Navigating the Google March 2025 Core Update: The First Major Shake Navigating the Google March 2025 Core Update: The First Major Shake

Every single update to Google’s search algorithm, including the March 2025 core update, requires Australian website owners and marketers to reconsider their strategies. These core updates are shifts in how Google assesses and ranks content. Australian businesses must monitor them closely.

Comprehending the Core Update of Google for March 2025

On March 13, 2025, Google announced the commencement of the core update for March 2025. According to the estimates, the entire process would take two weeks. The update is purported to improve the relevance and quality of search results by optimally surfacing content that is satisfying to users across multiple websites. Google also pointed out their work throughout the year towards improvement of content visibility from individual creators. However, they consider this a regular core update and not a manual action against particular sites. Therefore, a decline in rankings does not mean that there is a problem with a site. Rather, it implies that Google’s algorithm has ascertained that some other pages are more suitable for particular queries than the ranked pages. Although it is framed within communications as business as usual, historic data suggests that core updates are accompanied or followed by large fluctuations in ranking. As is evident, based on user satisfaction with and content creation focus, it hints at a plan to move towards supporting diverse sources of original quality content from independent and smaller publishers.

Australian website owners will need to pay particular attention to their website’s visibility in search results in March 2025, considering the two-week rollout period.

E-E-A-T Factor

SEO specialists have shared their insights regarding the impacts of the core update that is scheduled for March 2025. A content piece continues to be more important than everything else. It is highly likely the accounts requiring Australian websites to rank high will have content that targets their audience and will be informative. Additionally, the update is likely to still rely heavily on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) as a prominent ranking factor. This indicates that Australian enterprises need to illustrate trustworthy information by proving the credentials and experience of the content producers, which requires authors to establish credibility in their field. A host of reputable information in the trust domain also matters. Alongside this, technical SEO and user experience are likely to be equally important. Australian websites will need to make certain that their pages load quickly, are mobile responsive, and users can navigate without hassles.

Professionals foresee a possible recalibration of backlinks where their importance will focus more on quality and relevance than sheer numbers. This means that Australian businesses should prioritise acquiring high-quality and editorial backlinks from relevant domains. Another expected outcome is the heightened focus on content derived from artificial intelligence systems without originality, depth, or authentic expertise. In conclusion, there are expectations regarding heightened focus on material that uses original research and firsthand accounts.

Insights from Earlier Google Core Updates for Australians

Analysing the history of Google core updates shows enduring patterns relevant to the Australian context. For example, in the case of the March 2023 update, there seems to have been an industry-wide focus on E-E-A-T. This presumably affected Australian sites operating within the travel and finance industries. In the same way, the March 2024 update aimed at targeting poor-quality AI-generated content and resulted in widespread deindexing of several sites worldwide, including some Australian sites that were overly reliant on such content. And let’s remember the August 2020 update that caused Australian websites to suffer ranking challenges only to be later revealed as a Google bug. These instances underscore the significant potential for ranking changes after the core algorithm updates in Australia.

The trend of recent updates emphasising the importance of E-E-A-T and content quality indicates that Australian websites should consider integrating these aspects into their optimisation strategies.

Basic Foundation of the March 2025 Core Update

Australian website owners will need to prepare for the March 2025 guidance update to ensure the website performs optimally after the update. One of the most important pieces of content strategy is high-quality E-E-A-T-focused, user-centric content that is original, comprehensive, and captures the interest of the intended Australian users. It would also be helpful to use Australian English along with its dialectical and cultural markers. Improving E-E-A-T signals is also essential, as are YMYL issues like finance and health in the Australian context. This means that author qualifications must be clearly stated, adequate evidence must be supplied, and trust must be established.

Enhancing technical aspects like site speed, responsiveness, and crawlability remains crucial. Website owners must consistently track their site’s performance in Google Search Console and Google Analytics to evaluate any effects on rankings and traffic following updates. Another important measure is reviewing and revising existing content for its accuracy, detail, and relevance. Establishing a robust backlink profile by acquiring authoritative backlinks from Australian websites and industry leaders will ultimately advance long-term SEO goals. For Australians with a local business, maintaining the accuracy of their Google Business Profile and actively developing local citations will be crucial.

Core SEO Principles for Long-Term Success

When it comes to navigating Google’s core updates, there is no easy way out without following some of the SEO best practices. Step one is still creating helpful, reliable, and people-first content. Optimising for user engagement guarantees a lower bounce rate, which improves user experience. A properly executed technical SEO framework guarantees a website can be easily crawled and subsequently indexed by Google. A well-structured backlink profile also aids in building authority and credibility for the site. Concentrating on E-E-A-T signals allows for better formulation of trust and expertise of the content. Australian firms that have placed the most focus on doing these principles are likely the ones best suited for the March 2025 core update.

Learning from Past Core Update Impacts

Gleaning insights from some of the past core updates can teach us a lot of lessons.

Domains that place and emphasise strong E-E-A-T and fall under the finance and health sectors have noted positive impacts during core updates. On the contrary, websites with duplicate content and those that rely heavily, sometimes to the extent of low-quality AI-generated text, have seen ranking dips. There are cases where websites recover rankings after improving their E-E-A-T and content quality substantially. Following these examples illustrates that websites need to align with Google’s policies if they aim to succeed in the long term.

The Google March 2025 core update marks another change in the evolution of search engines. The update provided Australian website owners and marketers the solution by focusing on the user side of SEO. If they concentrate on improving content value and relevance, user experience, technical frameworks, and authority along with continual brand reputation, Australian businesses will be able to not just survive but thrive in the changing search ecosystem. The Australian search landscape will require ongoing analysis of website performance to remain competitive.