In March 2025, Google launched a new core update, which had a significant impact on how websites rank in search results. These changes prioritise helpful, relevant content above outdated, AI-generated pages – aiming to deliver only trustworthy, reliable content to users, whilst giving greater visibility to genuine websites that offer natural, informative content.

So, what does this mean for businesses, marketers and content creators?

In short: helpful, trustworthy, experience-led content is now more important than ever.

Here’s what you need to know to stay ahead.

What Are Google Core Updates?

According to Google, Core Updates are designed to improve user experiences through enhancing their overall ranking system. Their goal is to prioritise reliable, high-quality content through reassessing what truly deserves to appear at the top of their search rankings. These updates also help to keep Google’s systems updated and accurate, making sure to consistently deliver positive experiences to all users by refining how they assess quality, rewarding genuine, useful, and trustworthy content with higher rankings. 

As Google’s Search Central explains, Google’s March Core Update is ‘designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all sites’. In simple terms, it’s designed to help users find helpful, reliable content, giving businesses a better opportunity to be visible and trusted by viewers. 

Key Changes in the March 2025 Core Update

The March 2025 Core Update was a vast update that impacted many of the ranking signals across search results. It began rolling out on the 1st March, 2025, and was completed within two weeks. 

Unlike more targeted updates that focus on specific content types (such as product reviews or spam), this was a broad core update that impacted multiple ranking systems. Google described it as a fundamental shift in how it identifies high-quality content.

According to Search Engine Land and Google’s own announcements, the key goal was to “better surface helpful, high-quality content” from trustworthy sources, while reducing the visibility of pages that exist primarily to manipulate rankings.

E-E-A-T Emphasis

A key factor within this algorithm change is the E-E-A-T Emphasis, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. In simple terms, E-E-A-T is how Google checks that a website meets quality standards, ensuring users can easily find accurate, valuable information. This helps to improve the overall search experience and gives genuine websites the opportunity for greater visibility and higher rankings.

Although Google’s How Search Works page doesn’t directly mention E-E-A-T, it underlines the same principles within the March 2025 Core Update, through the prioritisation of websites with expert-led, credible content that delivers a strong focus on user experience.  The March 2025 Core Update strengthens Google’s ability to assess which websites deserve to be highly ranked, highlighting the importance of businesses delivering authentic, trustworthy content that offers real value to their audience, rather than just sounding knowledgeable. 

In practice, this means demonstrating genuine expertise and real-world experience through providing detailed insights or by referencing reliable sources to ensure authenticity. Websites with high levels of AI-generated content risk lower rankings due to Google’s improved ability to identify AI-generated or AI-led content, showing the emphasis on originality and quality. Google also rewards websites that are easy to navigate and fast-loading, prioritising these over low-quality websites, delivering a smooth user experience. 

For businesses and marketers, this means maintaining a website that is relevant and reflects real expertise. Encouraging genuine customer reviews and citing credible sources helps showcase authenticity and reliability. Adding these elements strengthens your business’s emphasis on E-E-A-T, which can lead to higher search rankings. 

Algorithm Adjustments for Spam and Low-Quality or AI Content

One of the biggest focuses in this update is limiting the presence of spammy, low-value or manipulative content in search results. This includes overly promotional, clickbait-driven pages, or content stuffed with keywords but offering little real value.

Affiliate websites have been particularly affected, especially those producing templated or sales-heavy content with minimal unique insight. Similarly, Google has stepped up its efforts to identify and penalise black-hat SEO tactics such as keyword stuffing, scraped content, and suspicious backlinking.

This update highlights the importance of businesses balancing their use of AI with human-led content. Whilst AI can help to shape tone or structure, your content should contain expert-led experiences, be backed by credible sources, and be tailored towards your audience’s needs. This level of originality helps your business stand out, which is exactly what Google’s latest update is rewarding with higher ranking and increased visibility. 

If your site has seen a drop, it’s worth investigating whether older pages are still aligned with Google’s latest standards.

Mobile-First Indexing and User Experience

Google’s mobile-first indexing, which prioritises the mobile version of a website over its desktop counterpart, continues to play a crucial role. While the March update didn’t directly impact the mobile-first indexing strategy, it has strengthened it further by putting more weight on the mobile experience.

Websites must deliver a smooth, responsive and accessible experience across all devices. If a page loads slowly, isn’t mobile-friendly, or displays poorly on different screens, it’s more likely to be penalised.

Google is sending a clear message: mobile usability isn’t a nice-to-have anymore – it’s an essential part of your SEO strategy. Businesses are encouraged to audit their mobile experience regularly and align with Google’s expectations.

Core Web Vitals

Another ranking factor that received added emphasis in this update is Core Web Vitals – a set of metrics that gauge user experience by measuring:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – How quickly the main content loads
  
• First Input Delay (FID) – How quickly users can interact with a page
  
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – How stable the layout remains during load

The March 2025 update reinforces just how vital these signals are. Pages that load fast, are stable during rendering, and offer smooth interaction are now more likely to earn better rankings. Technical SEO improvements like image optimisation, faster hosting, and simplified layouts should be high on your priority list.

New Spam Policies: What to Know

Google’s Search Central explains that the March 2025 Core Update introduces ‘three new spam policies, used to address practices that can negatively impact the quality of Google’s search results’. These include: expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse, and site reputation abuse. In short, Google has introduced stricter spam policies to crack down on SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, mass-produced content, and link schemes. With improved algorithmic detection, Google can now effectively identify spam content used to manipulate search rankings, ensuring users are shown high-quality pages.

Stricter spam policies highlight the importance of businesses prioritising original, high-quality content. By focusing on authentic, expert-led content that delivers genuine value to users, your website will better align with Google’s algorithm updates, leading to stronger, higher rankings in search results. 

These changes are aimed at cleaning up the quality of indexed content and penalising those using shortcuts.

How to Adapt to the March 2025 Core Update

If you’ve noticed a dip in performance, it’s a sign your content or site structure may need a refresh. Here are some practical steps:

• Audit your content for quality: Review existing pages to ensure they provide genuine value. Are they accurate, in-depth and up-to-date? If not, consider rewriting or removing them.
  
• Improve Core Web Vitals: Focus on improving page speed, interactivity and visual stability. This often involves refining your code, compressing images, and reducing third-party scripts.
  
• Focus on mobile optimisation: Ensure your site is fast, clean and fully responsive on all devices. Use mobile-friendly testing tools and remove any friction for users navigating your content.
  
• Remove low-quality content: Eliminate any pages that are thin, outdated or overly focused on ranking. Replace them with content that offers real insight, helpful advice or original perspective.
  
• Add credibility signals: Include author bios, source links, quotes from experts or embedded data to boost the trustworthiness of your content.
  

What This Means for Content Strategy Moving Forward

The March 2025 update confirms what many marketers already suspected: Google is thinking more like a human. That means ranking decisions are increasingly based on whether content genuinely helps someone – not just how well it ticks a technical box.

Looking ahead, this means:

• Focusing on relevance over repetition
  
• Publishing less often, but with more purpose
  
• Prioritising depth and expertise in every piece of content

It’s no longer about gaming the system – it’s about building a site that people (and Google) can trust.

How Encapsulate Can Help

At Encapsulate, we don’t just react to algorithm updates – we build futureproof strategies around them.

From full SEO audits and technical optimisation to E-E-A-T aligned content creation and mobile-first UX enhancements, we help businesses adapt with confidence. Whether you need to recover lost rankings or strengthen your position, we’ll make sure your content stands up to Google’s new standards – and delivers real results.

Ready to find out how your site measures up?

Book a free SEO audit today or get in touch with our team to start your algorithm-proof growth plan.