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March 2025 Core Update

March 13, 2025 Confirmed
« All Google Updates

Google released the March 2025 Core Update on March 13, 2025, and completed it on March 27, 2025. The update took exactly 14 days (two weeks), which was the exact timeline Google projected for its completion.

Search Status dashboard of the Google March 2025 Core Update

Google’s Official Announcement

Google announced the March 2025 Core Update in a post on X (formerly Twitter). 

Google also announced the March 2025 Core Update on its official LinkedIn page. Here, Google mentioned that the update would allow content from creators to rank on search results pages. 

Google announces the March 2025 Core Update on LinkedIn

What Are People Saying?

The March 2025 Core Update is Google’s first core algorithm update for 2025. Its timing continues the pattern established in 2023 and 2024, wherein Google released its first core updates in March. That said, multiple SEOs and bloggers shared their insights and concerns in response to Google’s announcement.

Bloggers Respond to Google’s Announcement

Small creators were noticeably skeptical about Google’s claims of improving their rankings. Instead, they expressed concerns that Google would take the little traffic they had left. For instance, Meteoleitstelle Hessen complained about losing his traffic and doubted whether this update would improve his situation. 

Fivod also expressed the same skepticism, saying his traffic went from 20,000 visitors to just two after the Helpful Content Update. He then expressed concerns that the March 2025 Core Update would take his remaining two visitors. 

Helen Neale also voiced similar complaints, saying she lost her traffic to multiple Google updates released between November and December 2024.

For context, Google released two back-to-back core updates between November 11 and December 18, 2024, before following them with the December 2024 Spam Update that ran from December 19 to 26, 2024. 

However, some commenters, including Dhiren Mulani, suggested that the update may have begun on March 4, 2025, rather than March 13, 2025, when it was announced. This is because they experienced fluctuations in their traffic between March 3 and 5, 2025. 

Early Volatilities Observed by SEOs

SEOs and bloggers also observed volatility on search results pages days before Google announced its release on March 13, 2025. On March 5, 2025, Barry Schwartz shared analytic reports indicating volatility on search results pages. 

On March 6, 2025, he shared additional analytic reports indicating that the volatility on search results pages was ongoing. 

Glenn Gabe supported this stance, stating that he had been observing core update-like movements since March 3, 2025, 10 days before Google launched the March 2025 Core Update. 

However, Google later confirmed to Glenn that the March 2025 Core Update was released on March 13, 2025, just as they announced. This means the volatility SEOs and bloggers observed before March 13, 2025, has nothing to do with the update.

Later Volatilities Observed by SEOs

The effect of the March 2025 Core Update went both ways, with multiple sites gaining and losing traffic. Its volatility was so intense that many SEOs consider it the largest they have seen on search results pages within the 12-month period before it was released. 

At one point, on March 19, 2025, multiple SEO tracking tools reported experiencing issues after observing inconsistencies in their data. Glenn Gabe shared communication from an SEO tracking tool confirming it was experiencing issues. 

Laura Chiocciora also shared communication from another SEO tracking tool experiencing issues. 

That said, SEOs continued to observe volatility on search results pages. On March 19, 2025, Lily Ray shared reports of a site gaining traffic. It had previously lost traffic to the August 2024 Core Update, which ran from August 15 to September 3, 2024.

However, it was not all wins because on March 24, 2025, Glenn Gabe shared reports indicating some sites were experiencing gains and losses to this update. 

Barry Schwartz ran a pool after the update ended, and most bloggers either saw no changes or lost traffic and rankings.

 

Previous Core Updates

The March 2025 Core Update is the latest among the multiple core updates Google has released. Here are the other core algorithm updates that we have documented:

What’s Next – Dealing With This Update

The March 2025 Core Update caused multiple sites to gain and lose traffic. However, SEOs observed it was primarily released to reward sites rather than penalize them. So, it is likely that the sites that saw their rankings increase must have been doing what Google wanted.  

However, small creators were unimpressed (as with all Google updates) and did not necessarily see an improvement in their rankings. Many even reported drops in their traffic, though a good number said they saw no changes at all. 

That said, you should use Rank Math Analytics to monitor how this core update impacted your site. If you observe a drop in your traffic, refer to this guide on recovering from a Google algorithm update. 

 

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