Google algorithm updates in 2026: every confirmed update and what to do

What Google algorithm updates happened in 2026?

Google confirmed seven ranking updates between January and October 2026: the February Discover core update, the March spam update, the March core update, the May core update, and spam updates in June, August and September. The table lists each one newest first, with the start and completion dates Google posted on its Search Status Dashboard. The December 2025 core update is included because it finished on 29 December and its effects were still being read in January.

Two patterns stand out. The March 2026 spam update finished on 25 March and the March core update started two days later, so a March drop can belong to either. And the September spam update took about two weeks, much longer than the other 2026 spam updates; Google's announcement said up front that it "may take up to two weeks", while the June and August announcements said a few days.

Where does this list come from?

Every date on this page comes from Google's Search Status Dashboard, which Google uses to announce ranking updates with their start and end dates. Google's core updates guide says it announces core updates on its list of ranking updates on the dashboard, and the dashboard's help page describes it as status information on the systems that power Google Search: crawling, indexing, ranking and serving.

• Ranking updates only. The feed also records serving and indexing incidents, such as a 15-minute serving issue on 25 February 2026. Those are outages, not algorithm updates, so they are not in the table.
• Confirmed updates only. Google says it also makes smaller core updates that it does not announce because they are not widely noticeable. Day-to-day ranking changes and third-party "volatility" reports are not on this list.
• Blog posts are rare. Of the 2026 updates, only the February Discover update got its own Search Central blog post. The core and spam updates were announced on the dashboard with a link to Google's core update or spam update documentation.

To hear about the next one as soon as Google posts it, subscribe to the dashboard's RSS feed at status.search.google.com/en/feed.atom, which the help page lists for notifications.

What is a Google core update?

A core update is a significant, broad change to Google's ranking systems, made several times a year, that re-evaluates how all content ranks rather than targeting particular sites. Google's guidance says core updates don't target specific sites or individual web pages, and that a page dropping is not necessarily bad: other pages may simply serve searchers better now.

In 2026 there were two, in March and May, each announced with "the rollout may take up to 2 weeks" and each completed in about 12 days. The December 2025 core update, announced as up to three weeks, took 18 days.

What Google says about recovery is worth reading carefully because it sets expectations:

• Some changes can take effect in a few days, but Google's systems may need several months to confirm that a site is consistently producing helpful content.
• If there is no effect after a few months, the next core update may be the next chance to see a change.
• Smaller unannounced core updates between the big ones can also move a site that has improved.
• There is no guarantee that changes will have a noticeable effect, and rankings change constantly anyway.

What is a Google spam update?

A spam update is a notable improvement to Google's automated spam-detection systems, such as its AI-based system SpamBrain; sites that break Google's spam policies may rank lower or disappear from results. Google's spam updates page says these systems run all the time, and that it names an improvement a "spam update" when it is notable enough to list.

Every 2026 spam update was announced as applying globally and to all languages. For sites hit by one, Google's advice is to review the spam policies and make sure the site complies; changes may help once its systems learn, over a period of months, that the site follows them. There is one exception: after a link spam improvement, any ranking benefit from spammy links is lost and cannot be won back by fixing the site.

Spam updates are not the same as new spam policies. On 13 April 2026, Google announced that "back button hijacking" becomes an explicit violation of its malicious practices policy, with enforcement from 15 June 2026, by manual spam actions or automated demotions. Google also updated its site reputation abuse policy in August 2026; our separate guide to the 2026 site reputation policy update covers that change.

What was the February 2026 Discover update?

The February 2026 Discover core update was a broad change to the systems that pick articles for Google Discover, rolled out to English-language users in the US from 5 to 27 February 2026; it was about Discover, not Search rankings. Google's 5 February blog post listed three aims:

• More locally relevant content from websites based in the user's country.
• Less sensational content and clickbait.
• More in-depth, original and timely content from sites with expertise in a topic, judged topic by topic. Google's example: a local news site with a dedicated gardening section can show gardening expertise; a movie review site with one gardening article probably cannot.

Google said it plans to expand the update to all countries and languages in the months ahead, and that its general core update guidance and its Discover guidance apply. If you publish news or articles and saw Discover traffic move in February while Search held steady, this is the update to read against.

My traffic dropped after a Google update. What should I do?

First confirm the timing and that the drop is real, then compare the right weeks, then decide whether it is the update or something else. This checklist follows Google's core update guidance; our full traffic drop checklist covers the technical causes in depth.

1. Match the drop to a date in the table

   Open Search Console's Performance report and find the first day clicks fell. Does it fall inside, or just after, one of the rollouts above? If no update overlaps, start with technical causes: indexing, robots.txt, noindex, redirects and server errors.

2. Wait for the rollout to finish

   Google says to check on the dashboard that the update is complete before drawing conclusions. Rankings move around during a rollout.

3. Compare the right two weeks

   Google's advice: wait at least a week after the rollout completes, then compare that week with the week before the update began. For the May 2026 core update, that means comparing 3 to 9 June 2026 or later with 14 to 20 May 2026.

4. Check each search type separately

   Look at Web, Image, Video and News in Search Console, and at the Discover report. A February 2026 drop only in Discover points to the Discover update, not a core update.

5. Find the pages and queries that lost most

   Google says a small drop in position is not a reason for drastic action, and warns against changing content that already performs well. A large, sustained drop across the site deserves a deeper look.

6. Compare your page with what now ranks

   Search the queries you lost and read the pages above you. Google suggests assessing your site against its helpful, reliable, people-first content questions, and asking someone unaffiliated with the site for an honest review.

7. If a spam update overlaps, read the spam policies

   Check the site against Google's spam policies, including the new back button hijacking rule and the updated site reputation abuse policy. Also look in Search Console's Manual actions report.

8. Improve, then give it time

   Make lasting, people-first improvements rather than quick fixes. Google calls deleting content a last resort, mainly for sections created for search engines rather than people. Expect weeks to months, and possibly the next core update, before a change shows.

What should SEOs do differently in 2026?

Very little changes in method: Google's 2026 core update guidance still points to helpful, reliable, people-first content, and the spam updates enforce the same published policies. What changed is mostly the calendar and a few policy lines. A practical routine:

• Annotate your reports. Mark each rollout window from the table on your traffic charts so nobody blames a site change for an update, or the reverse.
• Read the policy changes, not just the updates. The back button hijacking policy (enforced from 15 June 2026) can come from an ad network or a script library, not your own code. Google suggests reviewing your technical setup for it.
• Publish less, better. Two core updates in a year is a reminder that pages written for search engines rather than people tend to lose ground over time.
• Watch Discover separately. If you rely on Discover, it now has its own core updates, and Google has said this one will expand beyond the US.

How MrKeyword tracks Google updates

MrKeyword imports Google's ranking updates from the Search Status Dashboard twice a day and checks each website's Search Console clicks daily, so a drop and an overlapping update show up together. Its traffic drop alerts compare the last 7 days of clicks with the weekly average of the 4 weeks before. A fall of 30% or more, from a usual week of at least 50 clicks, emails the workspace owners and posts to Slack if connected, naming any update that overlaps the week or ended in the week before, and the three pages that lost most. Updates are also listed under the dashboard's 28-day trend chart. It runs on every plan, including Free; see pricing for the rest.

What MrKeyword does not do

MrKeyword reports Google's confirmed updates and your own Search Console data; it does not detect unannounced updates or say for certain that an update caused your drop.

• No "volatility" index. It lists only updates Google confirmed on its dashboard. Unannounced changes are not detected or guessed.
• No cause verdict. An overlapping update is a clue, not proof. The alert suggests where to look first; it does not diagnose the site.
• Search Console delay applies. Alerts can only be as fresh as Search Console's data, which arrives with a delay.
• Small sites stay quiet. A site with fewer than 50 clicks in a usual week gets no alerts, because the swings at that size are mostly noise.

Questions and answers