Google’s March 2026 core update finished rolling out on April 8th. SEO analyst Aleyda Solis has done a fantastic and thorough breakdown of the US visibility shifts, and one pattern runs through almost every vertical she looked at.
Google is pulling traffic away from the middle and giving it to the destination.
That’s the short version. Here’s what it means:
What “the middle” looks like
In almost every sector Aleyda analysed, the sites that lost visibility weren’t weak or spammy. They were the aggregators, directories, comparison sites, and quick-answer utilities that sit between a user and what they’re really looking for.
Job boards like ZipRecruiter and SimplyHired lost significant visibility. Travel comparison sites like Travelocity and Hotwire dropped sharply. Rental directories like Apartment Guide and Rent.com took a battering. Broad health information sites like Healthgrades and Verywell Health declined. Dictionary and language reference sites – sites that exist purely to answer quick lookups – were among the hardest hit of all.
What they have in common is that they’re interchangeable. If ZipRecruiter disappeared tomorrow, you’d use Reed. If Travelocity vanished, you’d go to Expedia. They compete for the same broad queries without owning any of them.
Google appears to have decided that’s not good enough anymore.
Who won instead
The winners across the same keyword sets were the destination websites. Official sources – government sites, institutional domains, primary data providers – did well on fact-heavy searches. Specialist sites with a clear, defined focus gained ground in health and jobs. Established category leaders with strong brand recognition consolidated visibility in real estate and finance.
Amazon.jobs gained 242% – not a job board, but the actual employer. USAJobs gained 25% – the official source, not an aggregator of official sources. Medical journals and specialist clinical sites gained in health while general consumer health publishers dropped.
The clearest summary from Aleyda’s analysis is that the more your site sits between the user and the answer, the more exposed it is. The more it is the answer, the better it seems to be positioned.
What this has to do with your B2B website
You’re probably not running a job board or a travel comparison site. But the same logic applies to how Google looks at your service pages.
If your website could be swapped out for a competitor’s without anyone noticing – same service descriptions, same generic claims, same “we deliver results for our clients” waffly bollocks – you’re sitting in the middle. You’re interchangeable. And interchangeable is exactly what this update seems to have penalised.
The businesses that hold their ground in updates like this are the ones Google can clearly identify as the destination for a specific type of search. Not a directory of accountancy services – an accountancy firm in Shrewsbury that specifically works with manufacturing SMEs. Not a general marketing agency – a B2B copywriter who works exclusively with SaaS companies. Not a vague “business consultancy” – a specialist in construction company HR.
Google is getting better at identifying what kind of source a site is, and whether that source is actually the right place to send someone for a given query. If your website answers that question clearly – through specific, detailed, useful content that demonstrates genuine expertise in a defined area – you’re doing what this update rewards.
The part that’s good news for small businesses
Large aggregators lost. Smaller, more specialist destinations gained.
That’s not a bad outcome if you’re a specialist. You’re not trying to compete with Reed for every job-related query in the UK – you’re trying to rank for the specific thing you do, for the specific people who need it. That’s a much more winnable game, and Google appears to be making it more winnable, not less.
The pattern is consistent. Be the thing, not the thing that points to the thing.
What should you do now?
Look at your service pages. Do they clearly communicate a specific expertise for a specific audience? Or could they be on any competitor’s website with a name change?
If a potential client landed on your page and couldn’t immediately tell what you specialise in, who you work with, and why you’re the right choice – that’s where to start. Not because of this update specifically, but because that’s what Google has been moving towards for years. This update just made the direction clearer.
The full analysis from Aleyda Solis is worth reading if you want to dig into the vertical-by-vertical data.
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