March 2025 Core Update

I lost traffic across two sites, i hate these helpful updates
 
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For those whose sites got tanked or dropped or whatever you call it, don’t move a finger on those sites, some of them will recover on roll back or on the next update. Don’t worry, next update will be sooner than you expect.

But, keep in mind, this happens only if the sites are still indexed.
 
alternatesword said:
Yes, that's AI overview heavily affects the CTR for info type content.
Click to expand...

Not just info content unfortunately. Even some transactional keywords have AI overviews that recommend sources on where to buy from.

Each year people cry "SEO is dead" and I've generally disagreed. But AI overviews I think is the end of traditional SEO. Being #1 on Google does not mean much now, when for most popular searches the user has to scroll - literally to the bottom - of the page to even catch a glimpse of the organic results.

SEO will now become AIO. The game has changed and now I think it's going to be a battle to influence the AI. This is the direction I am going to be shifting to this 2025.

I imagine Google will eventually monetize the AI overviews, where we pay a premium to get referenced.
 
Master0fPuppets said:
From my experience, when sites gets boost prior to update announcement, get tanked after. I hope is not your case.
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In my experience, it's different. If it starts off badly, the end result is that I get hit by the update.

So far, it's been good at first. I got hit by the spam and have recovered 50% of what I lost in December.
 
13th - 60% gain:

Screenshot_25.png


Today:
20% down:
Screenshot_26.png


Did anyone encounter this witht he previous updates?

Did it recover during the update?

Usually the results are permanent within the first 48 hours.....
 
mirrorer said:
13th - 60% gain:
Today: 20% down:

Did anyone encounter this witht he previous updates?

Did it recover during the update?

Usually the results are permanent within the first 48 hours.....
Click to expand...

It's pointless following your rankings during a core update. It's a rollercoaster.

Avoid any SEO updates during this time as it is impossible to track their effect.

Wait for it to finish and then assess.

I've had years where sites get a boost in the first week, then utterly destroyed mid core update. Other years I've had sites get slammed on day 1 but then climb to all new highs by April.


There's only 1 thing to do during core updates....
 
about 6-7 days I should have known it by the fluctuations on my website lol, now my website traffic has dropped a lot
1742112186258.png
 
DanDanger said:
From my data a major google update started around 24th February. We track 500+ sites daily. We're been seeing a number of our sites drop out of from serps starting from the 24th. Yet no reported update.

I think Google have strategically released the AI overviews to coincide with March core update. Webmasters blame drop of traffic on core update as opposed to real reason of AI overview stealing your content and removing all need for the user to visit your site.

As if ranking #1 actually means anything anymore, thanks to [AI overviews][sponsored ads][featured snippets][sponsored ads][frequently asked questions][sponsored ads][forum posts][sponsored ads][social boxes][sponsored ads][google business pages][sponsored ads]
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This ^^

Practically, SEO is not dead, it is far from being dead, just it has become (almost) pointless.

For example, Ahrefs has a very interesting search filter - CPS (clicks per search). Many KWs that I was interested in a few years ago had CPS well above 1.5-2. And now? Almost none of them have CPS above 0.4 - and that is a huge drop.

And those KWs that still have CPS above, let's say 1.2, either have very low search volume, or the competition is huge. Or both.

I can continue this rant of mine, but it's a rainy Sunday here, Arsenal and Liverpool play today (not against each other), so I'll just relax and take it easy ...
 
Massive volatility today. We had 49 sites have rankings disappear.

Anyone else experience massive volatility yesterday/today?
 
Thanks a lot for the reminder, I almost forgot to check this update!
 
DanDanger said:
Massive volatility today. We had 49 sites have rankings disappear.

Anyone else experience massive volatility yesterday/today?
Click to expand...
Yeap, further drop. From 50% for the previous days, to 75% today (so far)
 
Hello, while my competitors are not affected by every google update, my website goes bad in every update.

my competitors' websites are built with data life engine, my website is built with wordpress.

is the problem in the infrastructure I use?

my competitors have much less quality backlinks and DA PA ratio than me.
 
It's hard to say with that minimal data. But we do know from the Google algorithm leaks that Google flags wordpress sites.

We have seen competitors with extremely poor sites with minimal content out rank the high quality sites we manage - and they use bespoke CMS and longtail EMDs, with no backlink profile.

But it's hard to say.

We have wordpress sites with high quality human content that have been ranked well for years that can drop/disappear in core updates. We also have wordpress sites with thin AI content and minimal backlinks that can jump up in the serps during core updates.

If you can make sense of it, please let me know.
 
DanDanger said:
It's hard to say with that minimal data. But we do know from the Google algorithm leaks that Google flags wordpress sites.

We have seen competitors with extremely poor sites with minimal content out rank the high quality sites we manage - and they use bespoke CMS and longtail EMDs, with no backlink profile.

But it's hard to say.

We have wordpress sites with high quality human content that have been ranked well for years that can drop/disappear in core updates. We also have wordpress sites with thin AI content and minimal backlinks that can jump up in the serps during core updates.

If you can make sense of it, please let me know.
Click to expand...
where did you get that from?
 
From the google leaks (last year?). There was a is_wordpress flag that google saves for each site.

What Google do with that flag is anyones guess. Some speculate it's to give non wordpress sites a boost, because custom CMS's usually indicate larger businesses.
 
DanDanger said:
From the google leaks (last year?). There was a is_wordpress flag that google saves for each site.

What Google do with that flag is anyones guess. Some speculate it's to give non wordpress sites a boost, because custom CMS's usually indicate larger businesses.
Click to expand...
could u link it for me? damn i was just building a site on wordpress... it s so easy for noobies like me.. btw, how the weight to the penalization?
 
You might have to dive into the actual leaked engineering documentation. I believe it was called "is_wordpress" or "isWordpress"?

There is also a flag for small / personal sites, "smallPersonalSite". Again some speculating this means Google is less favourable to smaller publishers.

But who knows. We just know the data they collect, not what they do with it.
 
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