If your website traffic has been looking a little scrambled lately, you are not alone. The March 2026 Google Core Update has been one of the most disruptive rollouts in recent memory, and as a Denver SEO firm that lives and breathes this stuff, we have been watching it very closely on behalf of every single one of our clients. 

Since Red Egg has clients in dozens of different industries, when an update hits, we do not see it through just one lens. We see it across dozens of business types, content strategies, and competitive landscapes all at once. That kind of visibility is what allows our SEO strategists and copywriters to read the patterns early, adjust fast, and protect client performance before the damage compounds. 

Here is the honest truth: none of this surprised us. We have been tracking Google’s trajectory for years, and the writing has been on the wall for a while. There is no easy path to ranking, and there never really was. Google has always been moving toward rewarding genuine expertise, real human insight, and content that actually serves the person reading it. AI-generated content was always going to get caught in that crossfire eventually. This update is that moment. 

Algorithm volatility is the new normal, so the question is not whether your SEO strategy can survive one update. It is whether it is built to hold up through all of them. 

Here is what is happening, who it is affecting, and what we are doing about it. 

What the March 2026 Core Update Actually Did 

Google has always been on a mission to surface content that is genuinely helpful, written by real experts, and reflective of real human experience. This update turned that mission up several notches, with a particular focus on local and service-based search. 

The algorithm is getting much better at sniffing out content that exists just to rank rather than to actually help someone. And it is not shy about demoting it. 

Who Got Scrambled the Most 

Not every industry took an equal hit. The update has been especially rough on: 

• Local service businesses relying on templated geo pages to capture area-based searches 

• Finance, healthcare, and legal sites where thin content and lack of demonstrated expertise are now major red flags 

• Multi-location brands whose location pages are basically carbon copies of each other 

• Sites that mass-produced blog content to chase long-tail keywords without providing human-verified insights or any real brand perspective 

Sound familiar? If any of your pages fall into these buckets, keep reading. 

What We Are Doing About It (The Red Egg Game Plan) 

We are not just watching from the sidelines. Here is how we are responding for our clients. 

Real Images Over Stock Photos 

Google is getting better at understanding what makes a business feel legitimate and trustworthy. Stock photos are a red flag (not just because of the stiff poses and awkward smiles). If a company isn’t using any team or culture photos at all, how is Google going to believe they aren’t bots? Is all the content AI written? Is the company even real?  

This is why we are pushing clients to use real photos of their team, their space, their work, and their results. We’re updating bios and keeping “About” pages thorough and authentic. Human-generated visual content signals to Google that there are real humans behind the website, and that matters more now than it ever has. 

Being Thoughtful About AI Writing 

We know, we know, this one has been a moving target, even for a seasoned SEO firm. Google has gone back and forth on AI content, and honestly, so have we! Here is where we land right now: AI-assisted writing is fine as a starting point, but it needs genuine human editing, original insight, and brand voice layered on top. Content that reads like it came straight out of a prompt with zero human touches is increasingly being flagged as low quality. Red Egg has always kept our copywriting human, but we’re being extra careful about where we pull in Claude, and where we let our copywriters take the lead.  

Fixing Templated Pages  

Templated location pages, industry pages, and service pages are being recognized as thin content. So, for example, if your Denver location page and your Colorado Springs location page are exactly the page with the city names swapped out, Google knows, and it is not impressed. These pages need to be meaningfully different from each other, both in design and in copy. The writing needs to be human-written, locally specific, and distinct enough that it could not be auto-generated.  

Reviews Are More Important Than Ever 

While reviews have never been just a nice-to-have, they are being used as a huge trust signal that Google is weighing. What’s more, getting them in a steady, consistent flow is the key. A business that gets three reviews a year looks very different from one that gets three a month. Now is the time to consider a CRM or review generation integration into your regular business operations rather than treating it as a one-time push. 

Schema Markup Across the Board 

Don’t know what Shema is? Now’s the time to learn! Google wants you to add and audit structured data for every website. That means FAQ schema, Local Business schema, and any other relevant markup that helps Google understand what you do, where you do it, and who you are. This is one of the clearest ways to communicate authority and relevance directly to the algorithm. 

Level Up Case Studies 

Generic case studies are out. Deep-dive case studies with real data, technical analysis, and genuine expert commentary are in. This kind of content demonstrates expertise in a way that AI simply cannot fake, and Google is rewarding it. This is where your SEO firm can really step in to help, as case studies and portfolio pages are keyword-rich goldmines as it is. There’s a huge opportunity to rank for some really great keywords by showing a little TLC.  

The Bigger Picture: Technical SEO Is Not Optional Anymore 

Here is a direct quote we have been sitting with from the team at Scorpion, who have been tracking this update closely: 

“If geo pages are thin, rewrite them. If your site doesn’t clearly communicate your expertise and service area, address that. If your review strategy has been inconsistent, fix the process. If your site doesn’t have video, it’s time to start adding them. Technical SEO is becoming more and more important. Using schema, understanding the knowledge graph, and identifying rendering issues are going to be KEY to quality SEO strategies moving forward. Being on top of your tech SEO game is going to set you apart in the industry.” 

We could not agree more. The days of technical SEO being a nice bonus are over. It is now foundational. 

The New Frontier is Optimizing for AI Search  

The March 2026 update is not just about traditional search ranking. It is about a fundamentally changing search landscape shaped by AI. You’ve probably experienced it yourself: when you Google something and the AI Overview result appears, sometimes you take that at face value and move on! If your content isn’t being featured, there’s now a change your audience is going to miss it. Here are the things every SEO firm, including ours, needs to be building strategy around right now. 

From Search to “Fetch” 

Content now needs to be optimized for two distinct retrieval modes. The first is traditional ranking, which depends on crawlability and domain authority just like it always has. The second is what is being called “LLM Fetch,” where AI tools pull content directly to generate answers. For that second mode, your HTML needs to be lean, readable, and structured with a clear hierarchy. If your site is a technical mess under the hood, AI cannot parse it cleanly and will not cite it. 

AI Overviews Are Eating Organic Clicks 

Google’s AI-generated search summaries are reducing traditional organic click-through rates, sometimes by around 25%. The search result page is now answering questions directly rather than sending users to your website. The silver lining: being cited as a source in an AI Overview still builds authority. The challenge is that it does not necessarily drive traffic the way a ranked result used to.  

Relevance Over Volume 

Chasing high search volume is increasingly a losing game. What performs now is content that is highly targeted to specific user needs. This is actually why some of our niche, industry-specific content has been doing really well for certain clients! Focused, relevant content wins. 

Outdated Information Is a Risk 

Without active SEO management, AI tools may surface outdated or negative information about a brand. Old press, old pricing, old service offerings, old locations. If you are not actively managing your digital presence, the information vacuum gets filled with whatever happens to be out there. This is one of the clearest arguments we have ever had for why SEO is definitely not dead. It is just evolving fast. 

So, Where Does That Leave Us? 

The March 2026 Google Core Update is a signal, not a sentence. It is Google telling us, again (but more loudly this time) that real expertise, real people, real content, and real technical execution are the only things that hold up long-term! Which isn’t a problem for those of us out there keeping our white hats on and doing the hard work. The update has accelerated the timeline for some of our clients, but the direction has not changed. 

If you are not sure where your site stands after this rollout, or if you have seen drops in traffic and are not sure why, that is exactly what we are here to help with. Let’s get your rankings back on sunny-side up.