The third and likely final core update of 2025, the December 2025 core update, is now rolling out and complete. It started on December 11, 2025 and was completed about 18 days and 2 hours later on December 29, 2025. Google called this update “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”
This December 2025 core update came after waiting five months since the previous core update, the June 2025 core update. That June update came a few months after Google’s first core update on the 2025 year, the March 2025 core update.
In the coming days we will gather data on the impact of this update and share some of that data with you on Search Engine Land.
What Google is saying. Google updated its Search Status Dashboard to state:
- “Released the December 2025 core update. The rollout may take up to 3 weeks to complete.”
Google added on LinkedIn:
- “This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”
What we saw. The initial rollout touched down within a few days after the update was announced, specifically on December 13, 2025. Then on December 20th, we saw another big spike in volatility. Like with all core updates, some sites saw huge declines in ranking visibility, some saw some big improvements and many saw no changes.
I’d also recommend you watch this video from Glenn Gabe on the December core update.
What to do if you are hit. Google did not share any new guidance specific to the December 2025 core update. However, in the past, Google has offered advice on what to consider if a core update negatively impacts your site:
- There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
- Google offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
- Google said you can see some 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.
For more details on Google core updates, you can read Google’s documentation.
Previous core updates. Here’s a timeline and our coverage of recent core updates:
Why we care. Now that this December 2025 core update is done, you can start to dig in to see how you are your clients were impacted. You can review Google’s guidance and continue to improve your site, which hopefully will lead to better Google ranking in the future. Google releases core update every few to several months, so you should always continue to work on improving your site and the content on your site.
I hope you all did well with this last Google update and you all have an amazing holidays and new years!
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