Last Updated on June 10, 2026
Two core updates in ten weeks. That is what Google has done to the SEO world in 2026 so far, and we are not even past May.
The May 2026 core update started rolling out on 21 May. It will take up to two weeks to finish. And right now, thousands of UK business owners are refreshing their rankings, watching numbers bounce, and wondering if they need to “do something about SEO.”
Most of them will react wrong.
The Update Does Not Change What Good Content Looks Like
Google has said nothing new with this update. No new ranking systems. No special guidance. Just the same message they have repeated for three years: make useful, people-first content.
If that sounds vague, it is. But the vagueness is the point.
Google is not targeting a specific tactic or trick. It is getting better at judging whether your content actually helps someone or whether it exists purely to rank. Every update sharpens that judgement.
The businesses panicking right now are the ones who built their content around keywords rather than usefulness. If your blog is full of 500-word articles titled “What Is Digital Marketing” or “How to Use Social Media for Business,” those pages were always on borrowed time.
AI Overviews now appear on over 25% of all Google searches, and they have cut organic click-through rates by 61% on the queries they cover. That number doubled in twelve months. The informational content that many UK businesses built their SEO strategy around is being answered by Google itself, before anyone clicks.
What to Do If You Are at the START Stage
Do not touch your SEO. Seriously. If you are a UK business just getting going, your website probably has bigger problems than this update.
Check three things first:
- Does your homepage clearly explain what you do, who it is for, and why someone should care? If a stranger cannot answer those questions in five seconds, no algorithm update matters.
- Is your Google Business Profile complete and up to date? Local searches trigger AI Overviews far less often. The local pack still works.
- Are you collecting reviews? Real reviews from real customers still outperform any content strategy at this stage.
Fix those before you think about blog content or SEO tools.
What to Do If You Are at the BUILD Stage
This is where the update actually matters. If you have been publishing content regularly, now is the time to audit it.
Go through your existing blog posts and ask one question about each: does this page help someone make a decision, or does it just explain a concept?
Pages that explain concepts (“What is email marketing,” “How does PPC work”) are the ones AI Overviews are eating. Pages that help someone make a specific decision (“Should a plumber in Manchester spend money on Google Ads”) are much harder for AI to replace, because they require context, opinion, and local knowledge.
If more than half your content is the explainer type, shift your publishing towards decision content. Comparison posts, cost breakdowns, industry-specific guides, and honest reviews all perform better in a post-AI-Overview world.
What to Do If You Are at the SCALE Stage
You should already be tracking which of your pages are losing impressions to AI Overviews. If you are not, set up a weekly check in Google Search Console.
Look at your top 50 pages by traffic. Filter for informational queries. If any of those pages have dropped more than 20% in clicks over the past six months, AI Overviews are likely the cause, not this core update.
The fix is not to “optimise for AI.” The fix is to pivot those pages towards content formats that AI cannot replicate: original data, local benchmarks, named expert opinions, real case studies from UK businesses.
The Whito Take
Every Google update rewards the same thing: being genuinely useful. If you need a core update to remind you to write useful content, your content strategy was never a strategy. It was a keyword list with a blog attached.
This week: Open your website. Read your last five blog posts. For each one, ask: would I send this to a friend who runs a business? If the answer is no, you know what needs to change.
