Google’s first core update of 2026 finished its rollout on April 8th. The March 2026 core update followed both Google’s spam update and discover update. Like with other core updates, SEO professionals across industries are on the lookout for sudden shifts in search traffic. It is extremely common to notice volatility leading to sudden spikes or dips in either impressions or clicks on Google. However, these spikes/dips can also be caused by other factors, including Google’s recent fix to a bug that inflated impression counts in Google Search Console. Regardless, it is important to expect changes in your metrics and, more importantly, understand how to address those changes.
Why Did My Google Impressions Drop in April 2026?
If you are noticing a sudden drop-off in Google impressions or clicks in your Google Search Console dashboard, it could be due to a few different causes. When Google finishes the rollout of a core update, it is common to see rankings suddenly shift.
The prevalence of AI summaries and AI mode on Google has been reported as a potential cause for drops in both organic impressions and clicks. This is especially true with blog content and content aimed at answering questions. Many webmasters have reported significant drops in traffic, but conversely, improvements in conversions and conversion rates. This is because the blog/informational content was less likely to receive clicks since content is frequently summarized in AI responses, which do not require the user to go to the article.
Moreover, since September 2025, Google has been making adjustments that have decreased impression counts. In September 2025, Google changed how users can view search results. Before the update, SEO tracking programs could easily search for the top 100 results for any search term. After the update in September, Google made it so that these systems can only easily view the first 20 results. This greatly decreases impressions for keywords where websites rank between 21 and 100, especially for keywords that are frequently researched on third-party platforms. This has caused many to notice 30-70% dips in impressions, while also seeing improvements in CTR and average position. It is important to understand that this is not impacting website traffic or clicks, because it is just preventing bots from easily recording the top 100 results.
In March 2026, Google announced that it had noticed a bug that was causing issues logging impressions, leading to inflated impression counts. Their fix for this bug will also cause impressions to drop. According to Google, this issue began in May 2025 and has been continuous until now. It will take a few weeks, but when it is fixed, users should expect to see a drop in impressions. Like the change in September, this update will not impact clicks or traffic. So if your impressions are dropping but your organic traffic is remaining the same
Finally, the core update will likely cause websites to see shifts in their organic metrics.
What Should You Do If Your Impressions/Clicks/Traffic Drop After A Core Update?
Rash decisions or quick fixes usually have little to no positive impact on your SEO performance. If you experience a sudden drop-off in clicks, impressions, or organic traffic to your website, you should adopt a few strategies. First and foremost, waiting is important. After the rollout of a core update, volatility is to be expected. Things usually even out after a bit, but more importantly, SEO professionals are able to share and compare data, and can reverse engineer the update. After a few weeks, SEO professionals will often note trends or similarities between websites that saw peaks or dips in traffic; likewise, Google staff members will often answer clarifying questions. The most important thing to do from an SEO perspective is to focus on people-first content. Frequently, Google’s updates target content that is over-engineered for the purposes of SEO. Keyword stuffing, link farming, black hat SEO tactics, and other spammy practices are all reasons why sites that were performing well often see a drop-off after an update. You should always consider whether or not the content you are creating provides value to the reader. Helpful content that provides clear information is rarely penalized by Google. Content that aligns with Google’s EEAT principles tends to perform the best.