March 2026 Core Update: Radar, Visibility Analysis and Background

From:

Aleyda SolisSteve Paine

Published: 29.03.2026

Modified: 14.04.2026

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• Google’s status page for the Core Update Start date: 27th March 2026. End date: 8th April 2026.
• For detailed information and data on all previous Google updates, see the SISTRIX update tracking page
• Information from Google on Core Updates about these broad changes to search algorithms and systems.

The last Core Update was in December 2025 when there were high levels of activity.

SISTRIX Google Update and Feature Update Radar

The daily view on SERP updates can always be viewed in our Google Update Radar which shows the current level of movement relative to the last 90 days. The radar graphics are an indicator of SERPs changes across 1 million SERPs every day. Graphs for UK and US are shown below:

The feature radars are also important to watch as these can show changes in the distribution of Google SERP features which, in turn, can have an impact on clicks going to websites.

Data and Analysis

Day-by-day updates are included below

The SISTRIX Update radar has shown large amounts of background change in recent weeks but using our extended daily data we are able to view the domains that have risen or fallen significantly during the Core Update.

UK – Winners and Losers

First, a look at the general trend across sectors. This graphic is based on the top 600 winning and losing established domains and is a good representation of what happened across sectors.

For example, across news media sites there was average absolute VI gain (more click potential), larger than the gain seen across the video gaming sites. Conversely losses were seen across informational media and education sites.

As always this is a zero-sum calculation when all (4m +) domains are taken into account. Wins are taken when other sites lose. Either losses and gains have occured between sectors listed above or there have been movements spread widely across other, smaller and perhaps more focused domains.

Winners and Losers list

This searchable, sortable list shows all domains used in the analysis above.

From other SEOs

Using SISTRIX data, other analyses have been made. Read the reports from other SEOs through the links below.

One of the clearest early patterns was a shift away from many intermediary, aggregator, directory, and quick-answer utility sites, and toward a smaller set of stronger destination brands, institutional sources, specialist sites, and dominant platforms. Aleyda Solis

The Press Gazette also used SISTRIX data for news media analysis and asked SEO Barrry Adams to comment:

“Disappointingly, neither this core update nor its preceding spam update have done anything to mitigate the abundance of spam and disinformation in Google’s AI Overviews, where self-serving listicles and low-effort content still easily manipulate citations and links.” – Source

Machine analysis

In parallel with our human-led data journalism processes we also applied a multi-stage AI analysis to SISTRIX data. Here is the summary of findings:

Authority beats interchangeability. This is the central message of the March 2026 Core Update in the UK, mirroring the pattern we found in Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Official brand shops gain at the expense of generic retailers. NHS trusts gain while third-party health content loses. The update rewards domains that are the natural first port of call for their topic.

The losses among reference sites and knowledge databases (Oxford Reference, Animal Diversity Web, convertunits.com, tvtropes.org) deserve attention. These sites offer content that is increasingly covered by AI-generated answers in search. Whether Google actively devalues them or whether this reflects a broader shift in search behaviour is a question the coming updates will answer.

Daily updates

31 March 2026 – No major movements across UK SERPS

The radar (updated, above) does not show any uptick in activity for this update yet but that is due to large amounts of background movement potentially masking the effects of this Core Update. There are, however, no absolute changes in the top 100 domains so the update is not be having a huge effect across the board.

Domain data from 31st March does reveal some candidate domains indicating that the update has started but in terms of established domains with a Visibility Index of over 1, there aren’t many examples.

There are no clear winners among established (VI >1) domains at this point.

Note that motors.co.uk is migrating to cazoo.co.uk in the UK right now so there may be some movements among car-related domains that are not related to the core update.

1st April 2026 – No major movements seen

More examples of domain changes are shown below. The first is from an Australian health website which has lost VI in many countries, including its source country. The site has a history of changes through core updates.

In the US, puppies.com:

venus.com in the US:

The domain has a long history of being impacted by Google algorithm changes, a feature of a domain’s visibility history that must always be taken into account when looking at the visibility fundamentals of a website.

2nd April 2026 – No major movements seen

The radar and top 100 domains remain stable. Additional candidate domains have been found some are shown below.

7th April 2026 – No major movements

The UK and US radars have continued to drop since the start of the Core Update indicating that the Core Update has not had a major impact. The Top 100 domains remain stable and show no signs of major absolute change or changes in trend.

In the smaller domains we continue to find candidate domains that prove, at least, that something is happening. For the domains affected, percentage changes can be quite significant.

We also have the first signs of domains that have gained visibility during the update:

There are also domains showing falls that begin on the 29th March:

8th April 2026 – No major movements.

In theory, this update should end in 2 days on the 10th of April so as we take a look at the current radar (above) for US and UK it is important to compare it to the radar as seen in December 2025 when the Core Update movements were clearly seen rising above background activity:

Other Country Radars – 8th April 2026

Here are the radars for other key countries:

Italy

Spain

France

Germany

Included here is a higher-resolution radar for Germany. The higher resolution reveals activity on the 28th, 29th of March and 3rd of April. The peak seen before the Core Update does not relate to any announced algorithm update.

The Netherlands

Sweden

Summary of findings for the March 2026 Core Update

The absolute size of the March Core Update wasn’t big in relation both to previous core updates and to the background level of change occurring across the SERPs at the time.

There’s a common agreement amoing SEOs, our data journalism team and through machine analysis, that informational content was impacted negatively by the March Core Update. This impact comes at a time when AIOs are drastically reducing the chance of a click while expanding their coverage, especially in informational searches.

News Media gained in general but because the levels of change were not that big, publishers may not see this as a game-changing event.