Google Completes Their First Core Update of 2025
Apr 16, 2025
In March 2025, Google released its first core organic search algorithm update of the year, completing the rollout on March 27 and triggering noticeable shifts in rankings and traffic across many sites. With the update now fully settled, broader patterns in SERP volatility are emerging across industries, informed by our macro-level datasets and corroborated by insights from SEO data providers across the search community.
What are some key trends we’re noticing from the March 2025 core update?
The March 2025 Core Update reinforced Google’s shift toward quality-driven search experiences, with several clear trends emerging. AI Overviews expanded notably in the entertainment, restaurant, and travel industries, often reducing organic click-through rates for simple queries and rewarding deeper, more differentiated content. Overall SERP volatility mirrored the relatively moderate December 2024 update, while forum-based sites and programmatic SEO content saw declines in visibility. Taken together, the update underscores a continued emphasis on depth, originality, and user value over scaled or templated content — a signal to prioritize meaningful experiences that go beyond what AI summaries can easily replicate.
What Is a Google core update?
Google core updates roll out several times a year to refine search results and ensure users see the most helpful, reliable content. Rather than targeting specific sites, these updates act like a reset — similar to updating a personal “best of” list as you gain new information — reordering results to better reflect what’s most relevant and useful for searchers at that moment.
How to assess the impact of a Google core update?
To accurately determine whether a Google core update affected your site, wait at least one full week after the rollout is complete before analyzing performance. This pause allows ranking fluctuations to stabilize and provides a clearer baseline for comparison. After that window, review Google Search Console for significant changes in impressions, clicks, or rankings — meaningful shifts likely indicate an impact from the update, while steady performance suggests your site remains unaffected.
How to recover after a Google core update?
If your site is impacted by a Google core update, resist the urge to make quick fixes that could hurt the user experience. Instead, focus on sustainable, long-term improvements that benefit real people. Start by refreshing outdated or underperforming pages identified in Google Search Console, and address any underlying technical or SEO issues through a comprehensive audit. Above all, prioritize helpful, reliable, people-first content — the kind that builds trust, improves UX, and aligns with what Google’s core updates are designed to reward.
The TrendyMinds Difference
Depth over volume. Impact over noise.
All in all, this core update seemed to focus on the importance of quality over quantity when it comes to content generation for SEO, and focusing on creating the best experience possible for users who visit your website. Here is what you need to know in general about Google core updates, how they impact site health, and how to best adapt to SERP changes caused by them.
How can we help?
Our SEO team offers a variety of Service Offerings that can help you improve your SEO efforts.