June Core Update recap- What to do now?

In June this year, we saw the latest Core Update from Google. The update took 16 days and 18 hours to complete, finishing on the 17th of July. So far this year, it’s the second update of the year, with the first happening in March 2025 (rolling out 13th -27th of March).

If you work in SEO and digital, you’ll know that Core Updates happen each year, and are essentially Google making changes to its search algorithms and systems. The updates aren’t targeted at specific websites, but instead are designed to improve the overall experience, quality and relevance of search results for users. They also look to combat spam, adapt to user behaviour and introduce new technologies. 

These updates tend to happen several times a year, and timings aren’t known, which can make it difficult to prepare. This is why when they do happen, you’re likely to see people (mainly SEOs) sharing insights and discussing what impact they see happening. Fortunately, if your website and SEO strategy are built around best practices, then it’s likely you won’t see many fluctuations when an update happens. However, as a Core Update is being rolled out, it’s normal to see fluctuations and volatility with rankings.

In this blog, we’re going to look at the most recent Core Update from June. Diving into the impact it had, how it differed from the March update and what it can help us to expect from the rest of the year. Before we begin, if you feel your website has been impacted by the June 2025 Core Update, then contact our team, who’d be happy to run an audit and investigate. 

Facts about the June 2025 Core Update 

As we’ve touched on, the latest update took nearly 17 days to complete, but what else do we know about the update? Take a look below:

• The update was named ‘Google June 2025 Broad Core Update’
• The update started on 30th June 
• It was a global update, impacting all regions and languages
• The update was looking at all types of content and was promoting/rewarding websites with great content 
• The update impacted Google Discover and other features, such as feature snippets

June Core Update vs March Core Update

Whilst both Core Updates are designed to improve the overall quality and relevance of search results, June’s update had more of an emphasis on the integration of AI, whereas March’s seemed to focus on content and its quality. Ultimately, March’s update looked at cracking down on low-quality content and reinforcing E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust).  However, June’s update seemed to focus more on the following:

AI Overviews integrations

One of the key differences between the two updates is that June’s update seemed to push more aggressively to integrate AI overviews in search results. These are summaries which are generated by AI by combining information from multiple online sources, which then appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) to provide a quick and succinct overview of a topic the user has searched for. 

Reports were made of surges of AI Overviews in visibility, hinting at Google’s intent to transform traditional search with AI. This increase in popularity of AI Overviews then led to concerns from SEOs about ‘zero click’ searches, in that users can find answers directly in the overview on the SERP, rather than navigating through to a website. 

Impact on commercial keywords

Movement was seen across high-value commercial keywords being used in featured snippets, People Also Ask and local map packs. It’s likely that Google is putting more emphasis on these commercial keywords as they refine results for ensuring trust of purchases and creating a better user experience when it comes to the buying decision. Some examples of these keywords include ‘[service] near me’ and ‘best [product]’.

The shift in UGC

Platforms like Reddit, which are rich in user-generated content (UGC), seem to gain increased visibility, suggesting that Google is now considering these sites as ‘helpful’ for certain searches. Why Google sees platforms like Reddit as helpful is due to the nature of the platform, in which users share real-world discussions and information and vote on the relevance of the content. With UGC content being rewarded by Google, it’s important for SEOs and businesses to incorporate this type of content into their strategy in order to increase their online visibility.

Extended rollout

Taking nearly 17 days, the rollout period was extended, but only slightly compared to March’s update, which took 2 weeks. This longer period can sometimes indicate a more complex set of changes. A longer rollout can also make it more difficult for an SEO analysis, as it is harder to pinpoint specific changes and causes. Businesses also need to be more patient in waiting to see what impact the update has on them and create a strategy to solve any issues. 

In summary 

While both updates shared the overall goal of improving search quality and emphasised E-E-A-T signals, the June 2025 Core Update focused more heavily on AI overviews and potentially a more significant re-evaluation of content relevance in the context of Google’s AI search experience. This suggests a deeper shift in how Google is processing and presenting information, especially for informational searches that AI Overviews can effectively summarise.

What impact did the June Core Update have?

Core Updates aren’t about ‘punishing’ websites, but instead about rewarding those who are utilising best practices and sharing great content. Best practices include: user experience, site speed, mobile-friendliness, clear navigation, and technical SEO. Whilst great content is that which is regarded by Google as content which is original, comprehensive, accurate and satisfies users. 

However, naturally, when rewarding websites and moving them up the rankings, there will be those who are ‘losers’ and move down. This is what was typically observed: some sites saw huge declines in ranking visibility, whilst others saw big improvements, and many saw no change. 

This isn’t unusual for Core Updates; however, what was, is that some websites which had been impacted by the Helpful Content Update in September 2023, seemed to experience partial recovery. This could be due to changes they have made to their content marketing strategy, or perhaps even Google has reassessed and refined its ‘helpful content’ signal within its algorithm as user requirements change and the industry evolves further with AI and the nature of search. 

My website was impacted by the June Core Update. What can I do?

If your website was impacted by the update, don’t panic and start looking to rewrite your whole SEO strategy (unless you’re using questionable tactics and shortcuts to try and ‘cheat’ the system). Instead, our primary advice is to look at your content strategy and evaluate your website’s content by asking yourself the following:

• Does your content provide original information?
• Is the content providing a substantial amount of information about a topic?
• Is the content beyond that which is obvious, and instead interesting information that is useful?
• Is your content structured in a helpful way for both search engines and users? This is about the page title, headers and summary of the content.
• Is the content worth sharing? Would you share your content with other users as you believe it to be useful?
• Does the content demonstrate trust signals, using evidence of sources and credibility of the author?
• Is the content well-written, without spelling mistakes, errors and typos?
• When comparing your content to others out there, does your content provide more value and required detail?

As well as looking at your content strategy, you need to be reviewing your data and forming your strategy around this. As part of this review process, you should be asking questions and trying to identify trends or patterns. For example, if you’ve seen a decline in rankings that seems quite steady and has stayed low, have you made any recent website changes that can be attributed to this? Or perhaps your rankings have dropped slightly and are on the way back up, then this sort of ‘blip’ could be attributed to the update or perhaps even a tracking issue. 

Understanding Google’s algorithm and the future

As mentioned, Core Updates occur as part of Google’s overall goal of serving users by organising the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. This is why these updates are part of a continuous effort to achieve that goal and will always occur. And whilst users can’t be sure of when an update will happen, we can look at the history of updates and use the frequency and timings of those to make predictions for the future.  For example, if we look back over the last 5 years:

• In 2020: 3 core updates (January, May and December)
• In 2021: 3 core updates (June, July, and November)
• In 2022: 2 core updates (May and September)
• In 2023: 4 core updates (March, August, October and November)
• In 2024: 4 core updates (March, August, November and December)
• In 2025 (so far): 2 core updates

Therefore, it’s likely that we should expect at least one, if not two other Core Update(s) this year as we go into Q3 and just before the year ends. However, we don’t have a crystal ball, so we can’t say for sure. Which is all well and good, but then how can you prepare for the future? That’s what we’ll look into now. 

Creating a long-term SEO strategy to help future-proof your business

Unfortunately, there is no exact checklist that can help you prepare for a Core Update. However, there are a series of best practices and steps you can take that will increase not only your success in surviving a Core Update, but also future-proof your business by improving your online visibility. Let’s take a look. 

Content

It’s the typical cliché that ‘content is king,’ but technically and when it comes to Core Updates, it is. Throughout this blog, we’ve talked about how content needs to be authentic, original, and helpful in order for Google to find it and share it with other users. This is why our content team at Embryo focuses on an extremely detailed 14-step process to create a high-performing piece of content. If you’d like to learn more about this, then reach out to our team. 

Technical SEO

Whilst content is extremely important, technical SEO still matters and plays a fundamental part in a high-performing organic strategy. Conducting an SEO audit of your website can identify key areas for improvement, including broken links, duplicate content, crawlability, site security and mobile optimisation. 

Other performance metrics that Google considers when deciding which sites to reward with high rankings are Core Web Vitals. These metrics look at how long it takes your pages to load, how users can interact with your site and the visual stability. All of which overall impact the user’s experience, and therefore, a site with poor Core Web Vitals is likely to be lower on the SERP than a site with high scores. You can check your Core Web Vitals scores here and then use the advice on how to improve your performance.  

Authority

The final part of a comprehensive SEO strategy is that of building authority. A website with high authority is regarded as more trustworthy and, therefore, rewarded by Google. A great way to improve your authority is by using Digital PR to build high-quality backlinks to your content. The more quality links that link back to your content and website, the more Google sees your website and content as a source that is highly trusted and valuable. 

The internal linking strategy of your website will also help your authority. Your website content should be relevant to your business and its products or services. Therefore, each page or piece of content should support the others and link to each other. That way, if a user visits your website by searching for information about a particular topic, they can easily navigate their way around to further develop their understanding and find answers to their questions. 

The role of analytics

Overall, by combining the three things above: content, technical SEO and authority, you should be able to create a high-performing SEO strategy that increases your online presence and helps you achieve your business objectives. It’s important to remember, though, that in order to ensure your strategy continues to deliver results and what you need, it needs to be regularly reviewed, analysed and modified. This is where analytical platforms can help; some of our favourites include: Ahrefs, Google Analytics, and our own Supertool Needle. Make sure you are allocating time at least once a month 

Conclusion

To summarise, the June 2025 Google Core Update was a significant global rollout as part of its continuous improvement to enhance user experience and content relevance for searchers. Unlike the March update earlier in the year, which focused on content quality, June’s update focused more on AI and the role it plays in search and results. Whilst many websites didn’t see many fluctuations, the increase in AI Overviews raised concerns with SEOs about zero-click searches and how that can impact website traffic. 

With the Core Update finishing last month, any impact on websites should be identifiable via analytics. If you think your website has been impacted but you’re unsure why, then get in touch with our award-winning organic team, who can conduct a thorough audit for you. Likewise, there’s likely to be at least one other Core Update this year, so our team can help you prepare your website for this and ensure your organic strategy is using best practices and generating the ROI your business needs.

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