Google announced the Google December 2025 core update on Thursday afternoon, December 11th, and it already has a significant impact on Google Search results. The most noticeable day of the impact was Saturday, December 13th, but there are plenty of signs it started to hit hard on Friday, December 12th.
As a reminder, Google officially announced this core update on December 11th at around 12:25 pm ET. Google said this update will take up to three weeks to roll out. Google also said, this update "is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites."
Generally, but not always, we start to see ranking movement from these updates a day or two after it is announced and this update seems to show that. Then generally, we see another big shift with these updates a week or two into the update. Then we may see smaller or sometimes even bigger shuffled throughout and even after the core update was announced done - maybe smaller core updates and adjustments.
Keep in mind, the Google Search Console reporting is still delayed making it a big harder for some to track.
So, what are we seeing with the Google December 2025 core update?
SEO Chatter On The December 2025 Core Update
Let's start with what I see the SEO community talking about after the core update was announced. I am pulling these from WebmasterWorld, Black Hat World and our site:
Where is the traffic? What is happening?
So for today: travel site zero affiliate sales, niche-niche-niche site: one good lead/ sale. Traffic on the travel site: worse than ever, and as said, none are converting. Rien ne va plus, guys :D. I think my frustration now will reach a turning point, becoming funny cynicism.
My keyword rankings are fluctuating a lot right now. A site that was on the first page dropped to the fifth page, but when I search again it shows up on the first page. The rankings are also different between mobile and PC. Why is this happening? When will it stabilize? Has a penalty been applied?
I’m noticing some changes already. A few well-optimized pages went up, and some older ones dropped a little. It looks like Google is focusing more on content quality and intent match. Still early in the rollout, so things may shift more in the next weeks.
My positions have decreased significantly. I don't get discouraged and just keep working. If you pay attention to your positions every time, you'll go crazy.
Seeing mixed results so far some pages up slightly, others volatile. Too early to draw conclusions until the rollout fully settles.
Seeing a bit of an uplift on my main site. Rankings on the core terms are bouncing around quite a lot though. Too early to say what’s really going on, but there’s definitely movement.
Merry Christmas everyone, 8% down every day crazy.
Has anyone seen zero traffic from Google Discover in the last 24 hours?
Mine hasn't completely disappeared yet, but it dropped by 98% in the days leading up to this update being announced.
My website dropped to 4th page after being in top 3 for like 4 years, I have seen many updates but 4 years of content designed for user experience is nothing to google but a Google site with an image and a silly link to an ad seems to be better than mine. Thats cool.
Consistently ranked top 1-3 on most of my relevant keywords for 2-3 years, now i'm on the 2nd page all of a sudden. Feels like a bad joke by Google
Lost all ranking overnight :( website with an age of over 10 years. Never used AI. Gone.
Update: Glenn Gabe shared some charts showing the early impact as well:
Google Morning Google Land! This is the 12/14 edition of "Core Update Notes". As expected, the update is landing, and in a big way for some sites already. I'm seeing big swings in search visibility based on running the numbers for over 3K sites previously impacted by major… pic.twitter.com/upQT4tNVbh
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 14, 2025
Google Tracking Tools On December 2025 Core Update
You can see that many of the tools started to heat up this weekend:
Wiredboard's Aggregator of Tools - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:
And it is just the weekend, I suspect a lot more SEOs will pick up on these changes when they get into the office on Monday morning.
What are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
