Digital Marketing Reads: Volume 29

Here’s the latest instalment of Digital Marketing Reads, a roundup of some of the more interesting articles we’ve read lately in the digital marketing world. Missed the last one? Read Volume 28.

Do Reviews Still Matter? Study Looks At Changing Consumer Behavior

According to this article, people place less importance on reviews in 2025 than they did in previous years, and see star ratings as a vanity metric rather than an accurate indicator of quality.

Google remains the top review platform, while Facebook has declined in trust and other platforms like YouTube and Instagram have grown in influence in the past few years.

That’s not to say that customer reviews don’t matter anymore. Quite the opposite. If you’re a business owner, you should be present on several platforms where people can leave you a review (not just Google). Rather than chasing 5-star Google ratings, encourage your customers and clients to write a thoughtful and truthful review of their experience with your business.

And don’t forget to respond to your reviews. The way a business responds to its reviews is just as important as the reviews themselves, especially when it comes to criticism and complaints.

Google March 2025 core update rolling out now

In March 2025, Google released its March 2025 core update, which was set to take up to two weeks to complete. As with previous core updates, it aimed to improve the quality of search results.

It was the first core update of 2025, following the December 2024 update. Google core updates typically cause ranking fluctuations, with recovery possible between updates. As always, digital marketers and website owners should monitor search performance and focus on quality content to adapt to these shifts.

While no specific recovery actions are advised for sites negatively affected, Google emphasises creating helpful, people-first content. If you think your site has been affected by an update, it’s important to wait until the update has finished rolling out and not make any hasty changes to your site. It’s not uncommon for a site’s rankings to fluctuate while a Google update is being rolled out and then settle when it’s done.

If, after a core update is complete, your website has dropped in search rankings, read what to do when you lose Google search traffic or get in touch with our Mildura digital marketing team and we’ll help you work out why.

AI Writing Fingerprints: Identify (& Fix) AI-Generated Content

New research shows that AI writing models, including ChatGPT and Claude, leave identifiable “fingerprints” in their text, making it possible to determine which AI tool generated a piece of content with 97.1% accuracy.

Each AI model has its own linguistic and formatting tendencies, such as ChatGPT’s structured explanations and Claude’s concise summaries. These patterns persist even after text is rewritten or translated, which has real implications for both content authenticity and AI detection.

The bottom line? AI can be a great tool for completing tasks faster in your business, but you need to read through its output and make tweaks to give it a human touch (in other words, don’t just copy and paste text that ChatGPT generates and call it a day).

To make AI-generated content more human, you can vary sentence structure, replace certain phrases, adjust formatting and add personal insights. As search engines improve their AI detection, it’s important to blend AI with human creativity to produce valuable content that ranks well in search.

Rock Solid Marketing helps businesses in Mildura and across Sunraysia with SEO and web design. Contact us to talk about your website or your search plan.