We’ve just wrapped Q2 of 2026, and the digital world has once again refused to behave like a sensible adult.
Between Google core updates, AI search visibility, accessibility expectations, conversion pressure and Umbraco’s AI roadmap, April to June gave businesses plenty to think about. Possibly too much, if we’re being honest. Nobody asked for their CMS, their SEO strategy and their UX priorities to all evolve at the same time, but here we are.
As ever, the real question is not “what changed?” It is “what actually matters, and what should we do about it?”
At Gecko, we keep an eye on the shifts that are worth caring about, so our clients do not have to spend their evenings reading search volatility charts, accessibility guidance and CMS roadmap updates while quietly losing the will to live.
So here’s our Q2 roundup: the key trends across SEO, UX and Umbraco, plus what we think businesses should actually do next.
Search Volatility Is Not Going Anywhere
Q2 was a busy one for SEO, mainly because Google decided that one core update was not quite enough excitement for everyone.
April was largely about understanding the impact of Google’s March 2026 core update, which started on 27 March and completed in April. Then May brought another core update, beginning on 21 May and completing on 2 June. In plain English: a fair chunk of Q2 search data needs to be handled with care, not panic.
That matters because performance shifts during and immediately after core updates can be misleading. Rankings move. Traffic fluctuates. Competitors pop up in places they were not before. Someone inevitably opens a spreadsheet and says, “Interesting,” which is rarely comforting.
But the worst thing businesses can do is react too quickly without understanding what actually changed.
A drop in rankings does not always mean a page is broken. A rise in traffic does not always mean a page is doing a useful job. And a month of volatility does not mean your whole SEO strategy needs to be shoved into a bin and replaced by a 90-day panic plan.
The smarter approach is to look at patterns.
Which pages gained visibility? Which ones lost it? Were changes page-specific, query-specific or sitewide? Did competitors gain because their content was deeper, clearer or more trusted? Are your most important pages still matching user intent properly?
Because that is where the useful answers tend to be hiding.
What we’re doing about it
We’re helping clients treat core updates as diagnostic moments, not fire drills.
That means reviewing performance before, during and after the March and May updates, then separating the genuinely important movements from the usual search engine wobble.
We’re looking closely at content depth, search intent, internal linking, proof points, page structure and whether key pages are still giving users what they came for. We’re also helping clients avoid the classic post-update mistake: changing everything at once, then having absolutely no idea what worked.
Very satisfying in the moment. Absolutely useless for learning.
AI Search Is Becoming Harder to Ignore
AI search moved further into the “yes, we should probably have a plan for this” category during Q2.
The research referenced in our source material found that AI Overviews appeared for a notable share of queries overall, and much more often for question-based searches. It also suggested that nearly 30% of domains cited in AI Overviews did not appear in the co-displayed first-page organic results.
That last bit is the interesting part.
It suggests AI visibility is not simply the same thing as traditional ranking visibility. Being on page one still matters, obviously. We’re not throwing SEO in the sea. But AI-generated search results may choose sources differently, especially when they are looking for clear, structured, trustworthy answers.
So brands need to think beyond “where do we rank?” and start asking “are we useful enough to be referenced?”
That is a slightly different game.
It puts more pressure on content clarity, topical authority, structured answers, expert input, original insight and trust signals. In other words, the stuff that good SEO should have cared about anyway, but now with fewer hiding places.
What we’re doing about it
We’re helping clients with AI search visibility alongside traditional organic performance.
That includes reviewing priority service terms, informational searches and question-based queries to see whether brands are appearing, being cited, or being completely ignored by the machines. Rude, but useful to know.
We’re also shaping content so it is easier to understand, extract and trust. That means clearer summaries, better FAQs, stronger internal linking, more useful page sections and fewer vague paragraphs that sound impressive but tell the reader almost nothing.
Because if your content sounds like it was written to please a committee, it probably will not help a human or an AI system very much.
UX Is Carrying More Commercial Weight
Q2 was another reminder that getting people to a website is only half the job.
With search visibility becoming more volatile, businesses need to make more of the traffic they already have. That puts UX right at the centre of commercial performance, where it belongs.
May was especially useful for looking at conversion journeys, mobile experiences, enquiry forms, CTA placement and page hierarchy. Not the glamorous stuff, perhaps, but very often the difference between “we had traffic” and “we had leads”.
A website can have great rankings and still quietly sabotage itself.
The CTA might be buried. The form might be too long. The mobile menu might be awkward. The page might take too long to explain what the business actually does. The trust signals might appear after the user has already lost interest and gone off to make toast.
Small bits of friction add up quickly.
And when search is unpredictable, conversion efficiency matters even more.
What we’re doing about it
We’re helping clients review the journeys that actually matter.
That means looking at routes like homepage to enquiry, service page to contact form, blog post to related service page, campaign landing page to conversion, and mobile navigation to key action.
We’re also putting more focus on trust near conversion points. Reviews, case studies, accreditations, team profiles and relevant proof points should not be hidden away like emergency biscuits. They need to appear where users are making decisions.
The goal is simple: make it easier for people to understand, trust and act.
Not by tricking them. Not by plastering the site with twelve pop-ups and a chatbot called Brian. Just by removing unnecessary friction and giving users what they need at the right moment.
Radical stuff, apparently.
Accessibility Is Still One of the Biggest UX Opportunities
Accessibility remained a major UX theme throughout Q2, and not just because it is the right thing to do.
Accessible websites are usually clearer websites. Faster to understand. Easier to navigate. Better structured. More usable for more people. This is not charity work for the interface. It is good digital practice.
WCAG remains the core accessibility standard, with WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 forming the current international guidance for making web content more accessible. UK guidance also points to the importance of accessible components, clear status messages, modal behaviour and compatibility with assistive technologies.
And yet, the basics are still where many websites fall down.
Colour contrast. Form labels. Keyboard access. Focus states. Alt text. Error messages. Mobile tap targets. Clear headings. Readable content.
None of this sounds especially futuristic, which is probably why it gets neglected. But these are the things that shape whether people can actually use your website without wanting to gently close their laptop and walk into a field.
What we’re doing about it
We’re treating accessibility as part of everyday UX and development, not something that gets awkwardly stapled on at the end when everyone is tired and pretending the deadline is fine.
That means checking contrast, labels, keyboard navigation, focus states, alt text, form behaviour and mobile usability as part of wider site improvement.
We’re also helping clients understand accessibility as a commercial and reputational issue, not just a compliance one. If users struggle to read, navigate, complete forms or understand what is happening on a page, that affects trust. And trust affects enquiries.
Very few people fill in a contact form on a website that has just made them feel stupid.
Umbraco Maintenance Still Matters - Even When It Sounds Boring
Q2’s Umbraco story was not all shiny AI assistants and futuristic editorial workflows.
A lot of it was the practical, necessary, unsexy stuff: versions, patches, packages, performance, caching, forms, media handling, analytics and editor experience.
Yes, we know. Nobody opens a board meeting with, “Great news, we reviewed our package compatibility.”
But this is the work that keeps websites healthy.
April was a good moment to review site maintenance and editor experience. Is the site on a supported Umbraco version? Are packages still maintained? Can editors create and update pages easily? Are SEO fields manageable? Is the media library organised, or has it become a haunted cupboard full of enormous PNGs?
May then shifted towards technical foundations: page speed, security, caching, hosting performance, form reliability and tracking.
These things sit behind SEO and UX more than many businesses realise. A slow website affects users and search performance. Broken forms lose leads. Poor content workflows slow marketing teams down. Messy analytics make decision-making feel like reading tea leaves in a thunderstorm.
What we’re doing about it
We’re helping clients keep Umbraco sites in good working order before problems become expensive, inconvenient or both.
That means reviewing version support, packages, dependencies, hosting, performance, forms, analytics and day-to-day editor workflows.
We’re also looking for small improvements that reduce unnecessary reliance on developers. If a client needs to raise a support ticket every time they want to update a landing page properly, something in the CMS experience probably needs improving.
A good Umbraco setup should give teams control without letting the whole thing descend into content anarchy.
There is a balance. We rather like finding it.
Umbraco’s AI Direction Is Getting More Useful
The more interesting Umbraco theme in June was AI-assisted editing.
Umbraco’s roadmap includes an AI assistant targeted for Q2 2026, supporting Umbraco 17+. The examples in the roadmap include creating landing pages, rewriting page copy, generating meta descriptions, highlighting accessibility issues, improving alt text and translating content.
That is where AI starts to look genuinely useful.
Not as a replacement for editors, strategists, developers or anyone else with a pulse and judgement. More as a practical assistant inside the CMS, helping with repetitive, structural or easily missed tasks.
- Metadata generation? Useful.
- Alt text suggestions? Useful, with review.
- Landing page drafts? Potentially useful, with a proper brief.
- Tone-of-voice rewriting? Useful, provided the tone of voice is not “generic SaaS brochure trapped in a lift”.
The key point is that AI inside Umbraco will only be as useful as the systems around it. If the content model is messy, the approval process is vague and the brand guidance lives in someone’s head, AI will not magically fix that. It will just help you make the mess faster.
What we’re doing about it
We’re helping clients prepare for AI-assisted editing in a sensible, governed way.
That means documenting tone of voice, tightening content approval processes, standardising SEO fields, reviewing page templates, clarifying publishing permissions and making sure editors have the structure they need to use AI well.
We’re also being candid about where AI should and should not be trusted.
It can support accessibility checks, but it does not replace proper testing. It can suggest metadata, but it does not understand your strategy by magic. It can help draft content, but someone still needs to ask, “Is this actually any good?”
Because AI with governance can be powerful.
AI without governance is just a very confident intern with no manager.
So What’s the Takeaway?
Q2 2026 was not about one single dramatic shift. It was about several important trends becoming harder to ignore.
Search is more volatile, and businesses need to respond with better diagnosis rather than panic. AI search is changing how visibility works, especially for question-led and informational queries. UX is carrying more commercial weight as traffic becomes harder to win. Accessibility is now firmly part of digital quality. And Umbraco is moving towards a smarter, more editor-friendly future, provided the foundations are there to support it.
The gap between “we have a website” and “we have a digital platform that actively supports growth” is getting wider. And, slightly annoyingly, there are no shortcuts.
That means:
- better content, not just more content
- better UX, not just prettier pages
- better accessibility, not just box-ticking
- better CMS workflows, not just more features
- better governance, especially as AI enters the editing process
Not especially flashy. Not the sort of thing that gets a standing ovation at a marketing conference.
But very effective.
If you’re looking at your website, your content, or your Umbraco setup and wondering what deserves attention before Q3 properly kicks in, that is exactly the sort of conversation we like having.
Want to explore what these trends mean for your website or digital strategy? Fancy a chat? Let’s talk - honest advice, practical next steps, and absolutely none of the waffle.
