It is time for the monthly Google Webmaster Report. We are now in March as we continue to wait for the first Google core update of 2025. We did have a number of big unconfirmed Google updates, as documented below. There were even rumors of Google downranking AI images and a local diversity update from last year.
That being said, we did have some weird Google crawling issues, Search Console API was delayed but Google said they are more efficient at crawling and Google Search is 60 milliseconds faster.
Google was sued over its AI Overviews, and yea, there is a study showing the horrid click-through rates of those results. Heck, even Reddit wasn't happy with the Google algorithm changes, but with that, Google's earnings were pretty big on the ad side.
Google warned recipe bloggers, had a number of mentions of generative AI cases in its search quality raters guidelines and downplayed pagination for SEO.
On the local side, there was a massive confirmed Google bug with review counts not adding up. Meanwhile, the Google Business Profiles support team is backed up with requests.
There is a lot more, I pulled out the top headlines below and you can also catch up on last month with the February 2025 Google webmaster report.
Here are those stories that I pulled out:
Google Volatility & Updates:
- Google Search Ranking Volatility Chatter Spiking Feb 26th & 27th
- Google Search Ranking Volatility Heating Up Again
- Google Super Bowl LIX Search Ranking Update
- Google Search Ranking Volatility Hits February 4th & 5th
- Is Google Image Search Down Ranking AI Images?
- Google Crawler Update Causing Spikes In Crawling For Some
- Jeff Dean: Combining Google Search With LLM In-Context Learning
- Google Search Faster By About 60 Milliseconds
- Google Lens AI Overviews Expands & iOS App Search Screen
- Google: There Is A Lot More Work To Do To Make Crawling More Efficient
- Report: Google AI Overviews Are Killing Click Through Rates
- Will Searchers Click On Links Within Google AI Overviews With Dozens Of Links?
- Google Search AI Organized Local Events
- Google AI Overviews With Detailed Comparison Mode
- Google Search Tests New Grid Boxed Design
- Google Search Results Snippets Tests Page Includes
- Google Search Snippet Showing Future Date: Bug Or Feature?
- Google Search: Find Results Based On Images You've Viewed
- More Details & Screenshots Of Google's AI Mode
- Apple Intelligence With Google Gemini Integration Coming?
- Google Guidelines Warns Of Significant Scrolling On Recipe Blogs
- Generative AI Mentions In Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines
- Google Merchant Listing New Membership Loyalty Pricing Property
- Google: Why Search Engines Don't Need To Do Anything Special For Pagination
- Google: Audio Version Of Page Does Not Benefit Your Google Rankings
- Google's Gary Illyes: Focus On Originality In 2025
- Google: Don't Update Lastmod Date With Copyright Date Changes
- Google: How To Tell If Google Sees Tabbed Navigation
- Google: Embedded Resources Are Cached For A While
- Google Local Update Drops Organic Listing When Local Listing Is Present
- Google Search Console API Is Delayed
- Google Publisher Center Changes: Automatically Generated Publication Pages
- New Google Doc On Using Google Analytics & Search Console Data Together
- Google Local Reviews Decreasing Over Past 24 Hours
- Google Confirms Review Count Issue - Working On Fix
- Google Review Count Bug Fix Rolling Out
- Google: Google Reviews Count Bug Not Fully Fixed Yet
- Google Business Profiles Posts Integrates AI-Enhanced Images
- Google Business Profiles Edit Products Feature Gains Product Studio AI
- Google Maps Expands Detailed Review Questions - Survey Style
- Google Business Profiles Support Backlogged
- Google Business Profiles Verification Failure Email With Reasons
- Google Business Profiles Reinstatements Now Include Case & 5 Upload Documents
- Google Search Related Places Carousel Map
- Google Sued Over AI Overviews For Hurting Traffic & Revenue
- Reddit Blames Google Algorithm Change For Weaker Than Expected Growth
- Alphabet Google Ad Revenue Up 10% Again, Hitting $72.5 Billion
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
