When the March 2026 Google core update hit, I couldn’t help but notice the dramatic shifts it created. Nearly 80% of the top search results were reshuffled. This update really boosted brands and official sites while leaving some aggregators scrambling to catch up.
I stumbled upon SE Ranking’s exclusive data, which highlighted how much more volatile the March update was compared to December 2025. Surprisingly, nearly one-in-four top-10 pages disappeared from the top 100 altogether!
The data breakdown. I saw increased volatility across all ranking tiers.
In the top 3, 79.5% of URLs changed positions, a notable jump from December’s 66.8%. Similarly, 90.7% shifted in the top 10, compared to 83.1% earlier.
Stability? Well, it took a nosedive. Only 20.5% of top 3 URLs stayed put, down from 33.1%, and in the top 10, stability fell to 9.3%, down from 16.9%.
Then there’s the churn: about 24.1% of pages in the top 10 vanished from the top 100, a significant rise from the 14.7% observed in December.
It’s (sort of) complicated. As I delved into it, I realized the core update began just a day after a significant spam update concluded, which made pinpointing the source of changes tricky. However, most disruption seemed to stem from the core update, with the spam update adding more chaos.
Diving deeper. Aleyda Solis’ analysis, using Sistrix data, revealed notable shifts from intermediary sites towards stronger, more authoritative sources. Sites that gained included:
– Official and institutional sites.
– Specialist and niche sources.
– Established brands.
– Dominant platforms.
On the flip side, aggregators, directories, and comparison sites saw declines.
Winners and losers. Solis pointed out interesting shifts: dictionary and language sites fell while major platforms rose; job aggregators lost visibility, whereas employer-specific sites like USAJobs gained.
Institutional sites saw fantastic gains on data-driven queries, with travel and real estate platforms shifting toward primary destinations. Health results were reordered with more emphasis on clinical and specialist sources.
Interestingly, YouTube experienced the most substantial visibility drop in this dataset.
Why it matters. From what I gathered, Google’s March update seems to have raised the ranking bar significantly. Strong brands and data-rich sources fared well, while intermediary sites are now more vulnerable.
Inspired by this post on Search Engine Land.
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