Google’s March 2025 Core Update Ends on Time

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Google announced today that the March 2025 core update has officially finished rolling out. The update began on March 13 and ended exactly two weeks later on March 27 at 05:34 PDT, triggering search volatility and ranking shifts across the web during this time.

Below, I’ve shared what we know since the core update’s end, with reactions from the SEO community to highlight the important changes.

Impact of the Core Update

The March 2025 core update aimed to surface better, more relevant content in search results. As of today, the algorithm update has caused a few notable shifts in the search landscape:

  • Search volatility across industries – The core update impacted a wide range of businesses and website types, including online stores and content publishers.
  • Reevaluation of forum content – SEO professionals have flagged the decline of forum content in SERPs since the update started rolling out. However, Glenn Gabe spotted that Reddit continues to perform well, but other forum sites have lost visibility.
  • Unhelpful content targeted – Sites that have been writing content with Google in mind, instead of their readers, have dropped in the SERPs.

Website owners, businesses, and the SEO community are assessing the core update’s impact, with many seeing dramatic changes to visibility. I’ve gathered a few initial thoughts from the experts.

Glenn Gabe commented on the core update’s completion on X:

“OK, it’s done. There was a ton of movement with the March core update, which I’ve been documenting in my “Core Update Notes”. And I also just shared about Reddit’s AI translations, which have surged. And based on forums dropping overall, I called it the “Hiding Gems” update versus “Hidden gems” update… Other than Reddit of course. :)”

X profile, Goog Enough, which highlights Google Search’s mistakes, reacted to Reddit’s growth:

“If you thought Google’s Reddit problem was bad before, the March 2025 core update is making it much worse. Reddit’s organic page count has gone up by about 26% since the update began on March 13, according to Ahrefs data. Enjoy even more SERP clutter, spam and archived posts!”

What Can Your Business Do Now?

Now that the March 2025 core update is complete, it’s important to review the impact on your site’s rankings and visibility.

Given Google’s changes, particularly with low-quality content, it’s important to make sure the content you publish speaks directly to your readers. It needs to be genuinely helpful and valuable, and not just written to improve your position in the SERPs.

Written by:
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Emma is Lead Writer at Website Builder Expert, having first joined the team in 2022. She manages the website's topical content strategy to help website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Emma also specializes in following the development of leading website builders Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, through hands-on testing and research. Her work and expertise have been featured in Startups.co.uk, Digiday, TechRound, Industry Today, and Digital Information World.

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