The December 2025 Google Core Update Is Complete: What Does It All Mean?

When a Google core update is being rolled out, digital marketers everywhere eagerly wait to see what impact it will have on their traffic, rankings, and overall visibility. The third and final core update of 2025 started on December 11, 2025, and was completed 18 days later on December 29, 2025. It follows earlier core updates in March and June. It aims to continue the search engine giant’s commitment to ensuring that users get the most relevant answers to their queries, whether that’s in traditional results, featured snippets, or people also askThe People Also Ask (PAA) SERP feature is a Google Search feature that displays similar questions to the one you typed into the search box..

At the rollout, Google said the update could take 3 weeks to complete, but it was done and dusted sooner. In SEO, core updates are big news when they happen because they can reshape visibility, traffic, and rankings for better or worse. It’s not uncommon for websites to experience some temporary fluctuations during rollouts. Of course, you’ll want to know what the now complete December 2025 Google Core Update means for your SEO strategy, so this helpful guide is here with everything you need to know about it.

What Are Core Updates?

In short, core updates are designed to improve the quality and relevance of search results. They aim to show users better results by assessing content on websites. They bring about big changes to Google’s algorithms and systems, which is why Google always announces them. The stuff that is helpful gets rewarded, and low-quality content that has only been produced to manipulate search engines may get downgraded. Every year, Google rolls out a few core updates, and any negative changes in your rankings or traffic that last after they’re complete could point towards problems with your content, so it’s important to make sure what you’re producing is up to scratch.

What Did The December 2025 Core Google Core Update Focus On?

Just like previous core updates, the December 2025 core update aimed to improve results for users. To do this, the update affected all types of websites.

On LinkedIn, Google confirmed:

“This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”  

Why Is The Update Important?

Core updates are important because they highlight Google’s commitment to making sure users get helpful search results. It’s a big reminder to website owners that it’s crucial to get the basics right.

How Did The Update Impact Rankings?

The December core update was just a regular core update. However, there were volatility spikes on December 13 and December 20, which indicate where Google made the most changes. Afterwards, volatility calmed down to normal levels. This suggests that for most websites, any fluctuations in rankings or traffic were temporary.

What To Do If Your Website Has Taken A Hit

Some volatility during core updates is to be expected, but Google didn’t release any new advice about dealing with the December core update. However, it has said before that:

“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.”

So, it seems that sticking to solid SEO basics is the best way to get through core updates largely unscathed. We’ve put together our top tips for helping to stabilise or improve your rankings after a core update:

1. E-E-A-T

Google uses E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) to measure the value of content on a website. Making sure that your content meets this criteria is a certified way to maintain or even improve your position in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

This is even more important at a time when AI is being used to create content. AI bots don’t have human characteristics like empathy, nor can they learn from experience like humans do when learning a new skill or performing certain tasks. While they can excel in some areas of E-E-A-T, they lack massively when it comes to being able to demonstrate experience.

To make sure that your content helps you stay ahead of the game, you need to make sure that it includes elements that tick all of the E-E-A-T boxes and signal your experience, which will demonstrate to search engines and users that your content can be trusted.

2. High-Quality Content

We say it a lot because it’s true! If you want to keep Google happy, you need to be producing high-quality content. Content that’s well-written and brings value to the reader will only ever do good things for your online visibility. As well as ensuring your content is of the best quality, you need to also make sure that it’s authentic. If you’re thinking about loading up your content through keyword stuffingKeyword stuffing is a technique that attempts to give pages higher rankings in search engine result pages by inserting the same keywords over and over again., don’t. Keywords need to be used carefully and naturally placed within your content. If you’re using AI writing tools to assist content creation, be sure to put your own unique spin on content to get that authenticity.

You also need to publish top-quality, well-researched content consistently. Regularly publishing new content helps signal to Google that you are an authority within your niche.

3. User-First, Answer-First Content

As well as writing quality content, you also need to make sure your content is fully aligned with what users want to know and that it answers their questions. Pay special attention to search intent and produce content that fulfils this. This involves looking at the type of content that ranks highly for specific keywords and phrases. If you notice that step-by-step guides rank well for particular keywords, there’s not much point in you writing content that’s massively different from this, as it’s not what users or Google want to see.

Let Us Help You

If you’re worried about the impact of core updates on your website, then our team of SEO experts is on hand to help you maintain and improve your rankings. With more than 2 decades worth of experience under our team’s belts, we’ve got the knowledge and skills to help your website get to where you want it to be. Book a call today to find out how we can help you.