February has already proven to be a busy month in the world of Digital Marketing, with Google confirming a Google Business Profile reviews outage that impacts local listings and industry suspicion that Google may be down-ranking AI-generated images.
That being said, in the ever-changing world of digital marketing, SEO professionals are hardwired to deal with changes of circumstance. So we thought that we would share with you some of the top changes you need to be aware of this month in digital marketing digital marketing.
Google Confirms Business Profile Reviews Outage
Google has now confirmed an outage in Business Profile reviews that has caused many GBPs to be missing crucial reviews. They are now working on a way to fix the problem, however, this is a crucial part of E-E-A-T signals for businesses and may have a wider impact than thought.
That being said, a Google spokesperson has urged users to check their guidelines around reviews as some of these “missing” reviews may have been removed for a reason.
“Before reporting missing reviews, please note that there are several reasons why reviews may be removed from maps. Usually, missing reviews are removed for policy violations like spam or inappropriate content.”
[Source: Search Engine Journal]
Did Google Sneakily Roll Out an Algorithm Update During Superbowl Weekend?
There has been chatter about considerable ranking volatility and traffic losses over the past weekend (8-9th February 2025), the same weekend of the 2025 Superbowl. Has Google rolled out another algorithm update at a time when it might go less noticed?
Here’s what industry experts have said:
- “Is Google going completely crazy now? The store has 0 visitors from Google today, even the news page is almost at a standstill. Other website owners I have just spoken to are also reporting a massive drop in traffic today.”
- “MASSIVE drop this morning…”
- “Terrible traffic today…not sure if because of Google or the superbowl. But traffic is way down internationally so I suspect it’s more Google. Interesting how since Google started this latest crap I went from steady daily inquiries to not one single new inquiry in four days. Same sh!t, different day…”
Of course, traffic does naturally tend to drop on a weekend depending on your industry, so there’s a lot left to be said about whether there has been another unconfirmed algorithm update. Watch this space for more information.
[Source: SEO Roundtable]
Is Google Image Search Down-Ranking AI Images?
There is talk in the SEO community that Google may be down-ranking AI-generated images in favour of non-AI-generated images. An SEO expert posted about this on LinkedIn, saying that he believes Google Images may have added some sort of quality metric that does not rank AI-generated images as well as it ranks other images. He went on to explain that he has experienced such down-rankings on his own content and that others have seen similar results with AI-generated images.
With AI-generated content becoming more popular, maybe now is the time to consider whether or not Google actually likes AI content.
[Source: SEO Roundtable]
Google Ads Posts Notice For Brand Guidelines March 2025 Update
Google has issued a notice reminding advertisers about the upcoming brand guidelines changes ahead of its rollout in March. Google urges advertisers to familiarise themselves with the changes and update brand guidelines accordingly.
Learn more about these changes and find out what you need to do here.
[Source: SEO Roundtable]
Top Digital Marketing Tools We Recommend
Each month we let you know about the latest tools that we’ve been using and loving recently.
Google Gemini Integrations
Have you noticed Google’s Gemini being integrated into the Google Workspace this month? At Wildcat, we’ve found it to be a pretty useful tool for taking meeting notes. Gemini provides a handy meeting summary (that is actually decently accurate and highlights key actions) and a transcript that you can refer back to later.
Advanced Web Rankings (For Forecasting)
We’ve recently put on some internal training for the team on using Advanced Web Ranking’s forecasting tool. This tool lets you estimate how a campaign might perform based on a number of key data points in a given time frame. This can be particularly useful for business proposals and determining your marketing strategy/budget for the year ahead.
Key Dates for Digital Marketing in March 2025
Keeping an eye on upcoming global events calendar can help you publish content when there is a spike in interest. As such, we have earmarked the following dates for your calendar to help you publish your content during this peak.
- 3rd March – World Hearing Day
- 4th March – World Obesity Day
- March 15th – World Sleep Day
- March 18th – Global Recycling Day
- March 29th – Earth Hour
- March 31st – International Transgender Day of Visibility
Stay Up To Date with Wildcat Digital
Here at Wildcat Digital, we keep our finger on the pulse of SEO, PPC and the wider world of digital marketing.
Help your business grow by staying up to date with the competition. Our team dedicates time each month to upskilling our knowledge on marketing, SEO Tools and search engine news to help our clients maintain their competitive advantage over other players in their niche.
If you want to get your head above the pack, then get in touch with our team today.
Catch up with the last few months’ news updates here:
Chloe Robinson
Content Strategist & Team Leader
