The March 2026 core update finished rolling out April 8. Over 55% of monitored sites saw ranking shifts. Strong brands and owned data won.
Google's March 2026 core update finished rolling out April 8, with over 55% of monitored sites seeing ranking shifts and some losing 20-35% organic traffic.
The March 2026 core update completed after a 12-day rollout, hitting 9.5 out of 10 on the SEMrush Sensor volatility scale.
Sites with proprietary data and direct answers gained ground while generic thought leadership and intermediary content got squeezed.
Australian businesses relying on repackaged content will feel this hardest as Google accelerates its preference for original research and first-party data.
SEO managers, content marketers and anyone whose organic traffic drives leads or revenue.
If your content could have been written by anyone, Google is increasingly likely to rank someone else above you.
Compare pre-update and post-update performance in Search Console now that the rollout is complete
Identify pages that lost rankings and assess whether they offer unique value or just repackage existing information