Updated on:
March 27, 2026
,
by Momentic
The first core update of the year - Google says it's a regular update expected to take about 2 weeks.
Rollout complete!
Rollout in progress!
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026
Rollout in progress!
Below you'll get tips on what to look for, how to respond on your website, and helpful resources to improve your website's SEO and UX as it relates specifically to this Google update.
So far in 2026 we've had the first-ever Discover Core update (or at least the first one that was officially announced) and the shortest-ever spam update just a couple of days ago. Google says that this core update, the first one of 2026, is a "regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites."
All websites, but especially websites with content created specifically to rank well in Google Search instead of being genuinely helpful to people.
1. Organic traffic trends, especially non-branded (Google Search Console)
2. Ranking flux & search visibility for high intent keywords (Semrush, Ahrefs, or similar)—look for ranking movements (higher or lower) for website content
3. Keep a close eye on your most valuable SERPs—look out for any changes in the content that is being ranked higher or lower than before the update
4. URL indexation trends (Google Search Console)
1. Check if the speed or E-E-A-T of your URLs could be a cause of traffic drops.
2. Make sure you haven’t deleted any pieces of content which were previously earning a high volume of organic search traffic.
3. Make sure your content that used to get traffic is still indexed.
4. Determine if significant changes have been made to your website structure or semantic HTML.
5. Prune your content to remove (or improve) unhelpful or non-unique pages. Monitor & track changes made to your website.
6. Track the changing relevance (perceived intent) of keywords related to your content.
Sometimes there's nothing you can do about traffic losses after a Core Update.
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