A major core update is just the start of the SEO, AI, and Google Ads news that came down this month. SEO is changing in big ways, and you’ll need to know how AI and other players are involved. Catch up in this month’s update.
In the top three stories, you’ll get confirmation that the March update is finished, find out what the latest updates mean for content publishers, and get some insight into why Google may now be discouraging small forums.
That’s just the beginning. You’ll also get the latest news about Google’s new Ad rules, the outcome of their big advertising lawsuit, and how AI is a growing presence in site traffic. Then, you’ll see some shocking proof that SEO isn’t dead, and learn about Google’s big ad deal with Roblox! Let’s jump in.
Google March 2025 Core Update Finished Rolling Out
Google March 2025 Core Update Finished Rolling Out – Here’s What We Saw
Barry Schwartz brings you this quick report on the big core update that started on March 13th. Google updated its status dashboard to announce that the update had ended on March 27th.
First, you’ll get some context for the update. As Barry points out, Google released some guidance about the update, claiming that it is not a penalty and that the changes have been designed to promote good content. They also informed us that the update would affect all regions globally.
Barry claims that this update did not seem to affect as many sites as previous updates. He compares this to updates like the March 2024 and December 2024 updates that caused turbulence for significantly more site owners.
However, Barry admits that you were likely hit very hard (if this update hit you at all). He noted that multiple website owners had experienced devastating changes. The next piece may offer some more insight on that.
The biggest changes seemed to come around March 18th when volatility peaked. However, volatility was difficult to track overall because this update included a change that temporarily broke many tracking tools.
Check out the complete video to learn more about how to respond to a core update, or whether your site will ever recover if you’ve been hit by an update. For now, you’re ready for a deeper dive into these changes that looks at what they’ll mean for small content site owners.
What Google’s Latest Update Really Means for Small Publishers
What Google’s Latest Update Really Means for Small Publishers
Jared Bauman and Thomas Smith of Niche Pursuits bring you their analysis of the latest update and its implications for publishers.
That research found that these content sites were among the biggest losers.
DIYChatroom.com- GarageJournal.com
- Bluettipower.com
- Everfence.com
- MrHandyMan.com
Thomas also discusses his own experience with the effects of the recent update on the news niche. He found that news aggregators seem to be targeted in some way. Among the cases he’s looked into, drops in “Discover” traffic were notable after the update. Sites that provided more thorough content pieces seemed to benefit from the update.
Check out the complete video for nearly an hour of discussion that covers the update’s impact, new search innovations, Google AI product launches, and more. For now, the next top piece of the month dives even deeper into what is happening to niche forums due to the update, starting with a Parasite SEO story.
New Findings From the Google March Core Algorithm Update
New Findings From the Google March Core Algorithm Update
Edward Sturm takes a close look at what is happening to independent forums with the latest updates. Forums have been a focus of SEOs and link-building strategies as Google has appeared to favor user-created content in recent updates.
The company in this story was generating around $300k on the referral power of a single Reddit post that had also become the top result for major search terms. The owner of this company and post was projecting income up to 1M for the next year.
Instead, a mod deleted the post without explanation (mods exercise significant power over subreddits, and there is usually no way to appeal a removal). The company’s main traffic source evaporated, and they don’t know how to engineer a post of the same power.
Edward uses this story to examine how many independent forums are losing Google’s support after a couple of years of strong support.
He links to an example provided by Lily Ray on X. Lily found a dog breed forum that had been running since 1997. In 2023, Google suddenly made the tiny forum hundreds of times more visible than it had been in previous decades.
It may be that the age of building forums for SEO may be coming to an end. Google appears to be coming down on small forums across the board. For now, there’s news on the Google Ad front. A big policy change means ads can now be “double-served.”
Google To Allow Double-Serving Ads In Different Ad Locations On Same Page
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-to-allow-double-serving-ads-39150.html
Barry Schwartz brings you this Google Ads news about the Unfair Advantage Policy. Months ago, you may have heard that Google was experimenting with double-serving ads. Now that it has passed out of the experimentation phase, the policy has settled like this
“…our prohibition on showing more than one ad at a time for your business, app, or site applies only to a single ad location.”
Google has justified this decision by saying that they have different ad locations that work for different auctions, so this won’t create an unfair advantage for ad buyers.
As Barry points out, Google has changed the rules for ads several times recently. It first changed the definition of top ads, and then started mixing ads and organic results together.
Check out this complete news story for more information and links to discussions around the web. Next, you’ll learn how some previous actions by Google’s ad division led to a massive settlement for ad buyers.
Google to Pay $100 Million to Settle 14-Year-Old Advertising Lawsuit
https://www.theverge.com/news/638630/google-100-million-settlement-advertising-class-action-lawsuit
Emma Roth brings you this look into a $100 million settlement that Google is paying to end a class-action suit by advertisers.
This lawsuit has been in the works for almost 15 years. When it was first filed in 2011, Advertisers claimed that Google Adwords (the old name for the ad service) was breaking California’s Unfair Competition law by misleading them about where the ads would be shown. They also claimed Google was not giving them the promised “smart pricing” discounts.
This case caught the attention of SEOs and advertisers because it generated almost 1 million pages of discovery. Researchers are still looking through all the released records for clues on internal Google processes.
Read the complete story to learn more about the history of the case and how the plaintiffs became eligible for the payout. Next, you’ll learn more about AI traffic’s growing role and the consequences.
AI Makes Up 0.1% of Traffic, but Clicks Aren’t Everything
https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-traffic-research/
Louise Linehan and Xibeijia Guan bring you some fresh data covering AI as a referral source. As you might expect, it’s growing. However, it has a steep hill to climb with competitors like Reddit (which out-refers the current top 3 AIs).
The authors studied the traffic of more than 30,000 websites to determine how much of it was made up of AI. So far, AI accounts for 0.1% of all referral traffic.
The top referral sources so far start with Search Engines. This channel delivers around 44% of all referrals, followed very closely by Direct Referrals, at 42%. Social, paid, and email channels also currently deliver more referrals.
That is not to say that LLMs are sending only a small amount of traffic. The top 3 combined are sending as much as Reddit, a massive site cultivating its place for over a decade.
The researchers found that LLMs are already sending the most traffic to businesses’ websites. You have a better chance of drawing this AI traffic if you work in business or industrial niches, and you’re based in the US, UK, or India.
It’s worth reading the entire article to learn more about how smaller sites are picking up AI traffic, what content draws AI traffic, and data about what specific words earn AI traffic. For now, Google has made some other interesting
SEO Isn’t Dead (New 2025 Research)
SEO Isn’t Dead (New 2025 Research
Nathan Gotch brings you the latest retort in the debate over whether SEO is dead. He presents a lot of data to argue that SEO is stronger than ever.
First, he notes that Google is experiencing massive growth in search, even now. The latest numbers show that the search engine handled 20% more queries than it did the previous year. That means it handled more than 300x more queries than LLMs are currently handling.
Nathan also points out that the company’s market share is still nearly indomitable at 93%. It’s not just handling its outside competitors, but its immediate ones too.
Nathan argues that what has changed for SEO is that Google prefers searchers to land on features rather than websites. While you’re not going to be able to fight on equal terms anymore, you can adapt your strategies to target the behavior that Google still rewards.
Check out the video to see his advice on how you can modify your SEO. For now, you’re ready for the last story of the month. Google has announced a fun partnership that may have big implications for ad buyers.
Roblox Announces New Ad Format, Google Partnership to Boost Advertising Business
Zaheer Kachwala brings you this look at Google’s big deal with Roblox. For those who aren’t aware, Roblox is a gigantic gaming platform (380 million users as of 2024) that is most popular with Gen Z gamers.
Roblox and Google will be working together on a video ad platform that will reward players for sitting through advertisements with in-game rewards. Advertisers have found it difficult to get this generation’s attention through traditional methods, and it’s hoped an approach that enhances their experience will be effective.
Advertisers can sign up for these programs soon. The deal partners have announced that advertisers can purchase this new marketing through the Roblox platform or directly through Google’s ad platform.
It’s just another new change among some major ones for the ad business. Follow future updates to get the latest news on what’s coming next.
