It's been more than two weeks since the latest Google core update, which started rolling out on June 30, 2025. It takes weeks to complete. However, some of the news publishers are negatively impacted, seeing a ranking fluctuation in traffic across their sites.
We are receiving growing concerns from our clients regarding the volatility in traffic, and concerns about the dip in rankings.
At Quintype, we decided to analyse the fluctuation in traffic, help website owners understand core updates and how to assess or improve their content in terms of search engine guidelines. This blog discusses how our clients' traffic was impacted and explores the possibilities of recovering their Google ranking.
Core updates aim to deliver helpful and reliable results across the web for searchers, and most sites do not need to worry or may not notice when a core update happens.
Google makes several broad core updates to its search algorithms and systems each year, affecting Google search ranking and potentially impacting site traffic and page rankings. Many sites were affected in the previous core updates and lost ranking in Google search results.
Google’s search algorithms are complex, and core updates are broad. It does not target specific sites or individual pages, but rather reassesses and updates systems as web content changes over time. The November core update and the March core updates also took weeks to complete.
June 2025 core update, which began rolling out on June 30th and is expected to finish in about 20 days, and the March 2025 core update, which started on March 13 and completed on March 27, 2025.
Why the Google core update?
The Google algorithm updates are designed to reduce spammy content in Google search results and improve Google’s ranking integrity, with a focus on link spam and affiliate content.
There are various types of algorithm updates, including core updates, helpful content updates, and experience updates, each designed to improve search results and user experience.
The page experience update aims to improve the overall user experience of a website, with a focus on a page-level basis and user satisfaction.
The helpful content update focuses on promoting high-quality content and reducing low-quality content, with an emphasis on people-first content and user experience.
Site reputation abuse policy and December spam update are also crucial in maintaining the quality of search results.
During the rollout of the June 2025 Google core update, we observed noticeable fluctuations in traffic and rankings across multiple publishers. This update, heavily anchored in quality content, user experience, and AI-powered content evaluation, has impacted websites in different ways.
After analyzing traffic patterns across our publisher network, we identified three distinct trends:
1. Some publishers experienced a sharp and consistent drop in traffic starting June 30, indicating a significant negative impact from the update.
Pages that ranked well due to historic authority but now lack depth or freshness may have been devalued. Over-optimised SEO can be another reason. Content with excessive keyword targeting, fluff, or weak topical value is getting filtered by Google's quality systems. Lack of proper EEAT and heavy reliance on AI-generated content can also be a cause for the traffic dip.
2. Some publishers saw high volatility in traffic, with sharp dips followed by gradual signs of recovery, suggesting partial alignment with Google's evolving quality signals.
This may be due to sites that were previously impacted by the Helpful Content update or earlier core updates and have since made genuine improvements now experiencing partial recovery.
Here, some articles may be stellar, but the overall site lacks strong internal structure or cohesive expertise.
For this group, pages might still rank, drop, then bounce back as Google's systems test which results match user intent best.
These publishers can also investigate technical issues, UX problems, or inconsistent quality signals (such as weak authorship) that might cause erratic behaviour during the rollout.
3. A third group remained largely unaffected, maintaining stable performance despite typical fluctuations, implying a level of resilience during algorithmic shifts.
These publishers focus on reader-first content that solves specific problems, regularly updated and aligned with user search intent. When we look into their articles, they have clear bylines, expert authors, structured citations, and a reputation for trustworthiness in their niche.
We can also assume that, their technical side is also good. Fast loading, mobile-optimized, well-organized sites that meet Core Web Vitals benchmarks. Also, these sites aren’t relying on thin pages, AI spam, or shady link building.
Google provides various tracking tools, including Google Search Console and Google Analytics, to help site owners monitor their website’s performance and track changes in search rankings and organic traffic.
Site owners can use GSC or GA tools to track the impact of core updates on their website, with a focus on search rankings, organic traffic, and user experience.
Track your rankings, snippet results, and traffic. If you notice a drop in your ranking, refresh your content and rephrase it in a solution-centric manner. Add expert insights and credible sources to improve the EEAT score. Let's add more.
You can pull up Google Search Console and look at the data calmly. What pages dropped? What keywords lost impressions? Was the drop sudden or gradual?
This phase is about understanding the pattern. One of your articles dropped from position #2 to #4? That’s normal volatility. But if it fell from #2 to #29, something’s off, and you have to check the reason..
It's not relevant to update all the pages, especially those that have been ranking well for years. Just because a page worked in 2023 doesn’t mean it holds up today.
Check;
Is this page still relevant and up-to-date?
Is it the best result for that query, or just good enough?
Does it provide original insights, or just rewrite what’s already out there?
Google wants helpful, people-first content. If your content exists to chase keywords rather than solve problems, the algorithm knows.
Google is increasingly rewarding content that reflects first-hand experience, not just second-hand summaries.
If you are a publisher writing about health, show medical reviewers. Writing about tech? Add expert bylines, citations, and updated analysis.
If your site is slow, even with excellent content, a messy design, or is mobile-unfriendly, you are shooting yourself in the foot.
Check:
Core Web Vitals
Mobile usability
Crawl errors
Internal linking depth
Page load times
Every small fix here compounds into a smoother user experience.
One of the most effective ways to recover from a core update is to show Google you are committed to quality moving forward.
So:
Start a new content cluster around a rising topic
Answer long-tail questions your audience is asking
Add rich media (images, videos, data visualizations)
Ensure every post has depth, purpose, and value
Think of your following 10 articles as your future recovery.
If you are noticing fluctuations or a gradual decline in your website traffic, you are not alone , many publishers experience this during core update rollouts.
The best first step is to monitor the changes, analyze keyword rankings, and wait for the update to fully roll out before making adjustments. Once things stabilize, you can focus on enhancing content quality and addressing any technical issues.
Need help regaining lost traffic or growing your reader base? Schedule a demo with us to learn how we can support your publishing goals.