This timeline lists Google search updates from the 2003 Florida update to the September 2026 spam update, each with a date, what it targeted and a source. The page as a whole is labelled Confirmed, but every entry carries its own label: Confirmed by Google where Google or a Google employee acknowledged the change, and Industry-named, not confirmed where the name and effect come only from SEOs and data providers. Use it to match traffic changes to dated events before diagnosing a cause.
What is the Google update timeline and how is each entry labelled?
The Google update timeline is a dated record of changes to Google's ranking, indexing and spam systems. Each entry below follows the format date, name, what it targeted, evidence label and source, and links to the relevant search systems page where one exists.
Confirmed by Google means Google announced the change, or a Google employee acknowledged it on the record; the name may still have come from the industry (Medic, Pigeon, Pirate). Industry-named, not confirmed means the update is known only from ranking trackers and SEO reports. Since 2021, Google has posted core and spam updates on the Search Status Dashboard, which is the source for most recent entries. Older dates were cross-checked against Moz's algorithm change history.
Which Google updates shaped search from 2003 to 2010?
This era was dominated by named updates discussed on forums and by Matt Cutts, then head of Google's webspam team, rather than by formal announcements.
- 2003-11: Florida: hit affiliate and heavily optimised commercial pages ahead of the holiday season; the name came from Pubcon founder Brett Tabke, not Google. Industry-named, not confirmed. source
- 2005-10: Jagger: a multi-stage update Moz associates with low-quality, reciprocal and paid links; Matt Cutts acknowledged it on his blog and noted the name came from Brett Tabke. Confirmed by Google. source dates
- 2005-12: Big Daddy: a data centre and infrastructure change, not a ranking update, laying groundwork for better canonicalisation; rolled out into early 2006. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2009-02: Vince: generic queries began favouring big brands; Matt Cutts called it a minor change that factored trust more into rankings. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2010-05: May Day: an algorithmic change looking for higher quality sites for long-tail queries, hitting sites with thin pages. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2010-06: Caffeine: a new web indexing system Google said gave 50 percent fresher results. Confirmed by Google. source
Which Google updates shaped search from 2011 to 2015?
Google began publishing announcements with query impact figures, starting with Panda (11.8% of queries) and the freshness change (roughly 35 percent of searches).
- 2011-02: Panda: reduced rankings for low-quality, low-value and copied content, affecting 11.8% of queries. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2011-11: Freshness: freshness ranking change for recent events and regularly updated topics, affecting roughly 35 percent of searches. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2012-02: Venice: Google's launch codename for local results triggered more by the ranking of main search results. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2012-04: Penguin: an algorithm change targeted at webspam, demoting sites violating Google's quality guidelines, especially through links. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2012-08: Pirate: a new ranking signal based on valid copyright removal notices; see removal-based demotion. The Pirate name is industry usage. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2012-09: EMD: reduced low-quality exact-match domains, which Matt Cutts said affected 0.6% of English-US queries noticeably. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2013-06: Payday Loan: targeted very spammy queries such as payday loans; Matt Cutts put the US effect at about 0.3% of queries. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2013-09: Hummingbird: a rewrite of the core algorithm to handle whole queries and meaning; announced in September 2013 about a month after launch. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2014-07: Pigeon: local search ranking tied more closely to web search signals; Google confirmed the change, Search Engine Land coined the name. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2014-08: HTTPS: HTTPS announced as a lightweight ranking signal. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2015-04: Mobile friendly: mobile-friendliness used as a ranking signal in mobile search from 21 April 2015. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2015-05: Quality update (Phantom 2): Google confirmed a change to how its core algorithm processes quality signals; both names came from the industry. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2015-10: RankBrain: a machine learning system for interpreting unfamiliar queries, revealed through Bloomberg on 26 October 2015. Confirmed by Google. source
Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site.
Google, An update to our search algorithms, Inside Search (Google)
Which Google updates shaped search from 2016 to 2020?
Named spam and quality updates gave way to unnamed broad core updates and machine learning systems. Two of the most discussed updates of the period, Possum and Fred, were never confirmed.
- 2016-09: Possum: a large shake-up of local pack results around 1 September 2016; Google did not confirm it. Industry-named, not confirmed. source
- 2016-09: Penguin 4.0: Penguin became real-time and part of the core algorithm. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2017-03: Fred: an unannounced update that appeared to hit low-value, revenue-focused content; Gary Illyes gave the joke name and declined to give details. Industry-named, not confirmed. source
- 2018-07: Speed update: page speed became a ranking factor for mobile searches, affecting only the slowest pages. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2018-08: Medic: a broad core update confirmed by Google's Search Liaison; the Medic name reflects heavy movement in health and YMYL sites. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2019-10: BERT: a transformer language model applied to understand queries in Search. Confirmed by Google. source
Today we're announcing that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
Google Search Central, Using page speed in mobile search ranking, Google Search Central Blog
Which Google updates shaped search from 2021 to 2026?
Updates are now dated to the day on the Search Status Dashboard. Spam policy changes, AI answer surfaces and the European Union's scrutiny of the site reputation policy define the period.
- 2021-04: Product reviews: rewarded in-depth product reviews over thin summaries, English first. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2021-06: Page experience: gradual rollout from mid-June 2021 of page experience, including Core Web Vitals, as a ranking input. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2021-07: Link spam update: an algorithm change to identify and nullify link spam across languages, with a reminder to qualify commercial links. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2022-08: Helpful content: a site-wide signal against content made mainly for search engines. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-03: March 2024 core update and spam policies: a multi-system core update that folded helpfulness into core ranking, plus new policies on expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-05: Site reputation abuse enforcement: manual actions begin, algorithmic enforcement deferred. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-05: AI Overviews: rollout to everyone in the US begins. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-06: June 2024 spam update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-08: August 2024 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-11: November 2024 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-11: Site reputation abuse clarification: first-party involvement does not change the third-party nature of content. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-12: December 2024 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2024-12: December 2024 spam update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2025-03: March 2025 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2025-05: AI Mode: rolled out in the US without a Labs sign-up; see AI Mode query fan-out. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2025-06: June 2025 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2025-08: August 2025 spam update, global and all languages. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2025-12: December 2025 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-02: February 2026 Discover core update: a Discover-only update favouring local, in-depth, original content and reducing clickbait, US English first. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-03: March 2026 spam update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-03: March 2026 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-04: Back button hijacking: added as an explicit violation of the malicious practices spam policy, enforced from 15 June 2026. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-05: May 2026 core update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-06: June 2026 spam update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-08: August 2026 spam update. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-08: Site reputation policy EEA change: manual actions stop applying to results shown in the EEA from 30 August 2026. Confirmed by Google. source
- 2026-09: September 2026 spam update, started 24 September 2026 and still rolling out at the time of writing. Confirmed by Google. source
The March 2024 core update is a more complex update than our usual core updates, involving changes to multiple core systems.
Google Search Central, What web creators should know about our March 2024 core update and new spam policies, Google Search Central Blog
How should sites use the update timeline, and which Laurelin audit checks relate?
Use the timeline to date a change before explaining it. A traffic drop that starts inside a dashboard rollout window is worth investigating against that update's stated target; a drop outside any window points to site changes, tracking or seasonality first. Industry-named entries should never be cited as proof that Google targeted something. There is no single audit check for the timeline itself; these existing checks test for what the major updates targeted:
- Thin content: the target of Panda, May Day and later helpful content work.
- Toxic or spammy backlink profile: the target of Penguin and the link spam updates.
- No HTTPS: the 2014 HTTPS ranking signal.
- Non-responsive fixed-width layout: the 2015 mobile-friendly update.
- LCP over 2.5s: the Speed update and page experience.
- Auto-generated content with no value: the March 2024 scaled content abuse policy and later spam updates.
Frequently asked questions about Google algorithm update timeline
Where does Google announce ranking updates now?
Google posts core and spam updates, with start and completion dates, on the Google Search Status Dashboard, and explains larger changes on the Search Central blog.
Were Florida, Possum and Fred confirmed by Google?
No. Their names and effects come from the SEO industry and ranking trackers. Google acknowledged that changes happen but did not confirm these as named updates.
How many core updates did Google release in 2025?
The Search Status Dashboard lists three: March 2025, June 2025 and December 2025. It also lists one spam update, in August 2025.