Our analysis of ranking changes across 40+ client accounts during the March core update — and the patterns that emerged.
Google's March 2025 core update was one of the more significant algorithm changes we've seen in the past two years. The rollout ran for approximately 14 days and affected a wide range of verticals — though the impact was far from uniform.
What we observed
Across our 40+ active SEO clients, we saw a clear pattern: sites with thin or templated content on category or service pages were hit hardest. Several e-commerce clients saw drops of 15–30% in organic sessions during the rollout period, while their product-detail pages with rich, original content largely held or improved.
Who gained
The beneficiaries were almost universally sites with original research, genuine expert authorship signals, and comprehensive topical coverage. One client — a B2B software company — saw a 40% uplift after we had spent six months building out a genuine thought leadership content hub.
What to do
If your site was hit, the first step is a content audit. Identify pages with low word counts, duplicate or near-duplicate content, and thin product/service descriptions. These are your highest-risk pages. Prioritise updating the top 20% of affected pages before looking at the tail.
Don't expect instant recovery — core update recoveries typically coincide with the next core update, which means months rather than weeks.
