Algo Update Tracker
Every confirmed and unconfirmed Google algorithm update — with dates, categories, summaries, and references. Filter by year, category, or status. List refreshes every few hours.
- StartedOct 15, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
It has been a while since there was a report on a Google Search ranking update. There has been a spike in volatility and, now probably more importantly, a spike in chatter over the past 24 hours, related to Google Search ranking changes, referral traffic changes and overall disruption in the Google Search results.
References - ActiveSep 24, 2026 – Oct 8, 2026ConfirmedWeb
September 2026 Spam Update
Google released the September 2026 spam update, which applies globally and to all languages. The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete. The first stage of the Google September 2026 Spam update seems to have been felt in a big way starting Friday, September 25th, with even more movement on Saturday, September 26…
- ActiveSep 23, 2026 – Sep 24, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There are signs of significant volatility again within the Google Search rankings again, this time starting around September 23rd (maybe the 22nd) and throughout today. As we have been seeing, the chatter is generally slowing down as Google has been sending less and less traffic to sites, but I believe there are enough…
References - ActiveSep 15, 2026 – Sep 19, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Google Search seems to be heating up on 9/15. There has been a huge spike in chatter the morning of 9/15 and the tools may be starting to heat up as well. According to the Semrush sensor, there was ranking volatility that started around 9/15 and peaked on 9/19.
References - ActiveAug 23, 2026 – Aug 26, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Google's August 2026 spam update began on August 18th and concluded on August 21st but the volatility has not calmed down since. There has been chatter within the SEO community, in addition to the third-party Google tracking tools pick up on volatility within the Google Search results after the conclusion of the August…
References - ActiveAug 18, 2026 – Aug 21, 2026ConfirmedWeb
August 2026 Spam Update
Google stated on Aug 18th, "Today we released the August 2026 spam update." This is a global update and is expected to impact all languages. This only impacts sites that spam, but with any update, there may be collateral damage. It started on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at around 12:30 pm ET and completed on August 21, 2…
- ActiveAug 12, 2026 – Aug 13, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There was a spike in volatility on Wednesday, Aug 12th amongst the Google Search results rankings. There was a spike in ranking movement outside the day-to-day norm that seemed to start on 8/12 and maybe into 8/13. The chatter is somewhat cool, but the tools showed a spike in the Google Search ranking volatility. This…
References - ActiveAug 5, 2026 – Aug 6, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There has been a large increase in the chatter within the SEO community over the past 24 hours or so (from 8/6). The chatter seems consistent with a big Google Search algorithm update that is underway but at this point, Google has not yet confirmed it and may never confirm it. But in the past day or so, the chatter re…
References - ActiveAug 1, 2026 – Aug 3, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There are signs of another Google Search ranking update with a lot of volatility starting on Saturday, August 1st, and has continued so far through August 3rd. Both the third-party tracking tools are showing a spike and there is chatter within the SEO community about a lot of this ranking shuffling.
References - ActiveJul 24, 2026 – Jul 25, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There were some rumblings kicking into gear starting late Thursday, July 23rd, and through Friday, July 24th. It seems like Google kicked some of its search ranking servers, and as a result, we are seeing an unconfirmed Google search ranking update, with a lot of volatility throughout last week, but it kicked into high…
References - ActiveJul 18, 2026 – Jul 19, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Google may have released yet another unconfirmed Google search ranking update this past weekend. There are signs of ranking movement from the third-party Google tracking tools and the SEO chatter spiked a bit. This includes movement on the 18th and 19th of July.
References - ActiveJul 11, 2026 – Jul 12, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
We may have had another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update around July 11th, which Barry Schwartz is calling the 7-Eleven update. It has been an unusual time since the completion of the June 2026 spam update, where Barry was on the verge of covering a few unconfirmed updates, but it seems the chatter in the SEO c…
References - ActiveJun 24, 2026 – Jun 26, 2026ConfirmedWeb
June 2026 Spam Update
Google has just announced the release of the June 2026 spam update and said it should only take a few days to roll out. Truth is, the SEO community kind of saw this coming, although Google would say no, we did not. It only took about two days - the Google June 2026 spam update is now done rolling out. It started on We…
- ActiveJun 19, 2026 – Jun 20, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Google may have quietly rolled out an update on Friday, June 19th, that seems to may have impacted more of the black hat SEO side of things. It is not 100% clear because most of the tools seem pretty stable and yes there is chatter also in the more "white hat" forums, but I see a much larger spike in chatter in the mor…
References - ActiveJun 17, 2026 – Jun 18, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
The chatter in the SEO industry hasn't calmed down much since the last report for the period of June 5-12. The Google search results seem more heated on June 17th, and there appears to be an unconfirmed Google search ranking update underway. There is still a lot of chatter and on 6/17, the tools seem to be showing an …
References - ActiveJun 5, 2026 – Jun 12, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Earlier this month, the Google May 2026 core update was completed on June 2, 2026. But the volatility has not seemed to calm down. There has been a lot of chatter spike up from within the SEO community over the weekend. The SEO chatter started Friday, June 5th and continued through the weekend. Meanwhile, most of the t…
References - ActiveMay 21, 2026 – Jun 2, 2026ConfirmedWeb
May 2026 Core Update
Google announced on May 21st: Today we released the May 2026 core update to Google Search. This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete. The Google May 2026 core update seemed to have hit some site…
- ActiveMay 13, 2026 – May 14, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There has been a large spike in signs that there is Google search ranking movement and volatility. This is between the SEO community chatter spiking, as well as some of the tools showing some big volatility swings.
References - ActiveMay 8, 2026 – May 9, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Many of the third-party tracking tools, not all, but many, are showing some heated volatility this morning (May 8th) around Google Search's ranking positions. There has also been some early chatter within the SEO industry about movement in their rankings. It is possible that there may have been an unconfirmed Google up…
References - ActiveMar 27, 2026 – Mar 28, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There are new signs of the Google search ranking volatility heating up. For the unconfirmed update reported on last week, the tools began to show volatility trend upwards. But now, while some of the tools are calm, the chatter within the forums has spiked over the past 24 hours or so. This might be the start of someth…
References - ActiveMar 27, 2026 – Apr 8, 2026ConfirmedWeb
March 2026 Core Update
Google has started rolling out the March 2026 core update, according to a notice on the Google Search Status Dashboard. The company says the update began at 2:00 a.m. PT on March 27 and may take up to two weeks to finish. Google said this "is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for …
- ActiveMar 24, 2026 – Mar 25, 2026ConfirmedWeb
March 2026 Spam Update
Google has released the March 2026 spam update on March 24, 2026 at around 3:20 pm ET. This update applies globally and to all languages and will take a few days (not weeks) to complete. The rollout completed just one day later at 10:40 am ET, March 25th. Google added, "This is a normal spam update, and it will roll…
- ActiveMar 22, 2026 – Mar 23, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
It's been a while since we last covered some unconfirmed Google Search ranking volatility and algorithm twitches but now there are signs of the volatility heating up again. These signs are mostly coming from the tools; the community seems busier with other things.
References - ActiveMar 7, 2026 – Mar 9, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
More of the same - the Google Search ranking volatility remains heated. Many are asking when we will see an officially announced Google core update. But it has not been announced yet. The volatility score has been sustained around 9.5/10 since Feb 14th, going on almost a month straight now.
References - ActiveFeb 27, 2026 – Mar 3, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
Google Search rankings remain heated into March. We thought things might be cooling a bit, but the volatility really has not cooled much at all. A lot of tracking tools did cool off around Feb 22nd but it picked right back up. Semrush's sensor has not showed any signs of cooling off since Feb 10th. We are still seeing …
References - ActiveFeb 14, 2026 – Feb 21, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
On February 10th, it was reported the beginning of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update. The volatility has not cooled yet and it seems it may have even heated up through the weekend. There was a slip dip of high volatility on Feb 12th and 13th but ramped back up on Feb 14th and has been holding all the…
References - ActiveFeb 10, 2026 – Feb 12, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
There are early signs of yet another unconfirmed Google Search ranking update with more volatility touching down today, February 10th. The chatter within the SEO community is starting to spike, and some of the third-party tracking tools are showing volatility. This seems unrelated to the February 2026 Google Discover …
References - ActiveFeb 5, 2026 – Feb 27, 2026ConfirmedWeb
February 2026 Discover Core Update
Google announced on Feb 5th, 2026: Today, we're announcing an algorithmic change that enhances the quality of articles that appear on Discover. We're calling this the February 2026 Discover Core update. This is a broad update to our systems that surface articles in Discover. Our testing shows that people find the Disco…
- ActiveFeb 2, 2026 – Feb 4, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
We were hoping that Google would calm down a bit since we had such a volatile January. But the Google Search results volatility is still very volatile, and the shuffling in those results is still shaking up. This new spike in volatility began on February 2nd but has continued to heat up over the past couple of days. I…
References - ActiveJan 29, 2026 – Jan 30, 2026UnconfirmedWeb
Unconfirmed Update
January has been an insane month with Google Search ranking volatility, and the most heated time is right now, as we end the month. There has been a significant spike in SEO chatter and many of the tools are showing very heated Google search ranking volatility over the past 24 hours or so. It is surprising Google has …
References
Let's Build Something Extraordinary Together
Book a free 30-minute strategy session. We'll audit your current marketing, identify your biggest growth opportunities, and show you exactly what to do next.