Learn what’s working now in SEO, what changed, and what to do next.
Google began the April 2026 Core Update on April 8, still rolling out as of April 18. Early tracking data shows some of the largest reranks in recent memory, concentrated in YMYL niches (health, finance, legal, news). Expect continued volatility through month-end.
An 8-day product-reviews update ending March 25 rewarded reviewers who demonstrably test products and penalised aggregator-style content. First update since product-review signals were merged into the core ranking system.
A 21-day broad core update completed on March 12. Google confirmed the former Helpful Content system is now fully integrated into core ranking signals, and small sites with genuine expertise saw the largest gains of any core update in three years.
Google significantly expanded its algorithmic enforcement of the site-reputation-abuse policy. Pages hosting third-party or affiliate-heavy content on authoritative domains now lose the domain's ranking authority and compete on their own merit.
Google rolled out a 12-day spam update targeting AI-generated content farms, expired-domain abuse and scaled-content manipulation. Heavy volatility hit niches like finance, health and how-to content.
