility

Over 16% of pages holding top-10 rankings after the update had not ranked in the top 20 before it started, according to Semrush tracking data. That churn rate was the highest recorded in the four years since Semrush began tracking the metric, and 72.4% higher than the March 2025 core update produced.

The raw volatility readings pointed the other way. Mordy Oberstein, who compiled the data for Semrush, said they “would seem to indicate that the March 2025 Core Update was ‘more powerful’ than the June 2025 Core Update. However, I don’t think that’s actually true.” March produced a slightly more severe initial peak, so “for a moment in time, the March update was more powerful”. On the churn measure, which counts how many URLs entered the top ten from outside the top twenty rather than how sharp the peak was, June was the larger event.

Similarweb reached the same conclusion by a different route, rating June the most volatile core update since August 2024 and November 2023.

The update appeared to have at least two distinct waves of effects, with ranking movements continuing to compound across the rollout rather than settling after an initial shift.

What changed by vertical

Darrell Mordecai of Similarweb reported that “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.”

Health moved sharply and finance did not, despite both sitting inside the YMYL grouping. Fluctuation in the top three stayed consistent with previous patterns; the additional movement showed up across the top five.

AI Overviews expanded during the rollout

Semrush recorded a change in how often AI Overviews appeared at all. Before the update, roughly 10% of queries in their data set triggered an AI Overview. On the final day of the official rollout that reached about 20%, settling back to around 15% afterwards.

This is a separate mechanism from the ranking changes. The core update reordered results, and over the same window the share of queries carrying an AI Overview above those results roughly doubled before partly receding.

Helpful content recoveries

One notable pattern in the June data: some sites that had lost significant visibility in the September 2023 helpful content update saw partial recoveries. Glenn Gabe’s analysis, cited by Search Engine Land, documented recoveries from previous helpful content updates, reviews updates and earlier core updates, and Amsive’s winners and losers report found the same, naming Macy’s among the larger examples with a recovery of about 35%.

These recoveries were partial rather than full, and not universal. Sites that had made only surface-level changes to their content without addressing underlying quality issues remained suppressed.

Notable winners and losers

SISTRIX published a winners and losers table covering UK and US data, ranked by percentage change in visibility index points between 2 and 17 July. Two things about it shape how it should be read: it is sorted by percentage rather than absolute movement, and every domain in the top and bottom ranks sits on a small visibility base, mostly between 1 and 40 points. No major domain appears at either extreme.

Community and fan-content sites dominated the gains. Urban Dictionary rose 278% in US data and 214% in UK data. Letterboxd gained 163% in the US and 126% in the UK. ResetEra (150%), DISboards (133%) and Songfacts (125%) followed the same pattern, alongside picclick.co.uk at 310% and nihcm.org at 407%, the largest single gain in the table.

The losses were spread across retail, travel and media rather than concentrated in one sector: max.com fell 86% in UK data and 85% in the US, globenewswire.com 86%, coupons.com 85%, clarksoutlet.co.uk 84%, flightstats.com 79% in the UK, whsmith.co.uk 77%, hbo.com 66%.

Percentages of this size come off bases small enough that a handful of keywords can produce them, so the table is better read as a list of examples than as a measure of the update’s overall shape.

What this means

The June update’s HCU recovery patterns are the most actionable signal. For sites still suppressed from 2023-2024 helpful content updates, the evidence suggests Google is continuing to reassess rather than having permanently fixed those rankings. Sustained investment in content quality, not cosmetic adjustments, is what produced the recoveries observed.

For sites affected for the first time, the diagnostic is the same as any core update: whether the content would be considered authoritative by a genuine subject matter expert, and whether it serves the user’s actual need rather than a keyword target.

• Started: 30 June 2025
• Completed: 17 July 2025
• Duration: 17 days
• Type: Broad core
• Confirmed by: Google Search Status Dashboard

Sources

• Data providers: Google June 2025 core update was a big update — Search Engine Land
• Google June 2025 Core Update — SISTRIX
• June 2025 Core Update: Winners, Losers & Trends — Amsive
• Google Search Status Dashboard — Ranking Updates