Google Algorithm Updates History

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 14 days.
Time since previous spam update: 37 days
Time to next spam update: Not yet released

This was the fourth spam update of 2026 and came just 34 days after the August 2026 Spam Update finished rolling out. Google was in a position where it was fighting new spam tactics that were previously off-limits due to the sheer amount of work they would have taken to pull off in a pre-AI era.

• Read our September 2026 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 3 days.
Time since previous spam update: 55 days
Time to next spam update: 37 days

This was the third Spam Update of 2026 following on from the impactful March Spam Update and subsequent June Spam Update. Our observations across 100+ tracked websites across 30+ niches indicated that there had not been a lot of change to keywords tracked on page one.

• Read our August 2026 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 2 days.
Time since previous spam update: 92 days
Time to next spam update: 55 days

The June 2026 Spam Update was announced on 24 June 2026 and finished rolling out two days later on 26 June 2026. Compared to the March 2026 spam update, this one was far more mild/less disruptive to SERPs.

• Read our June 2026 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 12 days.
Time since previous core update: 55 days
Time to next core update: Not yet released

Based on what we saw on LinkedIn and the fallout across the SEO message boards, the sites most impacted were those using scaled AI content – programmatic SEO. The sites that saw the biggest gains were those consistently publishing original, well-researched content that included proprietary data.

• Read our May 2026 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 12 days.
Time since previous core update: 106 days
Time to next core update: 55 days

Across the board, 80% of all top 3 results shifted with aggregator sites being the hardest hit, as well as sites publishing “best of” style content which was being used to game both AIOs + LLMs. The biggest winners from the March 2026 Core update were brands and sources credited with publishing original content.

• Read our March 2026 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: Less than 1 day.
Time since previous spam update: 210 days
Time to next spam update: 92 days

The March 2026 Spam Update took just 19 hours, 30 minutes to finish rolling out. This update was significantly shorter than the Spam update we received in August 2025 which lasted for 26 days, 15 hours.

• Read our March 2026 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 18 days.
Time since previous core update: 164 days
Time to next core update: 106 days

The December 2025 Core update wrapped up on the 29th of December at 11:05 PST after 18 days. The December core update seemed – from our observation – to double down on content quality.

• Read our December 2025 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 27 days.
Time since previous spam update: 250 days
Time to next spam update: 210 days

This was Google’s first spam update since the December 2024 spam update, which caused widespread volatility. It affected all languages, regions, and types of websites, and represented a significant improvement to Google’s automated spam detection systems.

• Read our August 2025 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 17 days.
Time since previous core update: 109 days
Time to next core update: 164 days

The June 2025 was an extremely impactful core update with widespread volatility and SERP changes recorded across all industries. The overwhelming consensus from the June 2025 core update is that Google is now doubling down on E-E-A-T amidst an influx of AI-generated/assisted content now flooding the SERPs.

• Read our June 2025 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 14 days.
Time since previous core update: 91 days
Time to next core update: 109 days

The March 2025 core update was Google’s first confirmed algorithm update of 2025. Core updates are marked by higher levels of volatility in the search results.

• Read our March 2025 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 7 days.
Time since previous spam update: 182 days
Time to next spam update: 250 days

The Google December 2024 Spam Update started rolling out just one day after the December 2024 Core Update finished. This was Google’s seventh and final update for 2024 following four previous core updates and three spam updates.

• Read our December 2024 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 6 days.
Time since previous core update: 31 days
Time to next core update: 91 days

Google released the December 2024 Core Algorithm update just one week after the November 2024 core update finished rolling out. The December 2024 update took just 6 days to roll out – the shortest update in recent memory.

• Read our December 2024 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 24 days.
Time since previous core update: 88 days
Time to next core update: 31 days

This November 2024 core algorithm update was the third core update of 2024 and came 88 days after the August core update. The November 2024 Core Update took 24 days to complete with Google confirming that the update wrapped up on the 5th December.

• Read our November 2024 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 19 days.
Time since previous core update: 163 days
Time to next core update: 88 days

Google’s August 2024 core algorithm update was the first update since the back March core update some 163 days back on the 5th March 2024. Now, Google’s August 2024 core algorithm update may have been levelling the playing field for small and independent websites.

• Read our August 2024 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 7 days.
Time since previous spam update: 107 days
Time to next spam update: 182 days

The ‘June 2024 Google Spam Update’ was the first confirmed update from Google since the March 2024 Core Algorithm Update. From the perspective of a Canberra SEO professional, the biggest threat to the quality of search results was the sheer volume of AI generated content.

• Read our June 2024 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 15 days.
Time since previous spam update: 153 days
Time to next spam update: 107 days

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 45 days.
Time since previous core update: 124 days
Time to next core update: 163 days

Google’s March 2024 Core Algorithm Update was set to reduce unhelpful, spammy content in search results by as much as 40%. As Google continues to tackle low-quality search results, the latest core update announced on the 6th March 2024 ushered in new changes to improve search result quality, as well as new spam policies targeting scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse, and expired domain abuse.

• Read our March 2024 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 26 days.
Time since previous core update: 28 days
Time to next core update: 124 days

The November 2023 core update followed hot on the heels of the impactful October core update. The update marked the fourth core algorithm update of 2023 and the third update in just 72 days.

• Read our November 2023 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 14 days.
Time since previous core update: 44 days
Time to next core update: 28 days

As far as core updates go, this was a big one. We saw broad shifts and volatility over the two week update which turned many industries upside down.

• Read our October 2023 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 16 days.
Time since previous spam update: 294 days
Time to next spam update: 153 days

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 16 days.
Time since previous core update: 160 days
Time to next core update: 44 days

The announcement followed weeks of speculation from within the SEO community who had been on high-alert with endless algorithm ranking fluctuations and an unusually long wait of 161 days since the last core algorithm update back on March 15th.

• Read our August 2023 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 13 days.
Time since previous core update: 184 days
Time to next core update: 160 days

The March 2023 core update followed a relatively quiet period in the search engine results with the previous core update dating back to September 2022. Based on our early analysis across 60+ websites, exact and partial match domains appeared to be the most volatile.

• Read our March 2023 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 29 days.
Time since previous spam update: 56 days
Time to next spam update: 294 days

Google took to Twitter on the 14th of December 2022 to announce that they were rolling out a new link spam algorithm update. The latest algorithm update leveraged Google’s AI-based spam-prevention system known as SpamBrain to neutralise the impact of unnatural links on the search results.

• Read our December 2022 Link Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 2 days.
Time since previous spam update: 350 days
Time to next spam update: 56 days

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 14 days.
Time since previous core update: 110 days
Time to next core update: 184 days

Google announced a new Core Algorithm Update on the 12th September 2022. The announcement came less than a month after the ‘Helpful Content Update’ which was (by many) deemed to be much lower impact than many were touting it to be.

• Read our September 2022 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 15 days.
Time since previous core update: 189 days
Time to next core update: 110 days

The May 2022 Google Core Update had been a long time coming with 189 days passing since the last Core update back on the 18th November 2021. In the time that had passed since the November core update, we had more than half a dozen notable updates that sent twitter into overdrive with SEO speculation.

• Read our May 2022 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 13 days.
Time since previous core update: 139 days
Time to next core update: 189 days

This was the first broad core update since July 2021 and the third broad core update for 2021. Typically, Google will release two core updates per year, however, 2021 was anything but typical for Google updates.

• Read our November 2021 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 8 days.
Time since previous spam update: 100 days
Time to next spam update: 350 days

The first Google Algorithm Update for November 2021 occurred on the 3rd November with the Google Spam Algorithm Update that caused large fluctuations in search results and chatter in the SEO community. From what we can see, the industries that were most impacted by the 3rd of November Algorithm Update at this stage were News, Games, Sports, Gaming, and Arts & Entertainment.

• Read our November 2021 Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 29 days.
Time since previous spam update: 28 days
Time to next spam update: 100 days

The latest algorithm update from Google was designed to weed out low quality sites using link spam to bolster rankings. According to Gary Illyes from Google, the link spam update was global and language agnostic – meaning that websites across all countries and languages would be impacted.

• Read our July 2021 Link Spam Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 11 days.
Time since previous core update: 29 days
Time to next core update: 139 days

Google announced that the July 2021 core algorithm update would start rolling out on the 1st July 2021. Just weeks after the June 2021 core algorithm update, the latest update from Google was set to shake up the SERPs again.

• Read our July 2021 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 1 day.
Time since previous spam update: 5 days
Time to next spam update: 28 days

Confirmed spam update
Update duration: 1 day.
Time to next spam update: 5 days

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 10 days.
Time since previous core update: 181 days
Time to next core update: 29 days

Google began rolling out a new core update to their algorithm on June 2nd, titled the June 2021 Core Update. The June 2021 core update was a global rollout over the space of two weeks and impacted all languages on the web.

• Read our June 2021 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 13 days.
Time since previous core update: 213 days
Time to next core update: 181 days

Google stated that webmasters should expect more of the same when it comes to updates affecting quality content on sites. In general, the core update was designed to weed out low-quality content and reward webmasters that have been vigilant in delivering valuable content for users.

• Read our December 2020 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: 14 days.
Time since previous core update: 112 days
Time to next core update: 213 days

We know that the Google May 2020 Core Update started to roll out around 3:50 pm EST on Monday, the 4th of May. As is the way with all broad core updates, the update was global and was not specific to any region, language, or category of websites or businesses.

• Read our May 2020 Core Update breakdown

Confirmed core update
Update duration: Not confirmed by Google.
Time since previous core update: 111 days
Time to next core update: 112 days

In case you missed it, Google kicked off the new year with a bang and rolled out their January 2020 Core Update. This was a substantial update. Our take: Google was looking to weed out websites that are recycling content for the sole purpose of looking to improve their appeal to search bots.

• Read our January 2020 Core Update breakdown