Google has just announced the release of the March 2025 core algorithm update.
The March 2025 core update is Google’s first confirmed algorithm update of 2025. It comes 98 days after the December update, which saw widespread changes to organic search results. The update is expected to take around two weeks to complete.
As is tradition, the update was announced through the Google Search Central Twitter (X) account where we got the following brief statement:
“Today we released the March 2025 core update. We’ll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete:”
In what might be a sign of Google’s shift away from Twitter (X) and onto LinkedIn, we got a far better and more insightful post from the Google Search Central LinkedIn page:
“Today we released the March 2025 core update to Google Search.
This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites. We also continue our work to surface more content from creators through a series of improvements throughout this year. Some have already happened; additional ones will come later.
We’ll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete:”
The second part of that announcement on the Google Search Central LinkedIn page is probably the most insightful thing that we can take away from Google about the March update at this point.
“We also continue our work to surface more content from creators through a series of improvements throughout this year.”
This statement references Google’s “Web Creator Summit” hosted by Google back in October 2025. The event invited a group of creators who had been strongly impacted by Google’s Helpful Content Updates (HCU) and changes to the Helpful Content System that Google now uses to grade content.
While the Web Creator Summit seemed to leave many “creators” feeling somewhat empty and still searching for answers, Google made a concerted effort to address the concerns raised by creators about what “Helpful Content” actually means. Since then, most of these same creators have been vocal in reporting that they are still unable to recover.
Comments on the Google Search Central LinkedIn page announcement have already started flooding in.
This comment from Nate Hake who is a travel blogger, seems to summarise the frustration felt by many content creators:
So then, based on this very small piece of evidence, we may surmise that the March 2025 Google Core Update could be addressing some of the concerns raised at the creator summit.
Google released two Core Updates—one in November and another in December—following the creator summit in October 2024. However, it’s unlikely that they had enough time to implement any ideas discussed at the summit in those updates. If they are planning on making any updates that came out of that summit, there is a good chance that we will see them in this update.
What to expect in the March 2025 Core Update
Google has not provided any new or concrete information about what the March 2025 Core Algorithm update will be targeting. Core updates affect all websites in all regions. During core updates, Google makes changes to the ranking systems that are used to generate results.
Core updates are marked by higher levels of volatility in the search results. In many cases, SEO professionals can begin to speculate what has happened and what is changing a few days into a core update. We recommend waiting and not making any major changes until the core update is completed.
If you have been impacted or notice changes to rankings or visibility during an update, it’s important to remember that you have not been “penalised”. Changes to Google’s ranking system can radically change visibility. Any changes to organic visibility are a results of the way that Google ranks web pages – not a site level action.
History of Recent Google Algorithm Updates
