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June 2025 Core Update by Google Brings Hope with Partial HCU Recoveries

It’s been ten days since Google began rolling out its June 2025 update, and it looks like it’ll take about ten more days to fully finish. So far, some websites that were hit by earlier updates—especially the helpful content update—are starting to show small signs of recovery.
Just to recap, this update started on June 30th around 10:37 AM ET. Things stayed quiet until July 2nd, but now we’re starting to hear more talk about websites bouncing back a bit.
Glenn Gabe has been sharing some charts on X showing websites that are starting to recover. He mentioned, “Starting on July 6th, I’m seeing several websites that were hit hard by the September update begin to bounce back. It’s still early, and they haven’t fully returned to their previous levels, but the improvement is a good sign.”
He also said that some website owners have noticed useful features returning, like rich results, featured snippets, and better visibility in search results. Glenn plans to share more details soon.
Here are some of the charts he posted:

That said, not all websites are recovering—far from it. Many are still struggling, with some losing a lot of visibility on Google Search. But it’s worth noting that a few sites that were hit hard by past updates are now showing signs of improvement, possibly for the first time.

It’s especially rare to see sites affected by the September 2023 helpful content update bounce back. While a few have shown some progress, it’s still uncommon. Google has said that recovery is possible if certain changes are made, but it doesn’t happen often.

Also, search rankings have become more unstable in the past 24 hours, which suggests that the update is still actively rolling out.

Some users on WebmasterWorld are also starting to see positive changes with this update.

“”I hesitate as I type this however my traffic yesterday and today seems to be relatively “normal” and especially so for this time of year, fingers crossed.””

“”My news page is recovering, Discover traffic is returning, and the ranking has improved overall. So, we’ve made it through the first week, but we still have two weeks of updates to go.””

“”I’m finally seeing specialized websites starting to climb back up in search rankings. These are sites that actually have expertise, not just ones ranking because of their name or user-generated content (UGC). It’s a positive shift — real knowledge is being rewarded again.

That said, we’re still in the middle of the update, and even though some sites are seeing better rankings, getting more traffic won’t be easy. Features like AI Overviews (AIO), People Also Ask (PAA), YouTube, and Reddit are still taking up a lot of space in search results.

AIO in particular feels like it’s really hurting the open web — making it even harder for quality websites to get the visibility they deserve.””

And then there are some comments on my last post about some recoveries:

“”I am seeing strong recovery signs.””

“”My traffic went up when the update started, but now its back to the same level it was before the update.””

“”I’m 16% up in PV, still 60% down from last year””

“”I had a 40% increase in my visits from Google so far. Now I have something like 55% of the visits I used to have before HCU…””

“”I got a boost from Google this morning… But you know, will it last? I’m also seeing positive results, like my rich results are back (from 09/2023) and some things like that… … and I’m working at my “full human capacity” (literally) this whole time…””

So that’s a quick look at what people in the community are seeing so far when it comes to recoveries or partial recoveries.

Google Tracking Tools & June 2025 Core Update

I also wanted to share an update on what the various Google tracking tools are showing. Based on the data, it looks like search result volatility spiked in the last 24 hours, suggesting the update is still actively rolling out and causing noticeable shifts.

Semrush: