{"id":339,"slug":"march-2026-lcp-tightening-rumour-refuted","title":"REFUTED: \"March 2026 LCP tightened to 2.0s / INP elevated\" — no such Google announcement exists","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["core-web-vitals","measurement"],"reference_body":"**Claim being refuted:** Multiple SEO blogs (Digital Applied, MonsterMegs, IdeaFueled, ClickRank, Mewa Studio, w3era) claim Google tightened LCP \"Good\" threshold from 2.5s to **2.0s** with the March 2026 core update, citing a *\"Search Central blog post published March 18, 2026.\"*\n\n**Refutation:**\n- **The cited Search Central blog post does not exist.** Google's official documentation, last updated **December 10, 2025**, still states LCP ≤ 2.5s.\n- **Search Engine Roundtable (Barry Schwartz, April 8, 2026):** Google's only public communication about the March update was a Search Status Dashboard note. No threshold change announced.\n- **Whitehat SEO and BuildMVPFast** both state explicitly that thresholds have not changed.\n- The original Digital Applied post that started the rumour is the only source; everything else traces back to it.\n\n**Source:** Google Search Central docs (current); Search Engine Roundtable April 2026; whitehat SEO + BuildMVPFast confirmations.\n\n**Confidence:** Verified refutation.\n\n**Operational guidance:** **Treat the 2.0s / INP-elevation claim as unconfirmed industry rumour until Google publishes otherwise.** Use [[cwv-thresholds-2026-confirmed-unchanged]] as the actual reference. This is a textbook [[rule-cite-with-named-source-and-url]] case — the discipline of trying to find the cited Search Central post catches that it doesn't exist.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"cwv-thresholds-2026-confirmed-unchanged","title":"2026 CWV thresholds (confirmed unchanged): LCP ≤ 2.5s, INP ≤ 200ms, CLS ≤ 0.1 at p75 field data","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-cite-with-named-source-and-url","title":"RULE: Every non-trivial claim carries a named source with author/institution + date + URL. Confidence flag honest.","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-page-speed-moat","title":"Research brief: Page Speed as a Moat — why CWV separates the agencies from the freelancers (piece 9 of 15)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T20:03:33.304Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T20:03:33.304Z"}