Google Algorithm Updates: The Complete Timeline (2011–2026)

Updated October 2026 · Written by Adrian Prokopiec · 14 min read

Google’s algorithm update history runs from the February 2011 Panda update to the September 2026 spam update, and Google has confirmed 42 ranking updates on its own Search Status Dashboard since November 2021 alone. This 20 Minute Marketing timeline lists every confirmed update by year, how long each one took to roll out, and what it meant for small business websites.

Most algorithm histories online are written from memory, pad the list with unconfirmed “updates” and never say which names Google actually used. This one is built from Google’s own records only: the Search Status Dashboard for everything since November 2021, Google’s published announcements for the big pre-2021 updates, and an honest label wherever a name was coined by the SEO industry rather than by Google.

It is organised newest first, one section per year, so the update that just hit you is at the top. Each table shows the start date and rollout duration exactly as Google records them, then one plain sentence on what the update meant for a small business site. The glossary has the definitions if any term is new to you.

Refresh cadence: this page is updated within seven days of every update Google confirms on the dashboard. The “Updated” date at the top tells you when that last happened.

What Google updates happened in 2026?

Seven confirmed updates so far in 2026: two core, four spam and the first update Google has ever named for Discover. Four spam updates in one year is the most since the dashboard began, and three of them finished inside three days.

What Google updates happened in 2025?

A quieter year on paper: three core updates and one spam update. The August spam update ran for nearly four weeks, which is why so many owners saw rankings move around for the whole of September. We covered the recovery steps in our August 2025 spam update recovery guide.

What Google updates happened in 2024?

The year of the 45-day March core update, still the longest rollout Google has ever recorded. Google also logged a separate “ongoing issue” with ranking in August, running alongside the August core update, which made that month unusually hard to read.

What Google updates happened in 2023?

Nine confirmed updates, the busiest year on the dashboard. October alone had a spam update, a core update and a logged ranking issue running at the same time. If your traffic graph for October 2023 looks like a seismograph, that is why.

What Google updates happened in 2022?

Nine updates, including the first helpful content update in August. That one introduced the idea Google still works from: content written for search engines first, people second, should not rank. Our guide to what Google says about AI-generated content explains where that line sits today.

What Google updates happened in 2021?

The Search Status Dashboard begins in November 2021, so this is where Google’s own continuous record starts. Google had announced the page experience update in a November 2020 Search Central post titled “Timing for bringing page experience to Google Search”, and the mobile rollout happened earlier in 2021, before the dashboard existed.

What were the major Google updates from 2011 to 2020?

Before the dashboard, Google announced some updates on its blog, mentioned others in interviews or at events, and said nothing at all about many. The SEO industry filled the silence with animal names. The table below keeps the ones Google either announced or later used itself, and labels the rest. Dates for this period are taken from Google’s announcements as compiled in Wikipedia’s Timeline of Google Search.

Three names you will still hear that are missing from the table on purpose: “Possum” (2016, local), “Fred” (2017) and “Medic” (August 2018). All three are industry names for ranking shifts Google never confirmed under those names. Medic was a confirmed broad core update; the medical label was the industry’s. Panda itself had more than two dozen data refreshes between 2011 and 2015 before Google folded it into the core algorithm; they are not listed individually because none changed what a site owner should do.

How can you tell if a Google update hit your site?

Line the dashboard up against Search Console. That is the whole method, and it takes about 20 minutes.

1. Find the window: take the start date and rollout duration from the table above. A core update is not “done” until the duration ends, so a 45-day rollout means 45 days of noise.
2. Compare equal periods in Search Console: open Performance, set the date range to the 14 days after the rollout ended, and compare it to the 14 days before the rollout started. Skip the rollout window itself.
3. Look at clicks and position, not impressions: impressions move for reasons that have nothing to do with you, including Google changing how it counts them.
4. Switch to the Pages tab: a core update rarely hits a site evenly. If three pages fell and thirty held, you have a page problem, not a site problem.
5. Rule out the other explanations: seasonality, a site migration, a broken page, a Google Business Profile change. The December and November updates in particular get blamed for ordinary holiday dips.

What should you do after a Google algorithm update?

It depends on which kind of update it was, and Google’s advice for each is different.

After a core update, Google’s core updates guidance is blunt: for a small drop, “there’s no need to take drastic action”; for a large sustained drop, do a deeper assessment of the site as a whole; avoid “quick fix” changes; and treat deleting content as a last resort. Google also says some changes take effect in days but “it could take several months for our systems to learn and confirm” that a site has improved, and that you may be waiting until the next core update to see it. Work through our 12-step post-publishing SEO checklist on the pages that fell, and read the small business SEO guide for the AI era before you touch anything structural.

After a spam update, Google’s spam updates guidance says sites that notice a change should “review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those”. Recovery comes only if Google’s systems “learn over a period of months that the site complies”. And for link spam specifically, any ranking benefit the links gave “cannot be regained” once they are neutralised. Our spam update recovery guide walks through the audit.

After a reviews or helpful content update, the question is whether the pages that fell were written for a reader or for a ranking. The five SEO content mistakes that keep sites on page five are a good checklist, and the technical SEO checklist rules out the things that look like a content problem but are not.

After any update, write down the date, what moved and what you changed. Twelve months from now the next update lands and the first thing you will want is your own record. Our free SEO Chrome extension shows you each page the way Google reads it, which is a fast way to spot the thin ones. For how AI search is changing what updates reward, see how Google’s AI updates affect small business SEO and ranking in AI Overviews.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often does Google update its algorithm?

Google says it makes significant, broad changes called core updates several times a year, and it also ships smaller changes it never announces. Since November 2021 the Search Status Dashboard has recorded 42 named ranking updates, roughly eight to nine a year, including core, spam, reviews and helpful content updates.

What is the difference between a core update and a spam update?

A core update is a broad change to how Google assesses content overall; it does not target specific sites, and a drop is not a penalty. A spam update is an improvement to Google’s spam detection systems, including SpamBrain, and only affects sites that break Google’s spam policies. The fix for each is different.

How do I know if a Google update affected my website?

Take the update’s start date and rollout duration from Google’s Search Status Dashboard, then compare the 14 days after the rollout ended with the 14 days before it began in Search Console’s Performance report. Look at clicks and average position by page, and rule out seasonality and site changes before blaming the update.

How long does it take to recover from a Google core update?

Google says some changes can take effect in a few days, but it could take several months for its systems to learn and confirm that a site has improved, and if nothing has changed after a few months you may be waiting until the next core update. Plan for a quarter, not a week.

Should I change my website after a Google algorithm update?

Not immediately. Google advises against quick-fix changes after a core update and calls deleting content a last resort. Wait for the rollout to finish, confirm the drop in Search Console, identify which pages fell, then improve those pages for the reader. After a spam update, review Google’s spam policies and fix any breach.