The third and possibly the last The 2025 main update, the December 2025 main update, is now out and about. It started on December 11, 2025 and was completed approximately 18 days and 2 hours later on December 29, 2025. Google called this update “a regular update designed to display more relevant and satisfying content for searchers of all types of sites.”
This December 2025 major update came after a five-month wait since the previous major update, the June 2025 major update. That June update came a few months after Google’s first major update of 2025, the March 2025 major update.
In the coming days we will collect data on the impact of this update and share some of that data with you in Search Engine Land.
What Google says. Google has updated the Search Status Dashboard to say:
- “Released major update for December 2025. Release may take 3 weeks to complete.”
Google added to LinkedIn:
- “This is a general update designed to put the best, most satisfying content for searchers of all types of sites.”
What we have seen. The first release went down within a few days after the update was announced, especially on December 13, 2025. Then on December 20, we saw another big change. As with all major updates, some sites saw a big drop in visibility, some saw a big improvement and many saw no changes.
I would also recommend watching this video from Glenn Gabe for the December update.
What to do if you get hit. Google hasn’t shared any new guidance specific to the December 2025 major update. However, in the past, Google has provided advice on what to consider if a major update negatively affects your site:
- There are no specific actions you can take to recover. A negative ranking effect may not indicate that there is anything wrong with your pages.
- Google has provided a list of questions to consider when your site is hit with a major update.
- Google said you may see a recovery between major updates, but the biggest change will be after another major update.
In short: write content that is useful to people and not to rank in search engines.
- “There’s nothing new or special creators need to do with this update as long as they’re creating satisfying content for people. For those who may not measure up, we highly encourage reading our helpful, reliable, human content creator help page first,” Google previously said.
For more details on Google’s main updates, you can read Google’s documentation.
Previous major updates. Here’s a timeline and our coverage of the latest major updates:
Why do we care. Now that this major update for December 2025 is done, you can start digging in to see how your clients have been affected. You can review Google’s guidance and continue to improve your site, which will hopefully lead to a better Google ranking in the future. Google releases an important update every few to few months, so you should keep working on improving your site and the content on your site.
I hope you did well with this last Google update and everyone had a great holiday and new year!
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