Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Digital SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
Google has finished rolling out its latest March core update, following the latest spam update that took place across March 23-24th. The update started on March 27th and has just finished rolling out on the 8th April which means SEOs can now compare pre- and post-update organic performance to see how their sites have been affected.
What this means for Marketers
As with any core update, rankings are likely to change for better or for worse. If your rankings have dipped, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have violated one of Google’s policies, but they are constantly assessing content during the updates to see how appropriate it is for the end user. If your content has dropped in rankings and doesn’t regain positions within the next few weeks, looking at potentially enhancing these pages that have dropped off would be the correct approach moving forward.
Some in the SEO community have noted that the latest core update has not been as powerful as some recent core updates, such as the December 2025 core update, meaning volatile rankings are less likely. Keeping an eye on how your websites perform post-update for any positive or negative bounces is still key.
AsGlen Gabe writes for SERoundtable, “The March 2026 broad core update was a weird one. I’ve been documenting what I’ve been seeing via my “Core Update Notes” on X, and it just didn’t seem as powerful as some previous broad core updates. For example, the December 2025 broad core update was huge. We saw the update land quickly, and it was extremely powerful. The March 2026 broad core update didn’t land quickly and just didn’t seem to be as powerful. Sure, there were definitely sites that saw big surges or drops, but overall, the update seemed less powerful.”
Google didn’t release much information around the latest update, such as any goals the update was hoping to achieve, which can normally be found on their update companion blog. This also leads us to believe that the March Core Update was not as robust as some previous updates.
Google did announce in December that there would be smaller core updates rolling out in the coming year, so the latest March core update is what they were referring to.
Futureproofing against Core Updates
As with any core update, looking ahead into the future to make sure your rankings aren’t affected, there are several steps you can take to combat any large ranking volatility.
Making sure your content is up to date and thorough is one of the most important factors. If your content is thin and new sites are emerging with more robust and informational content, your rankings are likely to slip when a new update rolls around.
Also, make sure you aren’t breaking any of Google’s policies, which can cause extreme damage to Google rankings. Google has several policy guideline documents which take you through how to create good, ethical content. One of the latest policies that has been talked about widely in the SEO community is Google punishing sites that overly rely on AI for content writing, treating it as spam.
Following Google’s policies while creating detailed, accurate content will allow you to future-proof yourself from any core updates coming up.
