Google released the June 2025 Core Update on June 30, 2025, and completed it on July 17, 2025. The update rolled out for two and a half weeks, a few days short of the three weeks originally slated for its completion.
Google’s Official Announcement
Google announced the release of the June 2025 Core Update on X (formerly Twitter) and their LinkedIn page.
Today we released the June 2025 core update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/bOclYyVtYH
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) June 30, 2025
What Are People Saying?
Bloggers and SEOs had their reservations about the June 2025 Core Update. Here are some of the things they had to say.
Early Volatiles Observed by SEOs
On July 2, 2025, Glenn Gabe shared reports of multiple sites that were already being impacted by the June 2025 Core update. The results were mixed, with some gaining rankings while others lost them.
Notably, the sites that gained traffic had previously lost it due to volatilities resulting from unconfirmed updates that occurred in the days leading up to the June 2025 Core Update release.
Good Morning Google Land! This is the July 2nd edition of "Core Update Notes". It looks like the update is just starting to land… I'm seeing surges and drops beginning based on running the visibility reporting for ~4K sites across verticals this morning (and digging into the… pic.twitter.com/aV98simA0G
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 2, 2025
On July 9, 2025, Glenn Gabe reported that multiple sites that had lost rankings due to the September 2023 Heavy Content Update were recovering with the June 2025 Core Update.
The September 2023 Heavy Content Update, also known as the HCU(X) update, ran from September 14 to 28, 2023, when Google used it to reward content written for people over that written for search engines.
The recovery of the impacted sites is promising, considering that these sites have historically struggled to recover following the updates.
Good Morning Google Land! This is the July 9th edition of "Core Update Notes". And do I have an interesting share this AM… Starting on 7/6 I'm seeing a number of sites impacted by the September HCU(X) surge. It's early and they are not back to where they were (at least yet)…… pic.twitter.com/EMp2D2NS0z
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 9, 2025
Later Volatilities Observed by SEOs
Multiple sites that lost traffic to the September 2023 Heavy Content Update continued to recover with the June 2025 Core Update. Glenn Gabe even shared reports of such sites on June 11, 2025. Their gains was significant even though it remained below their pre-September 2023 levels.
And to clarify, 20% of the list of 400 sites I'm tracking that were heavily impacted by the Sep 2023 HCU(X) have surged more than 20% with the June core update. There are more sites increasing but under the 20% mark.
Google clearly corrected something on their end… Yes, it… pic.twitter.com/n7hsXsI8PJ
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 11, 2025
Multiple sites that lost traffic to the September 2023 Heavy Content Update continued to see their traffic improve until Google abruptly completed the June 2025 Core Update on July 17, 2025, which was four days to its expected completion date.
However, the search results page continued to experience severe volatility days after the update was completed. Barry Schwartz even shared reports of the intense volatility on July 20, 2025, which was three days after Google completed the update.
Google Search ranking volatility still heated four days after the core update completed – what is going on https://t.co/SngAImUHNv pic.twitter.com/VQyoetS9nQ
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 20, 2025
Top Winners of the June 2025 Core Update
Multiple sites across various verticals greatly benefited from the June 2025 Core Update. We will now list the top beneficiaries below.
1 sothebysrealty.com (+1322%)
Sotheby’s, a luxury real estate brokerage, was among the top beneficiaries of the June 2025 Core Update. Its traffic spiked by 1322%, going from 730 thousand pre-update to over 10 million the day after the update was over.
2 jdsupra.com (+166%)
Legal intelligence and news site JD Supra saw its traffic almost triple during the update, increasing from 30,000 visitors pre-update to 80,000 post-update. This marks a 166% increase, which is considerable and impressive for a site of its size.
3 camelcamelcamel.com (+149%)
Camelcamelcamel.com, an Amazon price tracker site, was among the earliest winners of the June 2025 Core Update. Their traffic improved the day after the update was released and remained consistent until its completion.
4 forums.whirlpool.net.au (+107%)
Australian web discussion site, forums.whirlpool.net.au, saw its traffic improve by more than 100% during the update. This is considerable considering it lost almost half of the traffic during the March 2025 Core Update, which made it one of our top losers back then.
However, with the June 2025 Core Update, Whirlpool forums have effectively recovered and even surpassed their previous rankings.
5 law360.com (+86%)
The legal news site, law360.com, saw its traffic increase from 58 thousand to 108 thousand, marking an 86% improvement. While impressive, it is still below the 189 thousand traffic it received at the end of the March 2025 Core Update.
6 stockanalysis.com (+67%)
Stock analysis site, stockanalysis.com, received 900,000 more visitors at the end of June 2025 Core Update than it did at the beginning. This saw its traffic rise from 1.3 million to 2.2 million, marking a 67% increase.
This is significant and documents its steady rise on Google’s results pages. The site was relatively unaffected by the previous March 2025 Core Update, when it saw a 1.4% increase in traffic.
7 investors.com (+60%)
investors.com, a financial news and research platform, saw its traffic increase by 60% to 4.3 million during the June 2025 Core Update. This is considerable, although it is still lower than its post-March 2025 Core Update traffic of 5 million.
It is also noteworthy to know that the site experienced volatility during the June 2025 Core Update, and its traffic crossed the 5 million mark at one point before dropping to 4.3 million.
8 benzinga.com (+51%)
benzinga.com, a financial news and data website, saw its traffic go from a million to a million and a half, marking a 51% increase.
However, this increase only returns it to its post-March 2025 Core Update position, when it dropped from 2.7 million to 1.6 million visitors. This made benzinga.com one of the top losers back then, but it is now among the top winners.
Top Losers of the June 2025 Core Update
A good number of sites lost traffic to the June 2025 Core Update. Many of them are media sites, but several other sites from other verticals also experienced losses. Let us see some of them below.
1 ejiltalk.org (-88%)
ejiltalk.org, the blog of the European Journal of International Law (EJIL), lost considerable traffic to the June 2025 Core Update. Specifically, its traffic fell from 122 thousand to a measly 15 thousand, which is a substantial chunk of its traffic.
2 africanews.com (-76%)
The news site, africanews.com, saw its traffic drop from 401,000 visitors to 96,000, marking a 76% loss. It experienced a massive traffic loss on the first day of the update, and this decline continued until the update was completed.
3 coupons.com (-73%)
Coupon and affiliate site, coupons.com, lost over two million visitors to the June 2025 Core Update, when its traffic fell from 3.2 million to 889 thousand.
coupons.com previously lost 900 thousand visitors to the March 2025 Core Update, which caused its traffic to drop to 3.3 million. The June 2025 Core Update further reduced that traffic.
4 france24.com (-69%)
News site, France24, lost 5.2 million visitors, which is 69% of its traffic, to the June 2025 Core Update. Its traffic more than halved on the first day after the update was released and continued to reduce until it was completed.
5 timesofisrael.com (-59%)
The online news site Times of Israel lost five million visitors when its traffic dropped from 8.4 million to 3.4 million. This was 59% of its traffic, which is considerable.
6 haaretz.com (-57%)
Haaretz, another online news site, saw its traffic more than halve during the June 2025 Core Update when it went from over 900 thousand to less than 400,000.
However, its post-June 2025 Core Update traffic is still above the 316 thousand traffic it ended up with after the March 2025 Core Update.
7 thestreet.com (-57%)
The financial news site, thestreet.com, also experienced significant volatility and traffic loss when it dropped from 2.2 million to almost 970 thousand visitors.
This loss is considerable, especially considering it was among the top winners during the March 2025 Core Update when its traffic increased by 70% and went from 2.2 to 3.9 million visitors.
How the June 2025 Core Update Impacted Various Websites
We analyzed multiple sites across various verticals to see how the June 2025 Core Update impacted them. Here was what we found.
1 Affiliate Sites
Affiliate sites generally experienced moderate gains during the June 2025 Core Update. Many saw around 30% improvement in traffic and one, camelcamelcamel.com, saw a 149% increase.
Multiple affiliate sites also lost traffic during the June 2025 Core Update. The losses were somewhat moderate in most cases except in the cases of coupons.com (-73%) and makingsenseofcents.com (-50%).
2 Forum and Discussion Sites
Multiple forums and discussion sites experienced moderate single-digit gains during the update. The exception was Whirlpool forums (+107%) and WordPress forums (+45%).
However, some forums lost considerable traffic due to the update.
3 Food and Recipe Sites
Food and recipe sites saw moderate gains during the update. However, none of them reached 50% traffic growth as seen in multiple other sectors. The highest had a 30% gain, with the second-best gain at 19%.
On the other hand, multiple food and recipe sites lost considerable traffic. The most affected, loveandlemons.com, lost almost half of its traffic at 41%.
4 E-Commerce Sites
E-commerce sites experienced moderate gains and losses during the update. However, in some cases, the gains were substantial, as in the case of walmart.com (14%), which gained almost 10 million additional visits.
The losses in the e-commerce sector were mild, and there were no huge losses.
5 Health and Wellness Sites
Health and wellness sites experienced fluctuations in traffic following the update. The gains were considerable in some instances, with some sites earning up to 500,000 additional visits. 
The losses in the health and wellness niche went from considerable to moderate. The top loser, thebodypro.com, lost 96% of its traffic.
6 Finance and Investing Sites
The June 2025 Core Update benefitted several sites in the finance and investing niche, with multiple sites receiving over 50% more traffic.
Meanwhile, the losses were moderate in most cases, even though the most impacted site, thestreet.com, lost 57% of its traffic.
7 Travel and Hospitality Sites
The effect of the June 2025 moderate on travel and hospitality sites, with the top gains and losses being below 50%. The top site gained 40% traffic.
Meanwhile, the top losing travel and hospitality site lost 36% of its traffic.
8 Real Estate Sites
The June 2025 Core Update largely benefited sites in the real estate niche. The top-gaining site, sothebysrealty.com, saw a 1322% improvement in its traffic, which increased its visits from 720 thousand to 10.3 million.
Multiple other real estate sites saw improvements reaching or exceeding 50%.
Meanwhile, multiple real estate sites saw mild losses in their traffic. The top losing site experienced a 13% decline in its traffic.
9 Legal Sites
Multiple legal sites saw huge improvements with the June 2025 Core Update. Many of them received over 60% more traffic, with the highest gainer receiving 166% more visits.
However, the losses were also considerable. The top losing site, ejitalk.org, lost 88% of its traffic, and several more lost over a fourth of their traffic.
10 Media and Publishing Sites
Multiple media and publishing sites experienced severe volatility during the June 2025 Core Update, with multiple sites gaining and losing traffic as the update continued. At the end, some gained traffic, while others lost it.
The losses in the media and publishing niche were considerable, with many losing over 50% of their traffic. For some sites, such as France24 and Times of Israel, this amounted to over 5 million visits each, while Al Jazeera lost almost 10 million visits.
Previous Core Updates
The June 2025 Core Update is the second core update of 2025 and one of the many core updates that Google has released. Here are some other core updates that we have documented:
- March 2025 Core Update: March 13 – March 27, 2025
- December 2024 Core Update: December 12 – December 18, 2024
- November 2024 Core Update: November 11 – December 5, 2024
- August 2024 Core Update: August 15 – September 3, 2024
- March 2024 Core Update: March 5 – April 19, 2024
- November 2023 Core Update: November 2 – November 28, 2023
- October 2023 Core Update: October 5 – October 19, 2023
- August 2023 Core Update: August 22 – September 7, 2023
- March 2023 Core Update: March 15 – March 28, 2023
- September 2022 Core Update: September 12 – September 26, 2022
- May 2022 Core Update: May 25 – June 9, 2022
- November 2021 Core Update: November 17 – November 30, 2021
- July 2021 Core Update: July 1 – July 12, 2021
- June 2021 Core Update: June 3 – June 12, 2021
What’s Next – Dealing with This Update
The June 2025 Core Update heavily impacted sites that lost traffic to the September 2023 Heavy Content Update. Some of those sites recovered, some from flat zero traffic, while others lost more traffic.
With that said, you should monitor your traffic with Rank Math Analytics to see how it affects your site. If you notice a drop in traffic by the time the update is complete, refer to this video on recovering from a Google algorithm update.
