# Google algorithm update

Category: [Google Updates & Algorithms](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/google-updates-algorithms/) › [Updates & actions](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/google-updates-algorithms/updates-actions/) · Also known as: Google update, Google search update, ranking update

In SEO, a **Google algorithm update** is a change to the algorithms and ranking systems of Google Search that affects how results are ordered. It is unrelated to software updates for Chrome, Android or Pixel phones, which often share the same search term. Google changes its systems continuously and announces larger updates publicly.

## What types of Google updates are there?

Google separates its **ranking systems**, the technology that produces results, from **updates**, which are improvements to those systems it chooses to announce. The announced updates fall into a few groups:

- **Core updates** are broad changes to Google's core systems. Google says they happen several times a year.
- **Spam updates** improve the systems that detect spam.
- **Updates to specific systems or surfaces**, such as reviews or Google Discover.
- **Smaller changes** ship constantly and are usually not announced.

Google lists announced updates on the Google Search Status Dashboard with the start and end of each rollout. Current names follow the pattern month, year and type, for example "May 2026 core update." According to the dashboard, that rollout took 11 days and 21 hours.

## Named updates from earlier years

Well-known names such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird refer to individual systems. Google's ranking systems guide lists them as retired. Panda launched in 2011 and became part of the core systems in 2015. Penguin launched in 2012 and was folded into the core systems in 2016. The helpful content system, announced in 2022, became part of the core ranking systems in March 2024. None of them runs as a separate update today.

## What to do after an update

Google recommends waiting at least a full week after a core update has finished before analyzing performance in Search Console, then comparing the period after the update with the period before. For significant drops, Google points site owners to its guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content. Recovery can also happen between core updates.

Ruling out technical changes on the site during the same period makes it easier to attribute a traffic change to the update.

## FAQ

**What is the newest Google update?**
The Search Status Dashboard shows the latest announced update. As of October 8, 2026, the most recent entry is the September 2026 spam update, which started on September 24, 2026. According to the dashboard, the rollout was complete on October 8, 2026.

**How often does Google update its algorithm?**
Core updates come several times a year, according to Google. Announced spam updates and many small, unannounced changes come on top.

**How can I tell whether an update affected my site?**
A clear change in clicks and impressions in Search Console that coincides with a rollout is an indication. Seasonality, technical errors or changes to the site can produce similar curves, so the cause should be checked before drawing conclusions.

## At a glance

- **Type:** Core updates, spam updates, updates to specific systems
- **Core updates:** several times a year (per Google)
- **Started:** September 24, 2026 (September 2026 spam update, latest entry)
- **Completed:** October 8, 2026
- **Confirmed by:** [Google Search Status Dashboard](https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history)
- **Docs:** [Google: A guide to Google Search ranking systems](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide)

Last checked: October 8, 2026

## Google ranking systems 2010–2024

- **June 8, 2010:** Google announces the completion of Caffeine, its new web indexing system. Google says it delivers 50 percent fresher results than the previous index. ([Source](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html))
- **February 24, 2011:** Google announces a ranking change against low-quality and copied content that noticeably affects 11.8% of queries. Google later refers to the system by its nickname “Panda”. ([Source](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html))
- **November 3, 2011:** Google improves how it decides when to favour recent results. According to Google the change affects roughly 35 percent of searches and builds on Caffeine. ([Source](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html))
- **January 19, 2012:** Google launches a change that looks at page layout. Pages with little content and many ads above the fold may rank lower. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement))
- **April 24, 2012:** Google announces a change against webspam, later nicknamed “Penguin”. It affects about 3.1% of English queries and roughly 3% of German queries. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality))
- **August 2013:** Hummingbird, which Google describes as a major improvement to its overall ranking systems. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide))
- **2015:** Panda becomes part of the core ranking systems. Google now lists it among its retired systems. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide))
- **2015:** Google launches RankBrain, the first deep learning system used in Search. It relates the words in a query to real-world concepts. ([Source](https://blog.google/products/search/how-ai-powers-great-search-results/))
- **April 21, 2015:** Google starts rolling out the mobile-friendly update, boosting mobile-friendly pages in mobile search results. The industry unofficially calls it “Mobilegeddon”. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2015/04/rolling-out-mobile-friendly-update))
- **September 23, 2016:** Penguin becomes part of the core algorithm and now works in real time. Before that, the list of affected sites was only refreshed periodically. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2016/09/penguin-is-now-part-of-our-core))
- **2018:** Google introduces neural matching. The system helps relate queries to pages through underlying concepts. ([Source](https://blog.google/products/search/how-ai-powers-great-search-results/))
- **2018:** Launch of SpamBrain, Google’s AI-based spam prevention system. Google says it identified nearly six times more spam sites in 2021 than in 2020. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/04/webspam-report-2021))
- **October 25, 2019:** Google applies BERT to ranking and featured snippets. At launch it affects about one in ten English searches in the US. ([Source](https://blog.google/products/search/search-language-understanding-bert/))
- **October 15, 2020:** Google presents passage ranking, which can assess individual passages of a page for a query. Google expects it to improve 7 percent of queries. ([Source](https://blog.google/products/search/search-on/))
- **April 8, 2021:** First product reviews update. It rewards in-depth product reviews and initially covers English-language reviews only. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/04/product-reviews-update))
- **May 18, 2021:** Google introduces MUM, a model trained across 75 languages. Google calls it 1,000 times more powerful than BERT. ([Source](https://blog.google/products/search/introducing-mum/))
- **July 26, 2021:** First link spam update. It aims to identify and nullify link spam across multiple languages and rolls out over two weeks. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/07/link-tagging-and-link-spam-update))
- **August 25 to September 9, 2022:** With the helpful content update, Google aims to show more original, helpful content written for people. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/sbKc4YSptrSxcUZFDKwU))
- **December 5, 2022 to January 12, 2023:** December 2022 helpful content update. Google says it improves the classifier and works globally in all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/XMdX5PmbMvKW4fv3CRvn))
- **April 12 to April 25, 2023:** The product reviews update becomes the reviews update. Google says it now covers reviews of products, services and other things. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/5XRfC46rorevFt8yN8iR))
- **September 14 to September 28, 2023:** September 2023 helpful content update. Google says it improves the classifier again. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/53diuQvcEsgzqXTPBb8p))
- **November 8 to December 7, 2023:** November 2023 reviews update. As the reviews system is now improved at a regular pace, Google no longer posts future updates on the Status Dashboard. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/VqRTcmyQCwfpuYeaVNfn))
- **March 2024:** The helpful content system becomes part of the core ranking systems. Google now lists it among its retired systems. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide))
- **March 5, 2024:** Three new spam policies against expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse. The March 2024 spam update launches the same day. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies))
- **May 5, 2024:** The site reputation abuse policy takes effect. Google had given site owners time to prepare since March. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies))
- **August 5, 2024:** In the US antitrust case against Google, the court describes Navboost as a signal that memorises which documents users click for a query. This is a court document, not a Google publication. ([Source](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205/gov.uscourts.dcd.223205.1033.0_1.pdf))
- **November 19, 2024:** Google tightens the site reputation abuse policy. First-party involvement does not change the assessment when third-party content exploits the host site’s ranking signals. ([Source](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/11/site-reputation-abuse))

## Core and spam updates from November 2021 to today

- **November 3 to November 11, 2021:** November 2021 spam update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/AFdXceQVsh1GEfKFvHyD))
- **November 17 to November 30, 2021:** November 2021 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/FncPfR7zRSZ3diemah4o))
- **May 25 to June 9, 2022:** May 2022 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/GHwLLtDS64a7nDng8xhD))
- **September 12 to September 26, 2022:** September 2022 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/Y2Cg5k2xLJvfNqR58kEt))
- **October 19 to October 21, 2022:** October 2022 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/SAeYuxVSo39HHotQNXHr))
- **December 14, 2022 to January 12, 2023:** December 2022 link spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/CxXUEK28vCKqkNocPhKR))
- **March 15 to March 28, 2023:** March 2023 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/Cou8Tr74r7EXNthuEsaG))
- **August 22 to September 7, 2023:** August 2023 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/nBtYtBeex4GYBbdDS2LX))
- **October 4 to October 20, 2023:** October 2023 spam update, global, with improved coverage in languages including Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/NzcEhGMDhbQEdXCS35xL))
- **October 5 to October 19, 2023:** October 2023 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/VKyoS53ULWzSp8BoDxqk))
- **November 2 to November 28, 2023:** November 2023 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/WtY1CQgfqrr2cjxKbyUk))
- **March 5 to March 20, 2024:** March 2024 spam update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/iXz2PJfodvyjaVUeqxZE))
- **March 5 to April 19, 2024:** March 2024 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/1jW2F89qC2NxJBWGiKxE))
- **June 20 to June 27, 2024:** June 2024 spam update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/QdUeCQx3LRVbzQ3E7FiD))
- **August 15 to September 3, 2024:** August 2024 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/gVx6b2o78zke7GrMidGy))
- **November 11 to December 5, 2024:** November 2024 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/G7rp11wqTaTGn6JjiPF3))
- **December 12 to December 18, 2024:** December 2024 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/V9nDKuo6nWKh2ThBALgA))
- **December 19 to December 26, 2024:** December 2024 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/UUq2WSouY7PhSm8zvtD1))
- **March 13 to March 27, 2025:** March 2025 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/zpmwuSwifjDjfrVdaZUx))
- **June 30 to July 17, 2025:** June 2025 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/riq1AuqETW46NfBCe5NT))
- **August 26 to September 22, 2025:** August 2025 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/a7Aainy6E9rZsmfq82xt))
- **December 11 to December 29, 2025:** December 2025 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/DsirqJ1gpPRgVQeccPRv))
- **March 24 to March 25, 2026:** March 2026 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/VbnSXAH4SmEcxPtx4YSD))
- **March 27 to April 8, 2026:** March 2026 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/7eTbAa2jWdToLkraZj5y))
- **May 21 to June 2, 2026:** May 2026 core update. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/wdAXJk6LRRihEjpzEeWE))
- **June 24 to June 26, 2026:** June 2026 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/YUX1peHev5a4fkxLDiUQ))
- **August 18 to August 21, 2026:** August 2026 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/LEubPCm2octf2uMqCFKE))
- **September 24 to October 8, 2026:** September 2026 spam update, global and for all languages. ([Source](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/XhUDXP7A67iHCD2kmbVu))

## Related terms

- [Algorithm update trackers](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/algorithm-update-trackers/index.md)
- [Google core update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-core-update/index.md)
- [Helpful content update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/helpful-content-update/index.md)

## Sources

- [Google Search's core updates – Google Search Central (last updated 2025-12-10)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-updates)
- [A guide to Google Search ranking systems – Google Search Central (last updated 2025-12-10)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide)
- [Google Search Status Dashboard – Ranking incidents](https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history)
- [September 2026 spam update – Google Search Status Dashboard](https://status.search.google.com/incidents/XhUDXP7A67iHCD2kmbVu)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-algorithm-update/