June 2021 core update: dates, what changed and what to do

What Google changed#

Google SearchLiaison announced the update on X on 2 June 2021: “Later today, we are releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year. It is called the June 2021 Core Update.” In the same thread Google said it would be followed by the July 2021 core update.

Google explained why: “Some of our planned improvements for the June 2021 update aren’t quite ready,” so it moved ahead with the parts that were ready and held the rest for July. Google did not say which improvements were held back. Like every core update, it was a broad change to ranking systems, not a penalty aimed at particular sites.

When it rolled out#

Google SearchLiaison posted later on 2 June 2021 that the update “is now rolling out live,” and that it would take about one to two weeks. On 15 June Google posted that “the June 2021 Core Update rollout is complete as of June 12, 2021.” The Search Status Dashboard did not exist yet, so these posts are the official record.

Two other confirmed updates overlapped the weeks after it: the page experience update began on 15 June, and the first part of the June 2021 spam update ran on 23 June.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no impact figures. It said “most sites won’t notice either of these updates, as is typical with any core updates,” but also warned that “a very small slice of content might see changes in June that reverse in July.” Treat any percentage you see attributed to this update as a third-party estimate.

What site owners should do#

Google’s core ranking systems are still in use, and its current core update guidance says core updates “don’t target specific sites or individual web pages.” The practical steps:

• Wait until the rollout has finished, then at least one more full week.
• Compare a week after the update with a week before it began, not the rollout window.
• Take no drastic action for small drops; for a large, sustained drop, assess the whole site against Google’s helpful content questions.
• Avoid quick fixes, and expect recovery, if it comes, to take months.

How to check whether it affected you#

Search Console keeps 16 months of data, so its reports no longer cover June 2021. Use archived analytics exports and compare the week before 2 June 2021 with the week after 12 June, then check the same pages after the July 2021 core update, since some June changes reversed. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists the overlapping updates of that summer.

Related updates#

• The December 2020 core update was the previous core update.
• The July 2021 core update completed this two-part release.
• The page experience update began three days after it finished.