Google just announced that the first core algorithm update of 2025 has started rolling out, and it will take about two weeks to complete.
If you don’t pay much attention to SEO news, core updates are a big deal since they can have major impacts on rankings and organic traffic for thousands of websites across a wide range of industries. These ranking shifts can affect the sales figures of many businesses, depending on how pronounced the shakeups are.
And while Google quietly applies dozens of minor updates to its search algorithms annually, the Big G usually announces core updates to give webmasters a heads-up that something major is happening.
The last core update was in December 2024, while the most impactful in recent memory happened in March of the same year. At the time, Google stated that negatively impacted websites didn’t necessarily do anything wrong—it was simply prioritizing helpful, reliable, people-first content moving forward.
For this year’s March core update, details on what Google is trying to accomplish remain scarce. The rollout just started a few weeks ago, and we anticipate the effects will be felt more palpably after the weekend.
What to Expect in the Coming Days
Based on how Google has rolled out major updates in the past, rollouts typically begin on Thursdays or Fridays, with noticeable effects appearing within the first 12–24 hours. By the time SEOs get back to their desks on Monday morning, ranking changes are usually more pronounced and widespread.
Some verticals may not be immediately affected, but most will notice ranking changes and fluctuations in their organic traffic graphs on Google Analytics. Rankings may vary every few hours for the next few days before stabilizing over the next couple of weeks.
Of course, ranking changes can also happen in the weeks and months between core updates. A website that has never been optimized can still make significant ranking gains even when Google isn’t actively rolling out updates. Google’s algorithms are always active, and if they detect major improvements on a website, they can recognize and reward it within days or weeks.
However, it’s a different story for websites that were ranking well before but were hit by a past core update. While incremental ranking improvements can happen between updates, Google says the most significant recoveries usually occur after the next core update.
We’ll keep you posted as developments unfold. It’s exciting to think about what the search results will look like in a few days.
