REFUTED: "March 2026 LCP tightened to 2.0s / INP elevated" — no such Google announcement exists

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."

Refutation:

• The cited Search Central blog post does not exist. Google's official documentation, last updated December 10, 2025, still states LCP ≤ 2.5s.
• 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.
• Whitehat SEO and BuildMVPFast both state explicitly that thresholds have not changed.
• The original Digital Applied post that started the rumour is the only source; everything else traces back to it.

Source: Google Search Central docs (current); Search Engine Roundtable April 2026; whitehat SEO + BuildMVPFast confirmations.

Confidence: Verified refutation.

Operational guidance: Treat the 2.0s / INP-elevation claim as unconfirmed industry rumour until Google publishes otherwise. Use 2026 CWV thresholds (confirmed unchanged): LCP ≤ 2.5s, INP ≤ 200ms, CLS ≤ 0.1 at p75 field data as the actual reference. This is a textbook RULE: Every non-trivial claim carries a named source with author/institution + date + URL. Confidence flag honest. case — the discipline of trying to find the cited Search Central post catches that it doesn't exist.