Google released the December 2025 core update today, the company announced.

This is the third core update of 2025 and the fourth major Google algorithm update overall. Earlier this year, Google rolled out the August 2025 spam update, which followed the June 2025 core update and the March 2025 core update.

What Google is saying. Google updated its Search Status Dashboard to state:

• “Released the December 2025 core update. The rollout may take up to 3 weeks to complete.”

Google added on LinkedIn:

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

About core updates. Core updates roll out several times each year. They introduce broad, significant changes to Google’s search algorithms and systems, which is why Google announces them.

• Google also releases some smaller, unannounced core updates.
• It has been a long time since the last core update. While many expected Google to roll out core updates more frequently, that didn’t happen.

Video on this core update. I made this short video a few hours after publishing this story:

What to do if you are hit. Google did not share any new guidance specific to the December 2025 core update. However, in the past, Google has offered advice on what to consider if a core update negatively impacts your site:

• There aren’t specific actions to take to recover. A negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages.
• Google offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update.
• Google said you can see some recovery between core updates, but the biggest change would be after another core update.

In short: write helpful content for people and not to rank in search engines.

• “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,” Google said previously.

For more details on Google core updates, you can read Google’s documentation.

Previous core updates. Here’s a timeline and our coverage of recent core updates:

• The June 2025 core update was on June 30 and ended on July 17.
• The March 2025 core update was on Mar. 13 and ended on Mar. 27.
• The December 2024 core update was on Dec. 12 and ended on Dec. 18.
• The November 2024 core update was on Nov. 11 and ended on Dec. 5.
• The August 2024 core update was on Aug. 15 and ended on Sept. 3.
• The March 2024 core update was on March 5 and ended on April 19.

Why we care. With any core update, we often see significant volatility in Google search results and rankings. These updates may improve visibility for your site or your clients’ sites, but some may experience fluctuations or even declines in rankings and organic traffic. We hope this update rewards your efforts and drives strong traffic and conversions.

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Google added a new section to the core updates search developer documentation that confirms it releases smaller core updates without announcing those updates. Google has told us this before, but has now added it explicitly to the search documentation.

What is new. Google added this new paragraph:

However, you don’t necessarily have to wait for a major core update to see the effect of your improvements. We’re continually making updates to our search algorithms, including smaller core updates. These updates are not announced because they aren’t widely noticeable, but they are another way that your content can see a rise in position (if you’ve made improvements).

What Google said. Google explained this section was added “To clarify that site owners that make content improvements can see a rise in position in Google Search results without having to wait for the next major core update.”

In fact, Danny Sullivan, the former Google Search Liaison, told us this in August 2019. He said then:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover – assuming improvements have been made – until the next broad core update is released.

However, we’re constantly making updates to our search algorithms, including smaller core updates. We don’t announce all of these because they’re generally not widely noticeable. Still, when released, they can cause content to recover if improvements warrant.

A larger core update is coming soon. Today at the Google Search Central Live event in Zurich, John Mueller from Google said a core update is being worked on and hopes it will be released soon. He added, he would be surprised if it was released within a couple of weeks. But he had nothing to announce.

Why we care. This just confirms what we already know, that Google is often pushing out smaller core updates. But do expect a new core update to come sooner, rather than later. And then, you may see even bigger changes to the search results and its rankings.