Updates to Google algorithms are sometimes a bit like buses. Two can come along at once, just like the old saying goes, but they are also lethal if they run you over.
Some websites are finding that both of those things are true after Google updated both their Spam Algorithm and their Core Algorithm in March this year (2026).
As with the double hit of those two algorithms updating back in December 2024, some of the effects on established, trustworthy websites have been seismic, with Search Engine Land reporting 79.5% of top-three URLs changing position, 90.7% of top-10 URLs shifting, and 24.1% of top-10 pages falling out of the top 100.
How do Google algorithm updates work?
You’re probably familiar with the saying “moving the goalposts”, which for those who don’t like simile means making it impossible to score, because the thing you were aiming at suddenly isn’t there anymore.
That’s the best way to describe how it works, except instead of a ball, you’ve got content that’s been ranking for commercially-viable keywords, and instead of a goal you’ve got Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (or SERPs, for short).
What did the March 2026 Google algorithm update do?
The clearest trend was a move away from generic middle-layer content and towards websites that Google appears to see as more direct, authoritative or useful destinations.
How did the March Google update affect eCommerce stores?
In eCommerce, some retailers lost visibility, particularly those ranking for broad product or category searches where many competitors offered similar pages. At the same time, stronger brands, manufacturers, specialist retailers and clear product destinations often gained.
Previous updates have already indicated that we’re now in a place where big brands are more likely to come out on top, both for search results and in AI citations, and this one has done nothing to indicate anything else.
To an extent, the shifts suggest that Google was asking, “Is this the best place for the user to complete their task?”, which is very much in line with their core mission.
For example, a generic category page with standard product listings and manufacturer copy may now struggle if Google can show a brand, marketplace, specialist retailer or better-structured buying guide instead. The same applies to content-led ecommerce pages. A “best X” article that simply rounds up products without first-hand expertise, original insight or genuine usefulness is increasingly vulnerable.
That’s going to be punishing for retailers who’ve been focused on a quick-turnaround blog strategy that’s not drawing on the internal expertise that makes employee input so valuable. Adding something “new” is the key, and experience will create that naturally. It’s then up to you, or your marketers, to draw that out.
eCommerce winners and losers: not all retailers were treated equally
The most useful ecommerce lesson from the March updates is that retailers were split by value, not category.
Brand-led and specialist eCommerce sites were more resilient, which is neither surprising nor a lot of help for smaller businesses. Retailers with clear authority, strong product relevance, distinctive range depth or direct brand demand were better placed than broader retailers competing on interchangeable search terms.
The more exposed sites tended to share the same weaknesses:
- Thin category pages with little unique content or merchandising logic
- Product pages using standard supplier descriptions
- Large numbers of near-identical pages targeting similar terms
- Generic buying guides that did not add much beyond what competitors already offered
- Heavy reliance on non-branded organic traffic
- Weak evidence of real expertise behind the content
The practical takeaway that your eCommerce SEO can’t rely on theoretically technically correct, but actually commercially generic, pages.
A category page should help your customer choose between the items that you sell, but also needs to make a case as to why you’re the best choice to buy it from. Identify and answer the questions that matter before purchase, and if you’re creating and using buying guides, make sure they show evidence of expertise, not just a summary of what’s already obvious from the product feed.
How did the March Google algorithm update affect B2B websites?
Just as not every window is a door, not every business website is eCommerce. Outside eCom, similar movements appeared in sectors where Google has to make trust-based decisions.
In jobs, education, finance, real estate and travel, visibility often shifted away from aggregators, directories or broad comparison sites, and towards official providers, institutions, brands or more direct sources.
That is an important point for B2B websites, who have often built their SEO strategies around informational content: explainers, guides, comparison pages, FAQs and industry commentary. That approach still has value, but it’s going to take some work to shore up what’s already been produced with that same element of “only we can tell you this”, which is when the content demonstrates genuine expertise and clear usefulness.
Thanks to AI, a generic “What is X?” blog post is easier than ever to produce, which also makes it easier than ever for Google to ignore. The future of B2B SEO is going to be won by publishing content that proves experience, demonstrates authority and gives the reader something they cannot get from ten other search results.
The legal sector has taken a big hit
The legal sector is a particularly useful example because it combines local SEO, high-value enquiries and strong trust requirements.
After the March updates, reports from the legal sector suggested that many law firm websites lost visibility, especially in highly competitive areas such as personal injury and criminal defence. These are areas where search results are saturated with pages targeting very similar terms, a lot of which are geographic: “car accident lawyer in [city]”, “criminal defence solicitor in [location]”, “personal injury lawyer near me”, and so on.
The problem is not exactly the keyword targeting – many of these sites have done very well for years, and know what they’re doing when it comes to high-quality content that supports their keyword growth. The problem is that too many of these pages say almost the same thing, simply because there isn’t a lot you can say if you don’t want to put your neck out, which isn’t desirable for a sector that’s understandably ruled by risk.
It’s probably the end of a favourite tactic for law firms who are dependent on local business. Historically, a set of templated location pages has been the go-to for building that local profile within Google. A page that swaps one town or city name for another but otherwise says the same thing as ten other pages in your site structure might have been viable before, but it does little to prove why your firm is the right choice so it’s time to rethink that tactic.
What’s also been hit hard is legal commentary. It’s common for law firms to publish insight into changes in law, but the preference for that is now firmly with governmental websites and sources of insight that don’t have a commercial interest in turning views into sources of new work.
For their service pages, legal SEO now needs stronger evidence of real-world expertise. That might include:
- Named solicitor involvement
- Clear author credentials (also great for AI citation, so worth investing in)
- Properly developed team profiles
- Real case experience, where compliant
- Practice-specific insight
- Local context that is genuinely useful
- Clear regulatory and professional trust signals (so more reason to enter into Directories)
- Content that reflects how clients actually ask questions
For the legal commentary piece, it’s a bleaker picture at present. There’s no way to immediately override a preference within Google, so it will be a case of looking at those few sites who haven’t been affected in order to unpick what they’re doing that nobody else is.
Ongoing keyword losses may not be temporary
One of the more important observations from the March updates is that ranking losses have continued long, long after the official rollout dates ended.
That isn’t unusual, because core updates often create an initial period of volatility, followed by a new baseline where some sites recover, some continue to move, and others settle into a lower position. There will always be equal parts winners and losers, because that’s the nature of the game.
What’s unusual this time is that we’re over a month out from the update and some sites have continued to lose keywords ever since. That makes it really hard to strategise, because you need to know what you’ve lost before you can plan how to take it back.
For eCommerce websites, the concern may be category and product visibility. For law firms and other professional-service businesses, it may be local service pages or informational guides that previously supported enquiries. The likelihood for the latter is that this needs to be treated as a permanent shift, instead of a blip that can be fixed with simple changes to page content. Google wants to surface content from government and regulatory sites above your insight, so you need to know where to direct your recovery in order to make sure that effort isn’t wasted.
What can you do to recover lost keywords?
The wrong response to a core update is to go at it without a plan, or a clear idea of the field you’re playing on.
Just adding more content won’t offer a fix if the cause is an underlying quality, trust or differentiation issue. In many cases, it may make the problem worse, especially if the new content is generic, AI-assisted and only loosely connected to what Google thinks your users need.
Firstly, you need to know if you’ve been affected. With the breadth of this update the likelihood is that you have, but if you don’t know how to find out then we can help you.
Once you have an accurate picture, it’s time to put a recovery plan into action. We always start with the pages that previously drove rankings, revenue or enquiries, then ask whether they still deserve to be the best result for the query when compared to the current front-runners.
For eCommerce sites, we review whether key product and category pages offer enough value beyond the product feed. Do they help customers choose? Do they include useful filters, original descriptions, comparison detail, delivery information, sizing guidance, reviews or expert commentary?
For B2B websites, it means reviewing whether service pages explain the offer clearly, show evidence of expertise and differentiate the business from competitors.
For law firms particularly, it means moving beyond generic practice-area copy and showing real professional authority through people, credentials, process, experience and trust signals.
Across every sector, the questions are similar:
- Is this page genuinely useful?
- Does it show first-hand expertise?
- Does it answer the user’s real question?
- Is it meaningfully different from competing pages?
- Does it make clear why this business is credible?
- Is it the best destination, or just another option?
The larger lesson from March 2026
Google’s March 2026 updates are potentially devastating, but they’re also business as usual. We’re all beholden to their whims, and what they want today is very different to what they wanted ten years ago.
As AI-generated and templated content becomes easier to produce, Google has more reason to reward pages that demonstrate real value. That does not mean every website needs to become a publisher, and it does not mean SEO is becoming less important. If anything, it has to cope with some even heavier lifting now, as it has to bring in both humans and the bots that are putting together AI answers to queries.
Many of us have already been pushing towards it for years, but SEO has to become more closely connected to brand, expertise, user experience and commercial usefulness. That can be tricky if your stakeholders are expecting it to work via a few magic words
The websites most likely to thrive are those that can prove they are worth choosing, by becoming a better buying destination, showing genuine expertise and building trust into the core structure, content and experience of the website.
Help with your search engine optimisation visibility and strategy
If you’re reading this and wondering if you’ve been affected by the changes, get in touch. We’ll be happy to send you a free report that shows exactly what your current situation is, and if it’s bad news, we can help you to recover. The important thing is that help is available, if you need it.
