June 2025 Core Update

If your website traffic spiked or plummeted in early July, you’re likely experiencing the effects of the June 2025 Google Core Update.

Over the last few weeks, Google’s search results shifted significantly, rewarding niche, experience-driven content while shaking up the status quo for some bigger brands.

This update feels particularly impactful - not just because rankings fluctuated dramatically, but because smaller, specialized sites finally reclaimed visibility.

Is your website among the winners, or did you lose ground?

Let's unpack exactly what changed, why Google introduced this update, and how you can recover or protect your rankings moving forward.

Roll-Out Timeline

Google began the June 2025 Core Update rollout at 10:30 am ET on June 30, 2025, and concluded approximately 17 days later on July 17, 2025.

What Google Tried to Fix

Google launched the June 2025 Core Update to further improve the relevance and helpfulness of search results.

It wasn't aimed at penalizing specific SEO practices, but rather refining the algorithm to reward genuinely useful content.

Notably, Google's announcement emphasized surfacing results "from all types of sites," suggesting an intentional push to diversify results beyond large, authoritative brands.

This leveling of the playing field particularly benefited niche, highly specialized sites previously overshadowed by larger, generic sources.

SEO experts, including Marie Haynes, speculate that Google might have implemented MUVERA, a new multi-vector retrieval technology that enhances the algorithm’s understanding of content nuances.

Additionally, some experts observed improved rankings for content displaying genuine firsthand experience, aligning closely with Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) principles.

Ultimately, the update seems designed to better align rankings with content quality and user intent rather than domain authority alone.

Mechanics Under the Hood

Although Google rarely shares detailed specifics of its core algorithm changes, the June update likely incorporated MUVERA technology.

This type of technology allows content matching through multiple context vectors instead of a single dimension.

This shift enabled Google to more accurately interpret queries and content relevance, rewarding smaller niche sites that precisely address search intent.

Additionally, Google's algorithm seemed to recalibrate its Helpful Content classifier, allowing sites unfairly penalized in previous updates to regain visibility.

Our own Ridester site benefitted from this update and saw its rankings and traffic skyrocket once the update was rolled out.

It appears user experience signals, such as fewer intrusive ads and enhanced readability, may have indirectly influenced rankings despite not being explicitly targeted.

What Did This update Impact?

The June 2025 update created significant ranking fluctuations, impacting diverse sectors including e-commerce, health, tech, and entertainment.

• Urban Dictionary gained +278% visibility in the U.S..
• Letterboxd, a niche movie review site, doubled its visibility in the U.S. and UK.
• Shopify surged +84% due to informative blog content.
• Macy’s began outranking smaller brands on generic product queries.
• Zoho’s generic pages lost visibility to specialized SaaS providers.