SEO Insights: Compression Ratio, March Core Update & Google’s Future
Published 9 months ago • 3 min read
The Growth Digest
Your biweekly dose of content marketing news and advice to help you grow your audience, level up your content game, and get your site to the top results in Google.
Hey Reader,
For the first time in years, Google’s market share has dipped below 90%, raising questions about the future of search.
Meanwhile, SEOs are buzzing about the latest core update and the debate over compression ratio as a ranking factor.
We’re diving into what’s happening, what it means for you, and how to adapt your strategy!
What's The Buzz?
Matt Diggity recently pointed out a surprising shift: Google’s search market share has dropped below 90% for the first time since 2015. With users frustrated by ad-heavy, SEO-stuffed results, younger audiences are turning to YouTube, TikTok, and AI chatbots for more direct answers.
While some wonder if Google is losing its hold, the numbers tell a different story. Google still processes over 5 trillion searches annually, and despite competition, search volume continues to grow year after year.
Rather than standing still, Google is doubling down on AI to maintain its dominance, signaling that SEO isn’t dying; it’s evolving. As search behavior shifts, SEOs need to stay agile, identifying new opportunities and adapting their strategies.
GOOGLE'S MARCH 2025 CORE UPDATE -- Google has officially begun rolling out its March 2025 core algorithm update, a major change that could impact search rankings across the web. The update, which started on March 13, is expected to take up to two weeks to fully roll out. While Google hasn’t shared specific details, core updates typically lead to ranking fluctuations as the search engine reassesses content quality and relevance.
If you notice changes in your site’s search performance, don’t panic. Fluctuations are normal during rollouts. Instead of scrambling for a quick fix, focus on user-first content and monitor your performance in Google Search Console. Once the update stabilizes, you’ll have a clearer picture of any necessary adjustments. Stay tuned as we’ll be tracking the impact and sharing insights as more data emerges!
DOES COMPRESSION RATIO AFFECT SEO? -- The team at Search Engine Journal recently revisited a 2006 study that explored the relationship between web page compression and search engine rankings. The research, conducted by Microsoft Research, found that highly compressible web pages (those with a compression ratio of 4.0 or higher) often correlated with low-quality, spam-like content.
However, 30% of those highly compressed pages were not spam, highlighting that compression alone isn't a definitive spam signal. While it's reasonable to assume that search engines may use compressibility as part of a larger spam-detection framework, there's no clear evidence proving that Google actively factors compression ratio into rankings today.
For most website owners and SEOs, this means compression ratio isn’t something to worry about. Compression itself is beneficial as it speeds up page load times, improves user experience, and helps search engines efficiently crawl and index sites. Since Google considers multiple signals to assess content quality, having a slightly higher compression ratio isn’t necessarily a red flag. As long as your content is valuable and well-optimized, compression won’t hold back your rankings.
It’s Q&A time! Nora and Heather tackle listener questions on building your content strategy, best resources for learning SEO, whether you should be optimizing your content for AI tools, and more!
If you're thinking about hiring a content agency, listen up. Let this episode serve as your guide to prepare working with a content agency so the engagement goes as smoothly as possible, and you get the best possible ROI.
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