Post-Update Traffic Trends: Analyzing the Impact of the June 2025 Core Update
In the ever-evolving landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), website owners and digital marketers continuously monitor the effects of algorithm updates on their traffic and rankings. Recently, many have observed notable shifts following the June 2025 Google Core Update, prompting questions about the nature and causes of these changes.
Understanding the Immediate Post-Update Gains
Some sites experienced initial traffic surges immediately after the June 2025 core update. Interestingly, these gains often appeared in pages that hadn’t undergone significant content overhaul—sometimes limited to minor internal linking adjustments and structural improvements. Such early positive signals can suggest that the update favorably “refreshed” certain content categories or site architectures, leading to short-term traffic boosts.
The Recent Downward Trend in Traffic
However, a few weeks into this period, many site owners report a consistent decline in traffic. Specifically, decreased by approximately 20% over the last three weeks, across multiple countries and audience segments. Significantly, this decline is not accompanied by corresponding drops in keyword rankings in tracking tools, indicating a complex interaction between rankings and visibility.
Key Questions Emanating From This Pattern
This pattern raises several important questions:
-
Is the decline related to shifts in search result features?
The increased appearance of AI-generated overviews or snippets could impact traditional organic traffic by providing answers directly on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), reducing click-through rates to actual website pages. -
Are user behaviors evolving toward AI-assisted search?
An increasingly common phenomenon is users preferring to get concise AI-generated summaries for certain queries, potentially diminishing traffic to traditional web pages. -
Is this a natural recalibration by Google?
Post-update periods often involve algorithm adjustments and re-evaluations, which may temporarily affect organic traffic as the index recalibrates.
Possible Causes and Next Steps
While these observations are speculative without concrete data, they align with broader SEO industry discussions about the shifting nature of search results mechanisms. To better understand these patterns, site owners should consider the following:
-
Monitor Search Features:
Keep an eye on search results for your key queries to see if AI features, snippets, or other SERP elements are becoming more prevalent. -
Analyze User Engagement Metrics:
Beyond rankings, look at bounce rates, time on page, and click-through rates to assess how