Core update Confirmed
December 2025 core update
18 days of rollout. A curiosity: the biggest spikes fell on Saturdays, 13 and 20 December.
Google updates
Google algorithm updates 2025.
What Google changed in Search in 2025: announced updates, volatility nobody officially confirmed, and new features that changed how results look.
Data last updated:
- core updates in 2025
- 3
- spam updates in 2025
- 1
- average core rollout
- 16 days
- unconfirmed volatility periods
- 5
How to read this page
Google tweaks search almost every day, but only announces the bigger changes. That is why entries come in three kinds:
- Confirmed updateGoogle announced that it is changing how it ranks pages and said when the rollout started and ended. The most common reason for sudden traffic changes.
- Unannounced volatilityRankings clearly moved, but Google said nothing. It shows up in rank tracking tools and in reports from site owners.
- Search changeA new feature or a different look of the results page, such as AI answers above the links. Rankings can stay the same while clicks still change.
What 2025 looked like
In 2025 Google announced 3 core updates and 1 spam update. The longest rollout was the August 2025 spam update, at 27 days.
On paper a calm year: three core updates (March, June, December) and one spam update. Except that one, in August, dragged on for 27 days and is the longest spam update in this entire timeline.
More important than the updates was how results changed. On 26 March AI Overviews arrived in Poland. In May AI Mode rolled out to everyone in the US, and in October to Poland. In September Google turned off the &num=100 parameter, and overnight data in SEO tools and impression counts in Search Console changed. Many people read it as a visibility drop, even though traffic stayed the same.
Rankings kept moving between announcements anyway: in May, at the turn of July and August, and in mid-October.
2025 timeline.
The longer the segment, the longer the rollout. Click a month to see what happened in it.
- Core updates
- Discover core
- Spam updates
- Other confirmed
- Unconfirmed volatility
- Search change
2025
January 2025
February 2025 Nothing happened this month.
March 2025
April 2025 Nothing happened this month.
June 2025
September 2025
October 2025
November 2025 Nothing happened this month.
December 2025
Updates in 2025.
-
- Volatility Not confirmed by Google
Mid-October ranking volatility
A few days of volatility, peaking on 16 October.
- Search change Announced
AI Mode in Poland
AI Mode started reaching users in Poland.
- Search change Announced
End of the &num=100 parameter
Google turned off showing 100 results per page. SEO tools had to change how they collect data, and impressions dropped in Search Console.
- Spam update Confirmed
August 2025 spam update
27 days, the longest spam update in this entire timeline. The first effects showed within a day.
- Volatility Not confirmed by Google
Volatility after the June 2025 core update
Two weeks after the core update ended, things heated up again. No comment from Google.
- Core update Confirmed
June 2025 core update
About 17 days of rollout. It was felt most strongly in mid-July.
- Volatility Not confirmed by Google
Indexing problems
Pages dropped out of the index and new ones got stuck as crawled but not indexed. Lots of nervous forum threads.
- Volatility Not confirmed by Google
Ranking volatility during Google I/O
Another spike after a series of smaller ones in April and May. It coincided with Google I/O, but nothing suggests a link.
- Search change Announced
AI Mode launch in the US
Conversational AI search rolled out to all users in the US.
- Search change Announced
AI Overviews in Poland
AI Overviews appeared in Polish results. For many informational sites, this marked the start of falling clicks at stable rankings.
- Core update Confirmed
March 2025 core update
Two weeks announced, delivered to the day. A rare occurrence.
- Volatility Not confirmed by Google
Local results volatility
Businesses dropped out of local results and often came back within hours. It looked more like a bug than an intended change.
Nothing matches this filter.
Where to follow updates.
I always start with Google's own sources. I read industry sites to know what happens between official announcements.
Official Google sources
- Google Search Status Dashboard The official list of updates and incidents with start and end times. Every traffic drop analysis I do starts here.
- Google Search Central Blog Where Google announces bigger changes and new policies, often with more context than the dashboard.
- Core updates guidance The questions Google tells you to ask yourself when a site loses after a core update.
- Spam policies The full list of practices that can cost you visibility or lead to a manual action.
- Q&A on Search updates A 2023 Google post that explains well how updates work and how often they happen.
Industry sources
- Search Engine Roundtable Barry Schwartz covers volatility almost daily, including changes Google never confirmed.
- Search Engine Journal A history of updates with links to articles about each one.
- Search Engine Land Rollout coverage and solid yearly reviews.
- Rank Math An update list where unconfirmed periods are clearly marked.
Archive.
Other years.
Google updates 2025 questions.
How many Google core updates were there in 2025?
In 2025 Google confirmed 3 core updates: March 2025 core update (13-27 March), June 2025 core update (30 June - 17 July) and December 2025 core update (11-29 December).
Which Google update lasted longest in 2025?
The August 2025 spam update, which took 27 days to roll out (26 August - 22 September).
Traffic drop after an update?.
Give me access to Search Console. I will compare your data with update dates and tell you plainly what likely happened and where to start.
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