The December 2025 Google Update: What It Means for Your Veterinary Practice

If you have noticed some fluctuation in your website traffic or the number of new client inquiries over the last few days, you aren't imagining things.

On 11 December 2025, Google launched a significant update to its search algorithm. For veterinary practices, where local visibility and trust are paramount, updates like this often raise questions.

Think of a Google Core Update like a review of medical protocols. Just as veterinary standards evolve to ensure the best patient care, Google updates its "standards" to ensure it is providing the safest, most helpful answers to pet owners.

Google isn’t punishing your clinic’s website. Instead, it is re-evaluating the entire web to decide which sites demonstrate the most Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). For veterinary sites, this "trust" factor is heavily weighted.

• Launch Date: 11 December 2025.
• The Timeline: Google has indicated a rollout period of up to 3 weeks.
• The Context: This is the third major adjustment of 2025.

Since this rollout began, search results for queries like "emergency vet near me" or "dog vaccination cost" have been in a state of flux. Google is essentially shuffling the deck to see which pages provide the best user experience.

Google’s objective is to reduce "noise" in search results. When a frantic pet owner searches for help, Google wants to ensure they land on a website that is:

1. Local and Relevant: Actually serving the area.
2. Helpful: clearly answers the question without fluff.
3. Trustworthy: Backed by professional knowledge.

Important Note: This update targets the entire internet, not just the veterinary industry. However, because veterinary websites fall under the "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL) category, Google scrutinises content quality more strictly than it does for other industries.

During this 3-week rollout window, it is standard to see:

• Map Pack Volatility: Your clinic's position in the "Local Map" (the top 3 map results) may bounce around.
• Ranking Swaps: You might rank #1 for "cat dentistry" one day and #3 the next.
• Competitor Movement: You may see other local clinics moving up or down as the system recalibrates.

This volatility is temporary and is simply the algorithm testing different results to see how users interact with them.

If you see a temporary drop, please do not panic. It does not mean your site is broken; it means Google is testing other pages that it thinks might answer a specific question slightly better at this moment.

How to handle this:

• Hold Steady: Making major changes to your website while an update is rolling out is like changing a treatment plan before the diagnosis is confirmed. We recommend waiting for the dust to settle.
• Focus on Client Care: The best SEO strategy for vets is to ensure your service pages are helpful, clear, and easy to navigate for pet owners trying to book an appointment, along with strong FAQs on these key pages.

We expect the algorithm to finish its rollout by the end of December. Once the volatility stops, we will have a clear baseline of where things stand and can make data-backed adjustments if necessary for our existing SEO clients, and advise others what to do.

We are keeping a close eye on local rankings for our Vets. However, you know your inquiry volume better than anyone.  Although timing over Christmas break, can influence changes as well.

If you notice anything major and would like our assistance, please reach out if you want to have a talk about changes happening to you with your local search results.