Reference
Google Algorithm Update History
Every confirmed Google algorithm update from 2010 to 2026 - dates, targets, who was hit, and what to do. Updated after every confirmed rollout.
Where this data comes from
Every update below is one Google has confirmed, taken from the Google Search Status dashboard. We do not list unconfirmed volatility as though it were a named update.
A thing worth knowing: Google used to publish a write-up for each core update. The last routine one was the August 2024 core update. Since then, for ordinary core and spam updates, the complete official record is the dashboard entry - a name, a start date, an end date, and one or two sentences - plus a short post on social. There is no deeper Google explanation to find, which is why the quotes below are short. Google's view is that a core update needs no special response.
So each entry links what actually exists: Google's own write-up where there is one (rare - the February 2026 Discover update is the recent exception), the dashboard entry with the confirmed rollout dates, and Google's general guidance for that update type. Anything headed "What this means for you" is our analysis, not Google's.
2026 5 confirmed updates
Jun 24-26
June 2026 Spam Update
Spam Update
Applied globally and to all languages, completing in about two days. This is the most recent confirmed Google ranking update.
What was observedNo substantive third-party analysis was published for this update. We would rather say that than invent a pattern. Barry Schwartz felt it was slightly bigger than the March 2026 spam update, but that is an impression, not a measurement. This is normal for spam updates: the affected sites are, by definition, not ones anyone tracks.
What this means for you The most recent confirmed update, and a fast one at about two days. If your rankings are stable through late June you are clear; if a specific set of pages dropped, audit those pages against the spam policies rather than rewriting the whole site.
May 21 - Jun 2
May 2026 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update completed in just under 12 days. Trade press reported further ranking volatility in early and mid June, after Google had already declared this rollout complete - that later movement was never confirmed as part of this update.
What was observed - third-party, not GoogleHigh volatility Glenn Gabe rated it heavier than March ('March was meh, but May is big'), with rankings moving usually within 48 hours and two mid-rollout tremors. The pattern, though, was genuinely mixed - Sistrix concluded no single niche was targeted. Two March narratives reversed: YouTube recovered about 16 percent of its March collapse, and Cambridge and Merriam-Webster regained much of what they lost in December. UK ecommerce was largely untouched across 451 domains while news media fell. Be careful with winners and losers lists here: Sistrix and Amsive disagree on Reddit and Instagram because one measures UK percentages and the other global absolute points.
What this means for you Google declared this complete on 2 June, but trade press reported further volatility in early and mid June that Google never confirmed. If you moved after the completion date, that was not this update - resist the urge to attribute every wobble to the last named rollout.
Mar 27 - Apr 8
March 2026 Core Update
Core Update
Launched two days after the March 2026 spam update finished, completing in just over 12 days. The back-to-back sequencing made attribution genuinely hard: sites that moved in late March need to check which rollout window their change actually falls in.
What was observed - third-party, not GoogleHigh volatility Heavy measured churn: SE Ranking found 79.5 percent of top-3 URLs changed position, and 24.1 percent of top-10 pages fell out of the top 100 entirely - up from 14.7 percent in December. The pattern was corroborated independently by Amsive and Aleyda Solis: intermediaries demoted, destinations and first-party sources promoted. Employer career sites gained while Indeed and Glassdoor fell; hotel brands gained while Expedia and Booking fell; NIH and FDA gained while WebMD and Mayo declined. YouTube took the largest absolute drop on record for a domain of its scale. Worth noting Glenn Gabe called the felt impact 'meh' - position churn and actual traffic damage diverged here.
What this means for you Launched two days after a spam update finished, which makes clean attribution unusually hard. If you moved in that period, work out which of the two windows your change actually falls in before acting, and treat any advice that ignores the distinction as unreliable.
Mar 24-25
March 2026 Spam Update
Spam Update
Applied globally and to all languages, and finished in under 20 hours - the fastest spam rollout on record. It completed just two days before the March 2026 core update began, so overlapping volatility was easy to misattribute.
What was observedNo substantive third-party analysis was published for this update. We would rather say that than invent a pattern. It also landed two days before the March 2026 core update, so any movement blamed on it is practically impossible to separate from the core update that followed.
What this means for you It finished in under 20 hours and the March core update began two days later, so late-March movement is very easy to misattribute. Pin your exact drop date before deciding whether you have a spam problem or a quality one - they need opposite responses.
Feb 5-27
February 2026 Discover Core Update
Core Update
Discover only
A core update scoped specifically to Google Discover, and released only for English-language users in the US, with Google saying it would look to expand to other countries and languages later. Designed to improve the overall quality of Discover. The only geo- and language-limited update in recent years - if you have no US English Discover traffic, it did not affect you.
What was observed - third-party, not Google Standard SERP volatility trackers do not apply here - this touched Discover, not web search - so any volatility score quoted for it is measuring the wrong thing. One real dataset exists: NewzDash found Discover became more concentrated, with unique publishers in the US top-100 falling from 172 to 158, and localisation clearly measurable (New York domains appeared about 5 times more often in the New York feed). Posts from institutional X.com accounts rose from 3 to 13 in the top 100. NewzDash's own caveat matters: they could not confirm sensational content actually decreased, so Google's anti-clickbait framing remains unverified.
Reported by Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Roundtable
What this means for you Scoped to Discover, and only for US English users - so if you have no US Discover traffic, it did not touch you. Check Search Console's Discover report separately from Search before attributing any change to this, because the two move independently.
2025 4 confirmed updates
Dec 11-29
December 2025 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update that Google said could take up to three weeks to complete; it finished in just over 18 days, running across the holiday retail peak.
What was observed - third-party, not GoogleHigh volatility The cleanest pattern of any recent update: reference, UGC and news demoted, transactional retail promoted - over the holiday retail peak. Amsive measured Wikipedia down 5 percent (its largest single loser), dictionary sites hit hard (Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, Britannica), Reddit and Facebook down, and health publishers down almost universally. Apparel rose about 19 percent, retail 14 percent, finance 15 percent. A sharp sub-pattern: review platforms with verification beat open crowdsourced ones - Trustpilot up 49 percent while TripAdvisor and Yelp fell.
Reported by Amsive
What this means for you It ran straight through the holiday retail peak, which made it especially costly for ecommerce. If you sell seasonally, the lesson is to have your content quality work finished before Q4, not during it - you cannot safely make big changes while a core update is live and your revenue window is open.
Aug 26 - Sep 22
August 2025 Spam Update
Spam Update
Google's first spam update in eight months, applied globally and to all languages. At almost four weeks it was a notably long spam rollout, versus seven days for the December 2024 spam update.
What was observed - third-party, not GoogleModerate volatility Impact was felt within about 24 hours and re-intensified around 9 September. Read tracker charts for this window with real caution: from 11 September Google dropped the num=100 search parameter, which broke third-party rank scraping and caused widespread Search Console impression drops, so the back half of this rollout conflates the update with a measurement artefact. Evidence on who was affected is thin - Sterling Sky documented one business losing organic rankings while its local pack was untouched, and Raptive reported minimal impact across its publisher network.
What this means for you Nearly four weeks, which is long for a spam update, and it was the first in eight months. If you saw a sharp, page-specific drop in that window rather than a gentle site-wide slide, a spam-policy breach is the more likely explanation than content quality.
Jun 30 - Jul 17
June 2025 Core Update
Core Update
Major
Google described it as a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content from all types of sites. Third-party trackers rated it one of the larger recent core updates by measured volatility. Took just under 17 days to roll out.
What was observed - third-party, not GoogleHigh volatility The standout of 2025. Semrush found over 16 percent of post-update top-10 URLs had not previously ranked in the top 20 - the biggest such figure in four years. Amsive measured YouTube up 12 percent and Wikipedia near a 10-year high, while big-box retail fell broadly (Amazon, eBay, Target) and LinkedIn dropped 18 percent. Glenn Gabe, tracking about 400 sites hit by the 2023 Helpful Content Update, saw many partially recover mid-rollout. Health moved sharply; finance was unusually quiet, which cuts against the usual YMYL assumption.
What this means for you One of the larger recent core updates by measured volatility, and it ran over 17 days. Rankings genuinely bounce mid-rollout, so read your traffic only after the completion date - people who panic-edit on day three usually end up unpicking those changes later.
Mar 13-27
March 2025 Core Update
Core Update
Major
A broad core update targeting overall content quality and relevance. Continued Google's ongoing effort to surface genuinely helpful content and reduce low-quality, unhelpful material in results. Rollout completed in approximately 14 days.
What was observed - third-party, not GoogleModerate volatility Trackers agreed this one was unremarkable. Semrush measured peak volatility within 0.1 of the December 2024 core update, and Similarweb saw similar levels rather than a standout. Sistrix noted Reddit continuing its long visibility climb while Quora fell about 22 percent in its UK dataset. Several trackers were disrupted mid-rollout by unrelated Google layout changes, so late-March readings are shaky.
Reported by Search Engine Land, Sistrix
2024 7 confirmed updates
Dec 19-26
December 2024 Spam Update
Spam Update
General spam-policy enforcement, launched the day after the December 2024 core update completed. Combined with the November core update finishing on 5 December, three distinct rollouts touched that month - which is why Q4 2024 felt unusually volatile.
What this means for you Spam updates are policy enforcement, not a quality re-scoring, so recovery here is different: you are looking for a specific breach to remove, not a site-wide quality lift. If you bought links or ran scaled AI content, this is the window to check.
Dec 12-18
December 2024 Core Update
Core Update
A second core update launched barely a week after the November 2024 core update finished rolling out. Google explained that it runs different core ranking systems and improves them independently, so this was a separate system rather than a re-run. Completed in just over 6 days - unusually fast for a core update.
What this means for you Three rollouts touched December 2024, so if you dropped that month, do not assume you know which one did it - check your Search Console dates against each window before changing anything. Fixing the wrong problem is the most common and most expensive mistake after a core update.
Nov 11 - Dec 5
November 2024 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update completing a significant period of algorithmic change through 2024. Continued refinement of quality signals, with particular impact on health, finance, and news verticals.
Aug 15 - Sep 3
August 2024 Core Update
Core Update
Major
Aimed specifically at improving the ranking of smaller, independent websites with original perspectives and strong user signals. Many sites hit by the HCU in 2023 saw recovery. Took 19 days to fully roll out.
Jun 20-27
June 2024 Spam Update
Spam Update
Targeted ongoing spam signals with SpamBrain AI, focusing on link schemes and low-quality programmatic content that persisted after the March rollout.
Mar 5 - Apr 19
March 2024 Core Update
Core Update
Critical
One of the most significant updates in Google's history - a 45-day rollout that ran alongside the March 2024 Spam Update. Incorporated the Helpful Content system directly into core ranking. Targeted scaled, low-quality, and AI-generated content at scale. Many "parasite SEO" and HCU-hit sites saw further declines; some small, authoritative publishers recovered.
Mar 5-20
March 2024 Spam Update
Spam Update
Introduced three new spam policies targeting: scaled content abuse (mass publishing of low-value pages), expired domain abuse (buying domains to exploit existing authority), and site reputation abuse (parasite SEO - hosting third-party content to piggyback on a domain's authority). Completed in 15 days.
2023 7 confirmed updates
Nov 2 - Nov 28
November 2023 Core Update
Core Update
Ran alongside the tail end of the October Core Update, creating a very turbulent period for SEOs. Significant volatility in finance, health, and e-commerce.
Nov 8 - Dec 7
November 2023 Reviews Update
Reviews Update
Part of the ongoing reviews system improvements, later rolled into core updates. Rewarded reviews that demonstrated genuine first-hand experience with the product or place being reviewed.
Oct 4-20
October 2023 Spam Update
Spam Update
Targeted spam signals with SpamBrain, Google's AI-based spam detection system. Focused on cloaking, hacked content, and auto-generated spam.
Oct 5 - Nov 28
October 2023 Core Update
Core Update
Major
One of the longest core update rollouts - 54 days. Caused sustained volatility across multiple verticals. Ran concurrently with the November Core Update, making it difficult to separate their individual effects.
Aug 22 - Sep 7
August 2023 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update taking 16 days to roll out. Continued refinement of helpful content signals. News and publishing sectors saw significant movement.
Apr 12-25
April 2023 Reviews Update
Reviews Update
The last standalone Reviews Update before Google incorporated reviews signals into core updates. Targeted thin, affiliate-driven review content that provided no genuine first-hand experience or unique insight.
Mar 15-28
March 2023 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update with notable impact on health and news verticals. Completed in 13 days, making it one of the faster core rollouts.
2022 6 confirmed updates
Dec 14 - Jan 12 '23
December 2022 Link Spam Update
Link Spam
Major
Used SpamBrain - Google's AI-powered spam detection - to neutralise both sites that bought links and sites that were used as link-selling platforms. Hundreds of thousands of sites saw significant changes. SpamBrain can now detect unnatural link patterns at a much larger scale than previous systems.
Oct 19-21
October 2022 Spam Update
Spam Update
A short, targeted spam update completed in just 2 days. Focused on link spam and spammy structured data.
Sep 12-26
September 2022 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update that ran shortly after the HCU. Many sites experienced competing effects from both updates, making it difficult to isolate causes of ranking changes.
Aug 25 - Sep 9
August 2022 Helpful Content Update
Helpful Content
Critical
A landmark update introducing a new sitewide signal targeting content created primarily to rank in search rather than help real people. Sites with high proportions of "search-engine-first" content saw broad ranking declines. The signal operates at the domain level - a high volume of unhelpful content can suppress an entire site.
May 25 - Jun 9
May 2022 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update with notable impact across multiple verticals. Finance and health sites saw the most significant movement. Followed standard core update patterns around E-A-T (now E-E-A-T) signals.
Mar 23 - Apr 11
March 2022 Product Reviews Update
Reviews Update
Continued rewarding in-depth, original reviews that provide genuine insight and first-hand experience. Penalised cookie-cutter affiliate reviews that added no unique value.
2021 4 confirmed updates
Dec 1-16
December 2021 Product Reviews Update
Reviews Update
The second product reviews update, continuing Google's effort to surface reviews that demonstrate genuine first-hand expertise. Added new quality criteria including multi-media evidence and comparison to competitors.
Nov 17-30
November 2021 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update with notable impact on YMYL niches. Completed in 13 days. Health, finance, and legal sites saw the most movement.
Jul 26 - Aug 24
July 2021 Link Spam Update
Link Spam
An early deployment of SpamBrain targeting link spam across multiple languages. Specifically aimed at affiliate-heavy sites and foreign-language spam networks. Completed over 29 days.
Jun 2 - Jul 12
June & July 2021 Core Updates
Core Update
Google split one planned core update into two parts due to timing. The June portion rolled out first (completing June 12), with the second part following in July. Together they represented one of the larger quality adjustments of the year.
2020 3 confirmed updates
Dec 3
December 2020 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update completing an eventful year. News and health verticals saw the highest volatility. Some sites that lost ground after the May update saw recovery.
May 4
May 2020 Core Update
Core Update
One of the broader core updates of 2020, causing significant volatility across many industries. Rolled out during a period of unusual search behaviour due to global events, making it harder to isolate update effects.
Jan 13
January 2020 Core Update
Core Update
The first confirmed core update of 2020. Health and medical sites, following the pattern of the Medic era, saw the most significant changes.
2019 5 confirmed updates
Dec 9
December 2019 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update closing out 2019. Significant volatility in travel, health, and news sectors. Some sites that lost visibility in earlier 2019 updates saw partial recovery.
Oct 25
BERT Update
Named Update
Major
BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) represented Google's biggest leap in natural language processing. Affected roughly 10% of all queries, particularly long-tail conversational searches. Google can now better understand context, nuance, and the relationship between words in a query - "for" vs "to" in a phrase means something different now.
Sep 24
September 2019 Core Update
Core Update
Another broad core update with widespread volatility. Affected multiple verticals with no single industry dominating the impact.
Jun 3
June 2019 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update causing notable volatility. Health and medical sites continued to see high impact in the post-Medic era.
Mar 12
March 2019 Core Update
Core Update
Known in the SEO community as "Florida 2" - a reference to the original 2003 Florida update. One of the broader core updates of the era, causing wide-scale ranking shifts in entertainment, health, and e-commerce.
2018 4 confirmed updates
Oct 16
October 2018 Core Update
Core Update
A smaller core update creating volatility primarily in news, entertainment, and health categories. Considered a refinement of the August and September rollouts.
Sep 27
September 2018 Core Update
Core Update
A broad core update following the Medic update. Some sites that lost ground in August saw recovery; others saw further declines as E-A-T refinement continued.
Aug 1
August 2018 Core Update ("Medic")
Named Update
Critical
Nicknamed "Medic" by Barry Schwartz after health websites saw disproportionate impact. In reality it was a broad core update, but YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) sites - health, finance, legal, e-commerce - were hit hardest. Marked the beginning of Google's intensified focus on E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) as a quality signal.
Mar 9
March 2018 Core Update
Core Update
An early broad core update, before Google began formally naming these updates. Significant volatility across multiple verticals foreshadowed the larger Medic update five months later.
2017 1 notable update
Feb
Fred Update
Named Update
Named "Fred" by Gary Illyes as a joke (he said he names all unnamed updates Fred). Targeted websites prioritising revenue over user experience - sites with excessive ads, thin affiliate content, and poor user value. Primarily impacted content farms and aggressive display ad sites.
2016 2 landmark updates
Sep 1
Possum Update
Local SEO
A significant local search filter update that diversified local results based on the physical location of the searcher and filtered out businesses sharing the same address. Made local packs more dynamic and location-dependent. Businesses outside the city limits of searched locations saw improved visibility.
Sep 23
Penguin 4.0 (Real-Time)
Named Update
Critical
After years of periodic batch refreshes, Penguin became a real-time, continuous system incorporated into Google's core algorithm. Spam links are now devalued rather than penalising the target site outright. Sites previously stuck in a Penguin penalty saw long-awaited recovery. This removed the need for periodic Penguin refreshes.
2015 2 landmark updates
Oct 26
RankBrain
Named Update
Critical
Google's first machine learning ranking component - announced in October 2015 but had been running for months. RankBrain interprets ambiguous or never-before-seen queries by mapping them to known concepts. Google confirmed it became the third most important ranking signal. It learns from user behaviour to better match results to search intent - making search intent optimisation more critical than ever.
Apr 21
Mobile-Friendly Update ("Mobilegeddon")
Named Update
Technical
Critical
The first update to explicitly use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal in mobile search results. Pre-announced weeks in advance - one of few times Google warned webmasters. Affected more queries than Panda and Penguin combined. Websites without a mobile-responsive design lost visibility in mobile SERPs. The SEO industry term "mobilegeddon" overstated the immediate impact, but the long-term signal became increasingly powerful.
2014 2 notable updates
Sep
Panda 4.1
Named Update
A refined version of Panda that reduced false positives. Estimated to affect 3-5% of queries. Google stated it allowed more high-quality small and medium sites to rank, while continued targeting of thin content at scale.
Jul
Pigeon Update
Named Update
Local SEO
Improved the connection between local search results and the core algorithm. Made local rankings more dependent on traditional SEO signals (domain authority, content quality) and reduced the weight of proximity and Google Business Profile alone. Local directories and review sites (Yelp, TripAdvisor) initially gained significant visibility.
2013 2 landmark updates
Aug
Hummingbird
Named Update
Critical
A complete rewrite of Google's core search algorithm - the most significant change since 2001. While Panda and Penguin were additions to the existing algorithm, Hummingbird replaced the core engine. It introduced semantic search: understanding the full meaning and context of a query, not just matching keywords. Designed to handle conversational, long-tail, and natural language queries - a direct foundation for voice search and eventually AI-powered search.
May
Penguin 2.0
Named Update
Major
The first major Penguin update to go "deeper" - analysing subpages and subdomain links in addition to root domain links. Made link schemes harder to run through subdomains. Also introduced the concept of link-based spam signals affecting specific pages rather than just domains.
2012 2 landmark updates
Sep
Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update
Named Update
Reduced the ranking advantage that low-quality websites had been gaining purely from having exact-match keywords in their domain name (e.g., best-cheap-loans.com). EMDs still carry some relevance signal but low-quality sites could no longer rely on the domain name alone. High-quality EMDs were largely unaffected.
Apr 24
Penguin 1.0
Named Update
Critical
One of the most significant updates in SEO history. Penguin targeted websites that violated Google's Webmaster Guidelines through manipulative link building - specifically link schemes, exact-match anchor text over-optimisation, and paid links. Affected about 3.1% of English queries. Many sites that had ranked for years through aggressive link building lost 50-100% of their organic traffic overnight.
2011 1 landmark update
Feb-Mar
Panda 1.0
Named Update
Critical
Named after Navneet Panda, the Google engineer who developed the key technology. Targeted low-quality content at scale - content farms, sites with thin or duplicate articles, and websites that scraped content from other sources. Affected approximately 12% of all search results in its first rollout - one of the single largest impacts to the search index in Google's history. Demand Media, Mahalo, and dozens of content farms lost 40-90% of organic traffic. Became a recurring update, running roughly monthly, until 2016 when it was incorporated into the core algorithm.
2010 1 infrastructure update
Jun
Caffeine
Named Update
Technical
A complete overhaul of Google's indexing infrastructure, not a ranking algorithm change. Caffeine allowed Google to index new content 50% faster and made the index 50% larger. Laid the foundation for faster discovery of fresh content that powers modern SEO. News, blogs, and time-sensitive content saw improved indexing speed, giving freshness signals much more weight.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Google algorithm update?
A Google algorithm update is a change to the systems Google uses to rank web pages in search results. Updates range from minor daily tweaks to major named updates (like Panda, Penguin, and Helpful Content) that can cause significant ranking shifts across thousands of websites.
How often does Google update its algorithm?
Google makes thousands of small changes per year. Major named or confirmed updates happen roughly 4-8 times per year. Google publishes a confirmed list of core updates and spam updates on its Search Status Dashboard, which we track and add to this timeline.
What was the biggest Google algorithm update?
The March 2024 Core Update is considered one of the most significant in Google's history, rolling out over 45 days alongside a Spam Update that introduced three new spam policies. The original Panda (2011) and Penguin (2012) updates were also historically transformative - Panda hit 12% of all search results in its first deployment.
How do I know if my site was hit by a Google update?
Compare your organic traffic in Google Search Console or Google Analytics against the update dates on this page. A sudden drop in traffic that aligns with an update date (within 1-2 weeks of the rollout completing) is a strong signal. Rank tracking tools will also show position movements correlated with specific dates.
How do I recover from a Google algorithm update?
Recovery depends on which update hit you. For core updates: audit content quality, improve E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust), and remove or improve thin pages. For link spam updates: disavow toxic links and stop any active link schemes. Recovery typically takes at least one full update cycle - often 3-6 months - and there is no guaranteed path. Google's guidance is to focus on making your site genuinely more useful.
What is the Helpful Content Update?
The Helpful Content Update, first launched in August 2022, introduced a new sitewide signal targeting content created primarily for search engines rather than people. Sites with a high proportion of unhelpful content saw broad ranking declines. The signal operates at the domain level - so a large volume of unhelpful pages can suppress an entire site's rankings, not just those individual pages. From 2023 onwards, the helpful content signal was incorporated into Google's core ranking systems.
Think a Google update hit your site?
Our free SEO audit maps every ranking drop to its likely cause and gives you a clear recovery plan.