The June/July 2025 Google Core Update — how to react if your business has been impacted

Introduction

This Google core update started rolling out on June 30, 2025.

As with all core updates, this is a significant algorithmic refresh that should capture the full attention of any marketing manager.

According to Google, it will take around three weeks to roll out fully. However, in our experience, the full impact of the rollout is usually felt within the first couple of days after the announcement.

In this article, we will explain what a Google core update is, what you should be monitoring, and how to react if your website has been impacted.

What Are Google’s Core Algorithm updates?

 

First things first: what exactly is a Google core update?

It’s a significant change — a refresh of the search results. SEO consultants globally often observe considerable fluctuations in rankings, meaning the search engine results pages (SERPs) experience significant variation during this time.

Then, the website can resettle — sometimes in a much higher position than before, or sometimes much lower — in Google’s search engine results pages.

It really boils down to the quality of your content marketing. Many SEO experts believe that during these updates, Google’s algorithms more closely assess the quality of your business’s content marketing and adjust rankings based on your website’s overall quality.
Don’t Panic Too Much

A common mistake is to wake up one morning, read a few blog posts about the update, see that a major algorithm update is rolling out, then panic.

You might log into Google Analytics, panic, and start making radical changes to your business’s SEO. However, this is one of the worst things you can do. You need to give it time for the ranking flux to settle.

Let the dust settle before assessing what work is required.

 

For example, after the update is fully rolled out, the following might be necessary:

• Improving content marketing
• Fixing duplicated pages
• Repairing broken links
• Disavowing spam links (which should be handled by a link-building expert)
• Improving thin content pages

As Google has highlighted, it can take up to three weeks for the update to fully roll out. So, you must give it this period to let things settle while your company’s website adjusts to its new position in Google results.
Avoid Rushing Changes

If you rush in like a bull at a gate — changing page titles, removing meta tags, rewriting content, and adding a flurry of work to try to get your website back up the search results — this is the wrong approach.

 

Don’t rush!

In SEO, it’s better to focus on implementing quality work — but slowly.

Making a lot of sudden changes can further negatively impact your SEO.

During an algorithm update rollout, this can cause further swings, potentially resulting in an even bigger drop in your rankings.

So, instead, sit back and take a moment to understand exactly where you stand. Otherwise, you’re making adjustments based on data that is still going through what’s called a ranking flux, which cannot provide an accurate assessment of your current website ranking.
What You Should Do After the Rollout

 

At this agency, we’ve written so many articles about Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines that we’re quite literally blue in the face from writing so much about it.

However, after the algorithm has rolled out, you should use these guidelines to review the main pages that have suffered a drop in organic traffic and determine whether those pages need improvement.

 

For example:

Has the author demonstrated enough expertise on the product or service?

Could they add more detail or update information?

Can the page be made more readable by using bullet points to lower bounce rates?

Use the Google E-A-T guidelines to evaluate whether your company demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness regarding the products or services you sell.

 

Could your main pages be improved?

Could an expert within your company write better product descriptions?

Which pages have a particularly high bounce rate? Focus on improving those.

 

Monitoring Tools During the Update

During a Google update rollout, the two main tools to use are Google Search Console and Google Analytics. These free tools offer reliable insights about your SEO performance.

Use Google Search Console to see where your keywords are ranking, how many impressions and clicks your website is getting, and metrics like dwell time on key pages.

Then, use Google Analytics to see the organic visitors your website receives.

We also recommend using a ranking tool such as Moz to track your website’s ranking fluctuations and benchmark against competitors.
How Did Your Competitors Move?

Most marketing managers keep a close eye not only on their own rankings but also on their direct competitors’.

Assess how radically your competitors moved within the SERPs.

If the first page results have radically altered, it could be a sign the algorithm update is still rolling out.

In our experience, businesses often undergo significant ranking changes, but those that implement high-quality work tend to come out stronger.

The point is: first page results can drastically change, especially while the update is still in the ranking flux phase.
Are You Seeing Anomalies?

In our opinion, anomalies are becoming more common during updates.

For example, sometimes pages appear on the first page of results where they clearly shouldn’t be. If you’re searching locally for a service or product, you don’t want to land on a Companies House page or another irrelevant page.

Such anomalies are a sure sign the algorithm update hasn’t finished rolling out yet.
Our Top Tips to Recover From an Algorithm Update

So, let’s say you’re reading this after the update is fully rolled out — the storm has passed — but your organic traffic is still low and rankings have dropped.

 

What should you do?

We think there is only one thing to do: focus on the overall quality of your business’s content marketing.

Many SEO agencies make SEO sound like a mysterious science, some kind of magic conjured only by select experts.

This is not true. SEO hasn’t really changed in the last 10 years of us implementing it. The one constant is quality.

If your rankings move sharply, it’s often due to the quality of your page.

Sure, sometimes you’ll have issues like a bad backlink profile — a separate problem requiring attention. But most often, it comes down to the quality of your content marketing.

You might be posting excellent new blog posts, but older pages from five years ago might be poorly written or thin on content, which can drag down your overall quality rating.

 

Quality is the name of the game.

You may need to revisit many pages, talk to your marketing team about how to improve them, and update outdated or “feisty” content.
Alternatively, You Could Come to One of the Best in the Business

We don’t like to blow our own trumpet too much, but hey — we are a marketing company after all.

We’ve worked with businesses to get them on the first page, and not just that — we’ve helped keep them there for close to a decade. That speaks volumes about the quality of our company.

 

How Do We Do That?

We focus on quality.

It’s like that all-trusted car you once owned — the one you were fond of for its top-notch quality and craftsmanship.

You might even say to your friends, “They don’t build them like that anymore.”

This is the mindset you need for your marketing — especially content marketing and on-page SEO.

Forget the quick wins and focus on quality, because quality always pays dividends.

If you have any further questions, please get in touch with Walsh and Partners directly for more information.