Google’s March Update Broken Down by Founder of Search Engine Roundtable - Barry Schwartz

E621: Barry Schwartz joins the show to break down Google’s 2025 core algorithm update, which is still rolling out.

Barry Schwartz (aka RustyBrick) is the Founder of Search Engine Roundtable (seroundtable.com), an Editor at Search Engine Land, and overall the guy who most SEOs get their industry news from.

Questions covered:
• What are the biggest changes in this core update compared to previous ones?  
• Have you noticed any early trends in rankings or volatility since the rollout began?  
• Google mentioned surfacing more content from creators—how do you interpret this, and do you think it will significantly change the search results?  
• Do you have any insights into how this update might affect smaller or independent websites compared to larger publishers?  
• With AI-generated content becoming more prevalent, how do you think Google will handle it in future updates?  
• Gary Illyes (a well-known analyst on the Google Search team) said a few weeks ago, “Originality is something we're going to be focusing on this year. That's going to be important.” What do you think this means?  
• Which industries or niches do you think will be most affected by this recent update?  
• Google’s guidance has remained largely the same—do you think website owners need to adjust their SEO strategies after this update?  
• One year ago, many SEOs reported their content sites “obliterated” after the March update. Now, some reported their content sites bouncing back. Do you see a trend here?  

📰 Read Search Engine Roundtable: https://www.seroundtable.com/
⭐️ Barry Schwartz on 𝕏: https://x.com/rustybrick
✨ Barry Schwartz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustybrick/
💫 Barry Schwartz’s agency: https://www.rustybrick.com/

🧲 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/

00:00 Welcoming Barry Schwartz
00:16 Initial Thoughts on the Recent Google Update
00:58 Impact of Core Update on Website Rankings
03:09 Video Prioritized in Google Search
06:17 User-Generated Content and Social Media
08:01 Diversifying Traffic Sources
10:47 Advice for Smaller and Independent Websites
18:33 AI-Generated SEO Content
23:37 Strategies for Content Sites Post-Update
27:59 Building a Brand
30:37 Conclusion

The Edward Show. Your daily search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/

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