June 2025 Core Update: Key Themes for Healthcare, Biotech and Pharma SEO

AI-First Indexing: GEO & AEO Matter More Than Ever

The June 2025 Google Core update strengthens the importance of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). In plain terms, Google increasingly summarises answers using AI models, drawing from semantically structured content (your site content). I have been pushing clients for the past 12 months to ensure clear FAQs, How-Tos, and authoritative information are featured on their websites. Now you are more likely to be cited by:

• Google Gemini AI Overviews
• Bing Copilot answers
• ChatGPT’s Browse + SGE tools (You may have seen recent talk from me about ChatGPT using not only Bong but Google now)

This is critical for biotech and health brands. Being quoted accurately in an AI-generated answer could replace a traditional SERP ranking, or worse, lead to misinformation if you’re absent.

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2. UK recovery patterns: Quality wins

From our audits and industry tools, we’re seeing encouraging signs for UK sites that have the following:

• Have human-authored, expert-reviewed content
• Using schema markup for medical or legal disclaimers, FAQs, and authorship
• Maintain transparent sourcing with high editorial standards

NHS-linked domains, clinical trial directories, pharma learning hubs, and accredited patient resources are regaining positions lost in the March 2024 update. If a previous core update hit your content and you’ve since invested in improving E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) with SEOBurf, you may see the beginning of a traffic rebound. Clients who have worked with me over the past few years will have heard me say numerous times the importance of this. 

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3. Content that’s struggling in the UK

• On the other hand, we’ve also noted drops in sites that:
• Rely on AI-generated or templated copy with minimal human review
• Have thin product or treatment pages without deep educational content
• Use generic health claims or unbacked comparisons (especially in supplements and wellness)

This is particularly relevant in nutraceuticals, biotech, and pharma, where product pages without rich contextual content have seen 20 to 40% traffic dips in early tracking.

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Sector Impact Highlights

Sector	Visibility Trend	Notes
Pharma/Clinical	▲ Improving	Especially where authorship, schema, and PDF summaries are used effectively
Biotech	◼️ Mixed	High-trust sites gain; smaller players drop without authority signals
Healthcare	▼ Declining	Thin treatment pages, AI content, or “alternative” claims penalised

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Local UK Factors

Google’s AI models increasingly pull from .co.uk domains in AI Overviews but only if the content is structured well and deemed trustworthy.
In our tests, UK biotech firms that published:

• Named medical contributors
• FAQ schemas around treatments
• Author bios with credentials

…were more likely to appear in Gemini and Bing Copilot summaries.

Local SEO hasn’t been spared either; health clinics and private providers without well-structured content and Google Business optimisation have lost visibility in map results and organic queries.

What Should You Do Now?

1. Audit Your Top Pages for AI Visibility
   Check: Do your key product/service pages have clear headings, FAQs, schema, and a logical content hierarchy? If not, you may be invisible to AI Overviews.

2. Implement Medical Schema Where Applicable
   Use MedicalEntity, FAQPage, and Author schema to help Google properly index your health-related content.

3. Prioritise Author Experience & Accreditation
   In sectors like pharma, every article or guide should include a credentialed author with a bio and external citations.

4. Monitor Zero-Click Behaviour
   Watch for rising impressions but falling clicks. This is often a sign that your content is used in AI answers, but users don’t need to visit your site.

5. Don’t Panic, Wait Out the Full Rollout
   This update is still rolling out (through mid-July 2025). Avoid significant structural changes until the dust settles, but prepare your roadmap now.

 

What are the differences between the US and the UK/Europe? 

 

The June 2025 Google Core Update affected sectors in both the UK and the US, but the impact has differed in a few key ways due to differences in:

• Content regulation

• Authority bias

• AI training sets

• User behaviour and SERP layouts

Here’s a detailed comparison for healthcare, biotech, pharma, and related sectors:

UK vs US. June 2025 Core Update Sector Comparison

Sector	UK Impact	US Impact	Why This Difference?
Healthcare (NHS-linked)	✅ Positive NHS-affiliated, gov.uk, and accredited sites saw recovery	⚠️ Mixed some gains, but fragmented due to high competition and AI answers	UK’s centralised trust (e.g. NHS) boosts E-E-A-T recognition
Private Healthcare / Clinics	⚠️ Volatile local SEO fluctuation, weaker trust signals penalised	⚠️ Similar YMYL content hits hard if no clear credentials	Both markets punish thin/poorly attributed content
Biotech	◼️ Mixed B2B & academic firms stable, smaller DTC players dropped	✅ Positive US firms with strong PR & backlinks gained	US biotech dominates authority signals & linking structure
Pharma (corporate)	✅ Improving especially sites with structured clinical content	✅ Improving but also more AI answers replacing clicks	AI pulls from FDA, Mayo, pharma.org; structured schema helps both
Nutraceuticals / Supplements	❌ Negative “natural health” & alt-med sites heavily penalised	❌ Worse affiliate supplement sites saw 40 to 60% traffic loss	Both markets are cracking down on unverified health claims
Health News / Blogs	⚠️ Volatile general health sites see visibility decline	❌ Negative significant loss to AI Overviews & zero-click answers	AI models now summarise content directly from trusted sources

Key Reasons for UK/US Differences

Authority & Trust Signals

• UK health search strongly favours .nhs.uk, .gov.uk, academic sites, and regulated pharma brands.

• US content competes with broader commercial networks, but also benefits from strong backlinks and larger content ecosystems.

LLM Training Bias

• Google’s AI Overviews (and other LLMs like Gemini) seem to prefer US-based content for general knowledge and medical queries.

• UK content often appears only when the schema is clean and E-E-A-T signals are explicit.

SERP Layouts

• US search results now show more AI answers and rich features (e.g., “Perspectives,” “Ask Gemini” cards).

• UK SERPs still include more traditional organic links and fewer fully AI-dominated results.

Search Intent Differences

• UK searchers favour institutional advice (NHS, NICE, GOV.UK).

• US users often lean toward forums, YouTube, and commercial sites, creating more volatility when AI pulls summaries instead of sending clicks.

Regulatory Context

• UK brands must adhere to MHRA, ASA, and NHS guidelines, creating more consistent health content.

• The US allows more latitude in marketing claims (especially supplements), but updates now penalise or prohibit unverified assertions.

   

Strategy Implications

For UK SEO (Biotech/Health):

• Double down on author attribution, FAQ schema, and structured clinical content

• Use .gov.uk or .nhs.uk citations wherever possible

• Monitor AI Overview pull-ins with UK-specific queries

For US SEO:

• Prioritise backlinks, branded search, and authority clusters

• Protect against zero-click erosion by creating AI-citable paragraphs

• Clean up affiliate and product comparison pages, many are no longer viable

Why Choose SEOBurf?

We don’t just check boxes, we build SEO systems that scale with your business.
Our SEO work lays the groundwork for long-term success, giving Google every reason to rank your pages above the competition.

Book a Free Onsite SEO Audit and stay ahead of the competition.

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Frequently asked questions