There’s a specific kind of conversation I often have with small business owners. It starts with frustration. Their traffic dropped suddenly, or leads dried up, or their site just isn’t showing up on Google anymore. Sometimes they’ve received a cryptic email from their hosting provider or noticed something off in their Google Search Console dashboard. Eventually, the word “algorithm update” floats to the surface.
Google’s March 2024 Core Update hit a lot of small businesses hard. It wasn’t a surprise to the SEO community—we’ve known for a while that Google was experimenting with new ways of identifying quality content and devaluing AI-generated clutter—but the scale of the impact was more aggressive than usual. Whole sections of previously high-ranking sites disappeared from search results overnight.
As someone who works at the intersection of design, strategy, and local SEO, I’ve been digging into how this update affected small businesses. Not just in terms of keyword rankings, but in the deeper, often-overlooked ways: their messaging, their sales pipeline, their confidence. This post is about understanding why this update hurt, what we can learn from it, and how small businesses can adapt—not just to recover lost traffic, but to build a more resilient, trustworthy web presence.
First things first: Google makes updates all the time. Some are minor tweaks; others—like a core update—are like reshuffling the entire deck. The March 2024 Core Update was a major overhaul specifically targeting low-quality and unoriginal content, with an emphasis on reducing spam and improving search relevance.
According to Google’s own documentation, the update aimed “to show less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks, and more content that is genuinely helpful.” That’s the phrase worth underlining: genuinely helpful. The algorithm got better at detecting whether a page was written for a person or a search engine.
This meant that AI-generated articles, content mills, and even some small business sites that relied too heavily on bloated templates, outdated service pages, or generic blog posts got swept off the first page of Google. It was less about penalizing and more about re-prioritizing. And for businesses competing locally, that shift was especially disruptive.
One of my clients, a home renovation company in Franklin, TN, lost half of its organic traffic within three weeks of the update rolling out. Their content wasn’t bad, but it was dated and structured around outdated SEO tactics: stuffing city names into headers, using repetitive service descriptions, and relying too much on boilerplate copy.
You know how older houses are more sensitive to changes in weather? That’s kind of how small, established local websites react to algorithm updates. They’ve been patched together with the best intentions but often lack the structural integrity that Google now demands. Updates that favor “authority” and “usefulness” often reward larger brands or publishers with dedicated content teams.
That can make local business owners feel like the game is rigged. And in a way, it kind of is. But the good news is that small, agile businesses can course-correct faster than big ones—as long as they know where to look.
In the weeks after the March update, I reviewed about a dozen small business sites I had either built, consulted on, or audited previously. Here’s a rough breakdown:
Small-town photographers. Yoga studios. Auto repair shops. Each one had a unique journey, but the pattern showed up again and again: the more tailored your content is to your real user, the more resilient it is to algorithmic change.
If I had to describe the essence of the March update in non-tech language, I’d say this: Google is looking for signs that a real human wrote this site for another real human in a specific context. That’s it. There’s nuance, yes, but if you internalize that, most of your copy, design, content, and SEO problems start to solve themselves.
This isn’t new, but it matters now more than ever. Google’s “EEAT” criteria have quietly become the backbone of how they evaluate content. It’s why a thin ‘Services’ page with a bullet list fails while a blog post discussing how you solved a specific client issue in Brentwood with before-and-after photos climbs the rankings.
Show that you’ve been there. Explain what makes your service different in a way that only someone who’s done the work would know. And name your city. Not just for SEO—because your audience deserves relevance.
A bloated site takes longer to load and confuses search engines. Webflow and well-built WordPress sites tend to fare better because they allow for precise control over structure and performance. One Webflow client of mine—a local florist in Murfreesboro—actually gained organic reach after the update, largely because we’d structured the site like a resource hub, not just a digital flyer.
This is the part that doesn’t get talked about enough. When your traffic disappears, it’s not just metrics. It’s fear. Uncertainty. Wondering if you made a mistake in choosing your platform, or provider, or strategy. It’s easy to spiral into second-guessing.
As a web designer with one foot in brand clarity and another in technical optimization, I see these moments as opportunities to zoom out. If your competitors are clawing for the same 10 keywords, maybe you need to own a different conversation entirely. Maybe your value isn’t best expressed in a services page but through a series of stories, case studies, or video explainers.
Algorithm updates often reveal more about your overall marketing gaps than they do about your ranking tactics. If your SEO was a crutch, this is the universe kindly asking you to build better infrastructure.
This is the part where we get practical. There’s no magic button to undo an algorithm hit, but there is a clear, business-savvy approach to rebuilding your SEO around what actually works today.
I had a chiropractic client whose blog was full of posts like “5 Stretching Tips for Back Pain.” It wasn’t bad per se, but it wasn’t unique. We replaced it with stories from actual patients (with permission), mapped out their care journey, and tied in useful video content. Rankings went up. But more importantly, clients started referencing the blog during appointments.
This is one that often gets missed on DIY sites or low-budget builds. Implementing schema helps Google understand the what, where, and why of your content. LocalBusiness schema, FAQ schema, and HowTo schema are especially useful. If your site is built on Webflow, you can add this through embedded code blocks or with third-party integration tools.
Read more from Google’s Structured Data documentation.
One of my Webflow clients shaved nearly 3 seconds off their homepage load time just by optimizing hero images and ditching some legacy scripts. Their bounce rate dropped immediately, and conversions improved within two weeks.
Topical clusters are the future. Instead of writing scattershot posts targeting random keywords, create thematic groups of content. For example, if you’re a local landscaper, build a cornerstone page about “Spring Landscaping in Middle Tennessee” and link out to subpages about lawn prep, native plants, irrigation, etc. This builds contextual relevance and proves depth of knowledge.
Google Business Profile (GBP, formerly Google My Business) still plays a huge role in local visibility. Make sure:
Small tweaks here can go a long way, especially when combined with location-targeted content on your site itself.
A good example: Meghan, who runs a boutique parenting coach business in Franklin, had her site built in Webflow in early 2023. I worked with her to build an intentional narrative through the site—pages weren’t just about “Parent Coaching,” but actually walked through life transitions, kids' age ranges, and family scenarios.
We included real testimonials, localized wording (“Middle Tennessee families”), and used schema markup to call out public speaking events and credentials. After the March 2024 update, her site’s organic traffic increased by 18%, even though she didn’t publish anything new during the rollout. Why? Because the content already felt like it was made for humans, not bots.
Not all content is platform-dependent, but platform limitations can definitely affect your SEO options. Here’s what I’ve seen:
I often suggest Webflow or custom WordPress as the backbone for clients serious about long-term SEO. But ultimately, human-centered content wins every time—regardless of platform.
The March 2024 Google Core Update was loud, messy, and disruptive—especially for small businesses relying on templated content or surface-level SEO. But in its wake, there’s a clear message: write for humans, not robots. Design with intention. Showcase expertise, experience, and empathy in every corner of your site.
For local businesses in Franklin and beyond, this isn’t just a tech issue. It’s a brand narrative shift. Your website isn’t a brochure; it’s your most trusted conversational tool. And search engines are finally reflecting that philosophy.
Recovering from an algorithm hit isn’t about tricks—it’s about truth. And the truth is that authenticity scales beautifully when rooted in structure, story, and sincere service.
Copyright © Zach Sean Web Design
