In an online world that spins faster every day, small businesses often feel like they’re catching their breath just as the rules change again. SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it tool. It’s more like a relationship: it needs your time, attention, and the humility to shift your strategy when behaviors and algorithms do. If 2024 taught us anything, it’s that Google’s algorithms are no longer just about keywords and backlinks. Particularly with the introduction of Google's March 2024 Core Update, many small business owners woke up to analytics dashboards colored in red, wondering how visibility and traffic vanished seemingly overnight.
For folks who don’t live and breathe web design or search data, trying to make sense of an algorithm update feels like being handed a manual written in Sanskrit. That’s where I come in. I want to walk you through what this update really means—not in a way that makes you more confused, but in a way that connects to how you already think about your business, your brand voice, and the customers you're trying to reach. We’ll talk real-world examples, practical strategies, and what this update shows us about the future of online visibility for small businesses. Spoiler alert: empathy, clarity, and substance are the new SEO powerhouses.
Before we get to the ripple effects, let’s start with the stone that hit the water. Google’s March 2024 Core Update wasn’t just a tweak to the usual machine-learning knobs. It was a more foundational shift in how the search engine defines authority, relevance, and helpfulness across content on the web. If you've heard the term “Helpful Content System” tossed around, that initiative went from experimental to mainstream with this rollout.
Google explicitly stated in their own changelog that their helpful content classifier is now part of the core ranking system. What this means in practice is that thin, low-effort, or overly templated content will struggle even more to gain traction. For small businesses banking on generic blog posts generated through AI or produced in bulk by outsourcing mills, visibility took a hit.
This update specifically targeted websites that published hundreds or thousands of articles with similar content structures or information, in an effort to ‘scale’ their SEO. This was particularly damaging for sites using the “programmatic SEO” model where things like location pages or service variations followed the same syntactic structure across dozens of URLs. A Nashville plumber had a page for “drain cleaning in Antioch,” “drain cleaning in Brentwood,” and so on. All of those pages looked the same with slight keyword tweaks—and many of them disappeared from search overnight.
This tells us something significant: scale without personalization is now a liability.
When algorithm changes occur, it’s rarely a binary drop from the rankings. It’s more like a slow leak in organic traffic, conversion tracking hiccups, or sudden changes in user engagement. I’ve had several small business clients reach out between March and May this year with a common concern: “Our traffic is down, but we haven’t changed anything.”
A client of mine runs a charming locally-owned coffee shop just outside Franklin. They had built a compelling digital presence using Wix and leaned heavily into a blog that shared everything from brewing guides to barista interviews. Before the update, their “best coffee shops in Franklin” post was ranking #3 in local search. After the update? It plummeted to page 5.
When we reviewed the page, it was clear it followed a copy-paste listicle formula: “Top 10 Coffee Shops in Franklin.” While it was accurate, it lacked depth, originality, and personal perspective—everything the new algorithm deprioritized. By rewriting it from the founder’s voice and embedding backing data, unique insights about the community, and hands-on photography, we saw a slow but steady return to page one over three months.
Another client—this time a landscaping company—used Yoast SEO on Wordpress and had strict instructions for interns to write weekly posts optimized with a four-keyword checklist. It technically “checked boxes,” but every blog felt like it could have been written by AI. After the update, 60% of those blogs lost ranking. We reshifted the editorial strategy, merged redundant content, and created a “Seasonal Landscaping in Franklin” guide written by the company’s founder. The human voice in that post made a difference—and so did the real testimonials we added.
This update was a clear signal: content that exists just to exist doesn’t serve your audience—or you. Google’s algorithm increasingly behaves like a discerning human reader. It wants content that speaks directly to the searcher, reflects genuine expertise, and acknowledges the user’s intent beyond a keyword match.
Small business owners often obsess over rankings by keyword. But after this algorithm, it's better to focus on how helpful, original, and aligned your content is with the user’s question.
I’ve been in meetings where businesses believe that compressing images and speeding up their sites are enough to get traffic. Those things matter—they’re like making sure your physical storefront has working lights and a clean floor. But with this algorithm, the metaphor has changed. A shiny exterior isn’t enough. People are walking past your store if the inside feels empty or identical to the one next door.
Each of these platforms offers tools for optimizing content—but tools don’t substitute strategy. Webflow let us do semantic HTML markup very easily, and the custom class control helps with responsiveness and user intent matching. Squarespace tends to box users in with rigid templates that can look beautiful but struggle with mobile nuances and structured data unless carefully adjusted.
My suggestion? Use the platform that best aligns with your workflow and level of control. But no matter what you choose, your content’s helpfulness now outweighs any technical tricks. A slow page with rare, thoughtful insights may actually outrank a perfectly compressed, architecturally ideal page full of filler.
Let’s talk empathy. Google’s algorithm is trying to act like a helpful librarian, not a vending machine. It doesn’t just want to spit out what people ask for—it wants to give them what they actually mean, with context. This means that content must come from a place of real understanding.
Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—combined, these make up what Google calls its E-E-A-T guidelines. You’ll find this concept emphasized in their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines used internally to test results. It’s not a ranking signal in a traditional sense, but these values noticeably connect with what gets ranked higher now.
One local Pilates studio I consulted had a great offer but minimal content. I asked the owner to do a video walkthrough of their intake process and turn it into a blog. We added timestamps, photos, and answered FAQs that visitors regularly asked. The post now ranks for multiple “what to expect” related queries—simply because it was real and relevant.
Feeling confused is normal. Many small business owners feel blindsided by SEO shifts and don’t know how to get their bearings. I’ve found the easiest way forward is a practical site audit—nothing with hundreds of pages of jargon, just a reasonable checklist rooted in your content’s purpose and clarity.
Tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog are useful—but don’t fall into the trap of treating them like crystal balls. They don’t define what’s helpful—they just measure signals. Make sure you're using feedback to refine the experience you deliver, not just chase metrics.
Algorithm updates tend to move us closer to common sense, not away from it. If you think back to the early days of your business—the first real conversations you had with clients—you’ll remember that trust and resonance came from clarity, energy, and helpfulness. The web is no different now.
SEO is no longer a numbers game. It’s a trust game. As we steer into the second half of this decade, search engines are telling us that people are tired of fluff. They want interpretations, comparisons, emotions, and curated details. That’s what great content delivers. And it’s the deep understanding of your customer that gives you the edge. Generic tactics can’t replicate that.
Zach Sean Web Design isn’t just about putting sites on the internet. It’s about helping creators, makers, and business builders show the world who they really are. The beauty of the March 2024 update is that it rewards the kind of work most small business owners want to be doing anyway: honest, personal, and helpful communication.
Your path forward isn’t just “adjust to the algorithm.” It’s to align everything—your wording, layout, structure, and storytelling—with the heart of your business. Google is telling us loud and clear: the best digital presence wins, not the biggest one. And in a web filled with noise, being that voice that listens, understands, and guides? That’s what unlocks sustainable SEO in 2025 and beyond.
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