Now that the Google December 2025 core update is officially done, some are looking at the damage it caused. A number of very visible news publishers saw some significant declines in Google Search visibility with this latest core update.
Will Flannigan the Senior SEO Editor for The Wall Street Journal posted on LinkedIn, "The latest Google Core Algorithm Update walloped India-based news publishers on U.S. SERPS, according to Sistrix visibility data." Here is the chart he posted:
But it wasn't just news publishers from India. Glenn Gabe commented "There was a ton of volatility with news publishers with the December broad core update. And it's not just India-based publishers... it's news publishers across many countries (including a number of large publishers here in the US dropping or surging heavily)."
He actually published this back on December 19th on X saying, "I'm seeing a number of news publishers with heavy impact. I have also had several publishers reach out over the past few days explaining the volatility they are seeing (and across surfaces like Discover, Google News, Top Stories, and the News tab in Search)."
He shared a number of charts showing both big increases and big decreases for various news publishers:
"Core Updates Notes" cont'd for 12/19: Beyond the health and medical volatility, I'm seeing a number of news publishers with heavy impact. I have also had several publishers reach out over the past few days explaining the volatility they are seeing (and across surfaces like… pic.twitter.com/274aLCsRBO
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 19, 2025
But who knows if these publishers will bounce back on some level in the following weeks of more tremors?
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
