Google Update Alert: Prioritise User Experience for Higher Ranking

In March 2024 I wrote that Google's new core update meant it was time for a content audit. That turned out to be an understatement. The March 2024 update was the first of a long run of changes, and the biggest shift since has been in how search results look as well as how they rank.

What the March 2024 update actually did

According to Google's Search Status Dashboard, the March 2024 core update ran from 5 March to 19 April 2024. Google said it expected the update to cut low-quality, unoriginal content in results by 40%, and once it had finished it reported a 45% reduction. It arrived with three new spam policies: scaled content abuse (mass-producing pages to manipulate rankings, however they are made), expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse.

A week later, on 12 March 2024, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) replaced First Input Delay as the Core Web Vital for responsiveness. In plain terms, a page that loads quickly but responds slowly when you tap or click now scores poorly.

What has happened since

The same dashboard lists further core updates in August, November and December 2024, March and June 2025, December 2025, and March and May 2026. The May 2026 update finished rolling out on 2 June 2026. Throughout, Google's advice to site owners has stayed the same: make helpful, reliable content for people.

The bigger change is AI on the results page. Google says AI Overviews has over 2.5 billion monthly users and AI Mode has passed one billion. When Pew Research tracked 900 US adults in March 2025, people clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% without one. In June 2026 Google added Search Console reports showing how often your pages appear in these AI features, starting with a subset of sites.

What still holds

• Write for people first. Google's own guidance on helpful content asks who wrote a page, how it was made and why it exists.
• Show real experience. The same guidance describes experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). For a small firm, that means named authors, real examples and opinions you can stand behind.
• Be original. A rewrite of the top three results adds nothing for readers or for Google.
• Be open about AI. The guidance allows for AI-assisted content, but using automation mainly to manipulate rankings breaks Google's spam policies. It also suggests explaining how automation was used where readers would reasonably expect it.
• Make the site quick to use. Fast on mobile, responsive to taps, easy to navigate.

What I did with this blog

I took my own advice. The 38 articles on this site were first written in February and March 2024, and by 2026 many of their claims were out of date. Each one has been rewritten for October 2026 at the same address, with every statistic checked against a current source and linked, and anything I could not verify taken out.

Do not lean on search alone

Fewer clicks from search means a small business that relies on being found is relying on something it does not control. My view is that targeted outreach to a well-defined ideal client, with an easy opt-out, is far more reliable than hoping organic traffic converts. On every account we run that tried both, warm outreach to existing connections beat cold by 2x to 5x on reply rate. Good content still matters: it is what people read after your message arrives.

If you want both working together, see how we run done-for-you outreach.