Google announced the December 2025 core update on 11th Dec. It marked the update complete on the Search Status Dashboard on 29th Dec 2025, after 18 days and 2 hours.
Google said the rollout "may take up to 3 weeks", and it nearly used all of them.
It was the third and final core update of 2025, following the March and June core updates.
As a broad core update, it reassessed content quality in general rather than targeting one thing. There was nothing specific to fix, and no penalty to lift.
Its timing drew attention because the rollout covered the peak holiday shopping weeks. Google had historically avoided major ranking changes in that period.
If your site moved in the 11th to 29th Dec window, Google's standing guidance for core updates applies. Audit the pages that lost rankings against the self-assessment questions in the core updates help pages.
Invest in overall helpfulness. Meaningful recovery typically shows up at a future core update.
Our recovery guide covers the sequence.
