What Happened with Google Rankings Over the Last Few Months?

September 23, 2025 3 min read
If you’ve felt like your dealership’s search visibility has been on shaky ground lately, you’re not alone. Since the June Core Update, Google has unleashed another tidal wave of ranking demotions—once again hitting hard on the usual suspects:
  • Vendor landing pages designed more for sales than substance
  • Aged content that’s been collecting digital dust for years
  • Templated landing experiences passed off as “SEO”
Sound familiar? These patterns aren’t new. They’re the same weak spots that Google has been cracking down on for years. What is new is the pace and intensity of these updates. For dealerships, this means what was once a “good enough” digital content strategy may now be a liability.

Why This Time Feels Different

Beyond the content shakeups, Google quietly removed the 100 results per page threshold. This seemingly small technical change has sent ripples through the SEO ecosystem, especially for third-party rank tracking tools. When the foundation shifts, the metrics you’ve been relying on to track your performance can look skewed, sparking confusion (and plenty of chatter) across the industry.For dealerships and agencies, the takeaway isn’t just that “rankings look weird right now.” It’s that Google is making structural changes aimed at surfacing truly helpful content—and exposing shortcuts and filler content at scale.

The Helpful Content Compass

If you’re already creating regular, high-quality content with a consistent publishing cadence, there’s no reason to panic. In fact, over the past two years, we’ve seen dealerships with a disciplined, customer-focused content strategy weather these storms with flying colors.
The winning formula isn’t a secret. It’s about:
  • Replacing outdated “SEO filler” pages with genuinely helpful answers
  • Building new content around customer intent, not keyword stuffing
  • Keeping freshness alive with steady, relevant publishing
  • Structuring landing pages for real usability, not just crawlers

This isn’t just Google’s preference—it’s also what AI-driven search engines are rewarding. The engines have gotten frighteningly good at distinguishing between helpful and hollow.

Why Mid- to Late-Adopters Should Worry

For those still leaning on the old guard approach, the warning signs are flashing red. Every month that goes by without course correction is another month where your visibility erodes, your competitors pull ahead, and your customers get conditioned to expect better experiences elsewhere.It’s no exaggeration: the pain is just beginning for those unwilling to change course.
Think about the dealership across town that’s already embracing content aligned with real customer questions, service transparency, and local authority. When the next update rolls through (and it will), who do you think Google will showcase?

Key Takeaways for Dealerships and Agencies

  1. Stop treating content like a checkbox. SEO is no longer a game of volume—it’s about depth, quality, and intent.
  2. Audit your digital shelf. Identify stale, underperforming, or templated content and replace it before Google does the job for you.
  3. Build a consistent publishing cadence. This isn’t about flooding your site; it’s about staying relevant and fresh in the eyes of both search engines and customers.
  4. Think beyond Google. AI-driven discovery tools are already influencing customer behavior. The content you create today needs to hold up in a multimodal, AI-assisted search future.
  5. Value matters more than vanity. Don’t chase rank trackers—chase customer trust and usability.

The Bigger Picture

We’re in the middle of a paradigm shift. Google is accelerating its push for a “helpful content ecosystem” and punishing anything that looks like a shortcut. AI-driven search is amplifying the effect. Dealerships and agencies that double down on meaningful, customer-first content will thrive. Those who don’t will fade into the algorithmic background.The playbook is simple, but not easy: lead with value, stay consistent, and always align content with what your customers actually care about.
Because in this new landscape, helpful isn’t just rewarded—it’s required.

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