Reference · Updated Monthly
Google & AI Search Updates
What actually changed each month, and what to do about it
Every confirmed Google algorithm update of 2026, month by month, with the rollout dates that matter for attribution — plus the AI search and infrastructure changes that move visibility without appearing in any rank tracker. This is the same record we work from when a client account moves.
Where this comes from
Rollout dates and confirmations come from Google's Search Status Dashboard and from Search Engine Roundtable, which tracks confirmed updates daily and in more detail than we could. We cross-check both against movement in the Search Console and analytics data of the accounts we manage. The dates are theirs. The summaries, the observations and the recommendations are ours — and where we are unsure, we say so rather than filling the gap.
October 2026
The September spam update was still rolling into early October, so the month opened mid-movement rather than on stable ground. Nothing new had been confirmed by Google at the time of writing. We are treating October as a measurement month: let the September rollout finish, then read the damage or the gain properly rather than reacting to partial data.
What Google changed
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September 2026 spam update (continuing)
24 Sept 2026 → ongoing · still rolling
The rollout that began on 24 September had not been declared complete. Google indicated it could take up to two weeks, which puts the likely finish in the first week of October. Rankings that move while an update is still rolling are not a verdict.
What we did that month
- Competitor research refreshed and top-page analysis re-run, to separate update movement from competitor movement
- Keyword set reviewed against the new result layouts
- Crawl budget review, with attention to how much of it AI crawlers are now consuming
- Bing Place optimisation — material now that Bing feeds a share of AI answers
What to do about it
Don't act on rank changes recorded while an update is mid-rollout. Note them, wait for the completion announcement, then compare a clean fortnight before against a clean fortnight after.
September 2026
A spam update landed on 24 September and was expected to take up to two weeks — so most of its effect fell outside the month it is named after. Separately, this was the month Cloudflare changed its AI crawler defaults mid-month and then revised them again at the end of it, which mattered more to AI visibility than anything Google shipped.
What Google changed
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September 2026 spam update
24 Sept 2026 → ongoing · up to two weeks
A spam update targeting policy-violating content and manipulative link patterns. Spam updates are narrower than core updates: a legitimate site that loses visibility during one has usually been caught by a tactic somewhere in its history rather than judged on overall quality.
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Cloudflare AI crawler default change
15 Sept 2026 → 29 Sept 2026 · two revisions in a fortnight
Not a Google update, but it changes who can read your site. Cloudflare shifted its default AI crawler handling mid-September and then added a fourth, narrower setting at the end of the month. Two of the four settings still block Googlebot, Bingbot and Applebot along with the AI crawlers — so a setting chosen to protect content from AI training can remove a site from ordinary search as a side effect.
What we did that month
- Penalty analysis across the account book, given the spam-update timing
- Duplicate content analysis, the usual first suspect when a spam update bites
- Bing Place optimisation
- Recommendations issued ahead of the rollout completing, rather than after
What to do about it
Check your CDN's AI crawler setting before you blame a Google update. If search bots are being blocked at the edge, no amount of on-page work will fix the symptom.
August 2026
A spam update ran 18–21 August — short, and far less disruptive than a core update. The more significant August story for most accounts was crawl: AI crawler traffic had grown to the point where it was measurably competing with search crawlers for the same budget on larger sites.
What Google changed
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August 2026 spam update
18 Aug 2026 → 21 Aug 2026 · 4 days
A conventional spam update, fully rolled out inside four days. Short rollouts tend to mean a targeted change rather than a broad re-weighting of quality signals.
What we did that month
- Crawl budget optimisation, prompted by AI crawler volume rather than by the spam update
- Search Console crawl-stats review per property
- 404 error sweep and fix
- Competitor research refresh
What to do about it
If your log files show AI crawlers taking a meaningful share of requests, crawl budget is now a real constraint and not a theoretical one. Fix your 404s and your sitemap before adding more pages.
July 2026
No confirmed Google update. Quiet months are the ones worth using — they are the only time you can change something and attribute the result to your own work rather than to an algorithm rollout.
What Google changed
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No confirmed update
01 Jul 2026 → 31 Jul 2026 · full month
Google confirmed no core, spam or Discover update in July. Ranking movement during the month was ordinary volatility, not a rollout.
What we did that month
- Link profile analysis and clean-up — safest in a month with no rollout confounding the read
- On-page optimisation pass against reviewed keyword sets
- Top-page analysis and keyword review
What to do about it
Do your structural work in quiet months. Changes made during a rollout can't be measured cleanly, and you lose the ability to tell whether your own work helped.
June 2026
Two things overlapped: the May core update finished rolling out in the first days of June, and a spam update followed on 24 June. Accounts that moved in June needed the two separated before anyone drew a conclusion.
What Google changed
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May 2026 core update (completion)
21 May 2026 → 02 Jun 2026 · 12 days
The core update that began on 21 May completed on or about 2 June. Core updates re-weight how Google assesses overall content quality, so the movement is broad and rarely traceable to a single fixable issue.
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June 2026 spam update
24 Jun 2026 → ongoing · short rollout
A spam update three weeks after the core update completed, which made attribution awkward for anyone not tracking dates carefully.
What we did that month
- Search Console comparison windows set around both rollouts separately, so core and spam effects could be told apart
- 404 error fixing
- On-page SEO updates
What to do about it
When two updates land in one month, pick your comparison windows deliberately. A month-over-month view blends them and tells you nothing actionable.
May 2026
A core update started on 21 May and ran into early June. This was the most consequential update of the first half of the year for content-led sites — core updates move more sites, further, than spam updates do.
What Google changed
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May 2026 core update
21 May 2026 → 02 Jun 2026 · 12 days
A broad re-assessment of content quality. Sites that lose ground in a core update have usually not broken a rule; Google has re-weighted what it considers helpful. Recovery, where it happens, comes from genuine content improvement over months rather than from a technical fix in a week.
What we did that month
- Keyword review and top-page analysis to identify which page clusters actually moved
- Search Console check against pre-rollout baselines
- On-page SEO updates targeted at the clusters that lost ground
What to do about it
Core update recovery is a content programme, not a fix. If someone offers to reverse a core update loss inside a month, be sceptical.
April 2026
The March core update finished rolling out on 8 April. Nothing new started. For most accounts April was about reading the result of March properly and deciding what, if anything, to change.
What Google changed
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March 2026 core update (completion)
27 Mar 2026 → 08 Apr 2026 · 12 days
The core update that began on 27 March completed on 8 April, having run 12 days across the month boundary — which is why a March-only or April-only view of the data misleads.
What we did that month
- Backlink analysis and clean-up
- Competitor research to check whether lost positions went to a competitor or simply disappeared from the layout
- On-page SEO updates
What to do about it
Before concluding you lost a position, check whether it still exists. Results pages keep changing shape, and a position that no longer appears is not the same problem as a position a competitor took.
March 2026
A busy month: a spam update on 24 March that was done inside a day, followed three days later by a core update that ran into April. Two rollouts in one week made clean attribution genuinely difficult.
What Google changed
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March 2026 spam update
24 Mar 2026 → 25 Mar 2026 · under a day
One of the fastest rollouts of the year — effectively complete within a day of the announcement.
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March 2026 core update
27 Mar 2026 → 08 Apr 2026 · 12 days
A core update launched two days after the spam update finished and ran for twelve days into April. Any site that moved in that window moved for one of two different reasons, and the dates are the only way to tell which.
What we did that month
- 404 error fixing and sitemap resubmission, to make sure a crawl problem was not mistaken for an update effect
- On-page optimisation pass
- Recommendations issued per account with both rollout dates marked on the reporting timeline
What to do about it
Mark update dates on your own analytics timeline. Without them, two rollouts in one week become one unexplained dip.
February 2026
A Discover update ran for three weeks, from 5 to 27 February. It is easy to overlook because it does not touch classic search rankings at all — but for publishers and content-heavy sites, Discover can be a larger traffic source than search itself.
What Google changed
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February 2026 Discover update
05 Feb 2026 → 27 Feb 2026 · 21 days
A named update to Google Discover — the feed surface, not the search results page. Sites with significant Discover traffic saw movement that would not appear in a rank tracker at all, because Discover has no queries to rank for.
What we did that month
- Duplicate content analysis
- Crawl budget optimisation
- Competitor research and top-page analysis
- Keyword review
What to do about it
Check the Discover report in Search Console separately from the search report. A rank tracker cannot see Discover, so a Discover update looks like unexplained traffic loss if that is all you monitor.
The work that happens every month
The month-by-month notes above list only what was specific to that month. Underneath all of it, the same programme runs on every retained account regardless of what Google ships. We list it once here rather than repeating it under every month, because repeating it would pad the page without telling you anything.
- Search Console, Analytics and credentials check
- On-page SEO updates against the current keyword set
- Blog post published and existing posts re-optimised
- Google Business Profile posts
- Page engagement-rate review
- Ranking, analytics and work report issued to the client
Common questions
How often is this page updated?
Monthly, within a few days of month-end, once a rollout that began in that month has either completed or been confirmed as still running. We do not update it mid-rollout, because rankings recorded while an update is still rolling out are not a result yet.
Where do the update dates come from?
Google's own Search Status Dashboard and announcements, plus the confirmed-update record maintained by Search Engine Roundtable, which tracks this daily. We cross-check both against what we see in client Search Console and analytics data. The dates are theirs; the summaries, observations and recommendations are ours.
What is the difference between a core update and a spam update?
A core update re-weights how Google assesses overall content quality, so it moves many sites broadly and is rarely traceable to one fixable issue — recovery is a content programme measured in months. A spam update targets specific policy-violating patterns, so it is narrower: a legitimate site that loses visibility in one has usually been caught by a tactic somewhere in its history.
My rankings dropped. Was it an algorithm update?
Check the dates first. If the movement falls outside a confirmed rollout window, it is more likely ordinary volatility, a technical problem such as a crawl or indexing error, a change at your CDN or host, or a competitor change. Checking your Search Console coverage and crawl stats before assuming an update saves a lot of wasted effort.
Should I change anything while an update is still rolling out?
No. Note what moved, wait for the completion announcement, then compare a clean two-week window before the rollout started against a clean two-week window after it finished. Changes made mid-rollout cannot be measured, and you lose the ability to tell whether your own work helped or hurt.
Not sure whether an update hit you?
Most ranking drops blamed on algorithm updates turn out to be crawl, indexing or infrastructure problems that happened to coincide with one. The dates on this page are the first thing to check. If they don't line up, we can tell you what did.