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Algorithm update tracker

SEO Updates Tracker: Google & Bing Algorithm Changes (2026)

This SEO updates tracker is a living record of algorithm updates: every confirmed and unconfirmed Google core, spam and Discover update, plus Bing changes, AI-search features, guidance and tooling. Each entry explains what changed and how it affects website owners, with sources you can verify. It is refreshed monthly.

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27Updates tracked
7Major
20Minor
Last updated: · Refreshed monthly
Search engine
Update type
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Minor Updates

Guidance, volatility, tooling, AI features & Bing

GuidanceGoogle

Google Tells Sites to Fact-Check AI Content Before Publishing

Google updated its generative AI content guidance to match its Search Quality Rater guidelines, noting that AI models predict words rather than retrieve facts. It now says all AI-generated content should be manually fact-checked before publishing, including titles, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text.

Expert take & sources
“It is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing.”
By Google, Guidance on using generative AI content

Sources: Search Engine Journal ·Search Engine Roundtable ·Google documentation updates

ToolingGoogle

Search Console Adds Multimodal (Image) Search Reporting

Search Console's performance report now splits web results into Text-based and Multimodal, showing which pages are reached through image-based searches such as Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads and Chrome's “Search this image.” Query data isn't included, and the same view rolled out in the generative AI report.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Google Search Central Blog ·Search Engine Journal ·Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceVolatilityGoogle

Unconfirmed Ranking Shifts Before the Spam Update

Before the spam update, trackers flagged several unconfirmed Google ranking shifts: a September 4 update that reverted for some sites on September 13, a sharp spike in chatter on September 15, and heavy movement from September 22 to 23. Google confirmed none of them, so compare dates against your own analytics.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable (Sep 4–13) ·Search Engine Roundtable (Sep 15) ·Search Engine Roundtable (Sep 23–24)

GuidancePage experienceGoogle

Google Adds CrUX Ad Metrics to Page Experience Docs

Chrome launched four experimental CrUX ad metrics (Ad Count, Ad Density, Ad Weight CPU and Ad Weight Network), and Google then listed them in its page experience documentation. Google has not called them a ranking signal, but ad-heavy sites can now measure how ads affect real users.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Journal (launch) ·Search Engine Land (docs) ·Search Engine Roundtable (docs)

AI FeatureDiscoverGoogle

Discover Tests “Dive Deeper” AI Topic Overviews

Google began testing a “Dive deeper” button in Discover that opens a short AI-written topic overview with links to related stories and community reactions, starting with video content. Publishers worry readers will stop at the summary, adding pressure on Discover traffic that many sites reported falling in September.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable ·Android Authority

AI FeatureSearch ConsoleGoogle

Google Pilots Paying Publishers for AI Answer Contributions

Google confirmed a Search Console pilot that pays some publishers when their content meaningfully shapes answers in Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode, with monthly earnings shown in a new panel. Reports on October 1 said roughly 100 publishers are being paid, with several smaller sites earning under 0.1% of their ad revenue.

Expert take & sources
“Web content may also confirm facts or be linked to within Google's AI after a response is generated, but those instances don't qualify for AI contribution.”
By Google, AI contribution pilot help text

Sources: Search Engine Journal (pilot) ·Search Engine Journal (payouts) ·Search Engine Roundtable

ToolingAI controlsGoogle

Search Console Adds AI Reports & Content Block Toggle

Google rolled out globally two Search Console features: new Search generative-AI performance reports showing your impressions inside AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover (impressions only, no clicks), plus a toggle to block your content from those AI experiences. Site owners now get both visibility into AI search and control over it.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Land ·Google Search Central Blog ·Google AI features docs

ToolingAnti-scrapingGoogle

Google Adds goto Redirect Hops to Result Links

Not an algorithm change: Google confirmed routing search-result clicks through google.com/goto redirect URLs as an anti-abuse measure against scrapers and AI engines. It's largely invisible to searchers, but can skew referrer data and third-party rank-tracking tools. Google Search Console data is unaffected.

Expert take & sources
“We have a long history of deploying technical measures against evolving forms of abuse, and we regularly take steps to protect our services and users.”
By Google spokesperson, Statement to Search Engine Land

Sources: Search Engine Land ·Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceVolatilityGoogle

Heavy Unconfirmed Volatility Across August

Beyond the confirmed spam update, trackers logged repeated unconfirmed Google ranking swings through August, around August 1–3, 5–6 and 12–13, and volatility kept running after the spam update finished on August 21. Google confirmed none of these. Match dates to your analytics before reacting to any single spike.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable (Aug 1–3) ·Search Engine Roundtable (Aug 12–13) ·Search Engine Roundtable (post-update)

ToolingGoogle

Search Console Platform Properties Go Global

Google made Search Console “Platform properties” available to everyone worldwide, letting creators and brands track how their Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube posts perform in Google Search, Discover and News. It adds visibility into off-site content you don't own, alongside a new guide for analyzing that performance.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Land ·Google Search Central Blog ·Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceGoogle

Google Bars Fake & Incentivized Reviews in Review Snippets

Google updated its review snippet structured data guidance, telling sites not to mark up fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews, meaning those exchanged for money, discounts, vouchers or free products without clear disclosure. Non-compliant markup risks losing review star rich results in Search and Knowledge Panels, so audit your review schema.

Expert take & sources
“Don't include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on your page or in your structured data markup.”
By Google, Review snippet structured data guidance

Sources: Search Engine Land ·Google review snippet docs ·Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceVolatilityGoogle

Repeated Unconfirmed Ranking Volatility Through July

Google saw repeated, unconfirmed ranking volatility through July, with spikes around July 11 (dubbed the “7-Eleven update”), the July 18–19 weekend, and an intense run from July 24 into the weekend. More than a dozen trackers lit up, but Google confirmed no core or spam update. Match dates to your analytics before acting.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable (Jul 24) ·Search Engine Roundtable (Jul 18–19) ·Search Engine Roundtable (Jul 11)

BingBing

Bing Tests New News Design & AI Reporting Updates

Microsoft Bing tested a refreshed news section in its search results and shipped updates to its AI reporting/analytics. Lower-impact than Google's core updates, but worth tracking for brands that monitor Bing visibility and its expanding AI-answer surfaces.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceVolatilityGoogle

Unconfirmed June 19 Ranking Update Hits Black Hats

Trackers and forums flagged a sharp, unconfirmed Google ranking movement around Friday June 19 that several SEOs believed disproportionately hit black-hat and manipulative sites. Google didn't confirm it, and volatility had been elevated through mid-June.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

ToolingGoogle

Search Console Link Report Fixed

Google fixed and updated the long-buggy Search Console link report, restoring more reliable internal and external link data. Not a ranking change, but it improves the data SEOs rely on to audit link profiles and diagnose movement after updates.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

AI FeatureGuidanceGoogle

Google Warns Against Manipulating Mentions for AI

At Search Central Live Sydney, Google's Gary Illyes warned against buying or manipulating brand mentions to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, comparing the tactic to paid links that Google's systems detect and ignore. Whether authentic mentions directly help AI search wasn't confirmed.

Expert take & sources
“compared the practice to paid links.”
By Kenichi Suzuki, Reporting Gary Illyes' remarks

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable ·Google AI optimization guide

AI FeatureGoogle

AI Mode & AI Overviews Add Preferred Sources

Google added a “Preferred Sources” option and a new carousel to AI Mode and AI Overviews, letting users influence which publishers appear in AI answers. For site owners it's another sign that visibility inside AI features is becoming its own discipline alongside classic rankings.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceGoogle

Grokipedia Keeps Dropping in Search & AI Visibility

Grokipedia continued losing visibility across both Google's organic results and AI search surfaces, a reminder that large, automated content repositories aren't guaranteed durable rankings and can decline sharply as quality systems re-evaluate them.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceGoogle

Google Explains Why Core Updates Take Weeks

Google clarified why broad core updates take weeks to fully roll out, pointing to the staged, system-wide re-evaluation of content quality at scale. Useful context for site owners trying to read week-to-week ranking movement during a live rollout.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

GuidanceVolatilityGoogle

Self-Promotional Listicles Targeted Again

SEO observers noted Google again appeared to target self-promotional “best of” listicles, a tactic some brands and LLM-generated pages use to rank themselves atop their own roundups. Sites leaning on this pattern saw renewed ranking volatility.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable

DuckDuckGoContext

No Major DuckDuckGo Updates This Period

No major confirmed DuckDuckGo algorithm updates surfaced in this window. DuckDuckGo largely relies on Bing's index for its results, so Bing's changes are the more meaningful signal to watch for DuckDuckGo visibility.

Major Updates

Broad core, spam & Discover core updates

SpamGoogle

September 2026 Spam Update Brings the Longest Rollout

Google's fourth spam update of 2026 began rolling out globally across all languages on September 24, with a window of up to two weeks, far longer than the March, June and August spam updates. Search Engine Roundtable reported a second wave around September 30 that hit Discover and News traffic for some publishers.

Expert take & sources
“The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.”
By Google Search Status Dashboard, Official Google note

Sources: Google Search Status Dashboard ·Search Engine Journal ·Search Engine Roundtable (phase two)

SpamGoogle

August 2026 Spam Update Hits Harder Than Usual

Google rolled out its third spam update of 2026 globally and across all languages: a routine tightening of automated spam detection, with no new policies or blog post. It bit harder than usual: SE Ranking measured 82% more top-10 URLs dropping out of the top 100 than a no-update baseline period.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Land (release) ·Search Engine Land (ranking impact) ·Search Engine Roundtable

SpamGoogle

June 2026 Spam Update Rolls Out Globally

Google began rolling out its second spam update of 2026 worldwide and across all languages, refining the automated systems, including SpamBrain, that detect spam. No new spam policies came with it. If your rankings or traffic shift in the following days, review Google's spam policies before assuming another cause.

Expert take & sources
“applies globally and to all languages.”
By Google Search Status Dashboard, Official Google note

Sources: Search Engine Journal ·Google Search Status Dashboard

CoreGoogle

May 2026 Broad Core Update Lands Hard

Google's second core update of 2026 rolled out with heavy, sustained ranking volatility and several weekend spikes, and many practitioners judged it stronger than March's. Google framed it as a routine update to better surface relevant, satisfying content, with no update-specific recovery steps beyond its standard core-update guidance.

Expert take & sources
“March was meh, but May is big.”
By Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant, G-Squared Interactive

Sources: Search Engine Land ·Search Engine Roundtable ·Search Engine Journal

CoreGoogle

March 2026 Core Update: First Core of the Year

The year's first broad core update recalibrated quality signals around information gain, originality, first-party data and E-E-A-T, with domain-level authority outweighing page-level optimization. It was highly volatile: SE Ranking data showed roughly 80% of top-three results shifting and about a quarter of top-10 pages dropping out of the top 100.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Land ·Search Engine Roundtable

SpamGoogle

March 2026 Spam Update: Fastest on Record

Google's first spam update of 2026 updated its automated spam-detection systems and finished in under a day, the fastest spam rollout on record. No new spam policies were announced, so existing spam policies remained the framework for judging any ranking impact. It rolled out a day before the March core update began.

Expert take & sources

Sources: Search Engine Roundtable ·Search Engine Journal

DiscoverGoogle

February 2026 Discover Core Update

Google released a broad core update to the systems that surface articles in Google Discover, reshaping which content appears in the feed by rewarding originality and demonstrated topical expertise while reducing clickbait. Discover traffic can rise or fall; many sites see no change. Standard core-update guidance applies.

Expert take & sources
“more useful and worthwhile.”
By Google Search Central, Official Google blog

Sources: Google Search Central Blog ·Search Engine Roundtable

How to use this SEO updates tracker

In this SEO updates tracker, major updates (right) are the broad core, spam and Discover updates most likely to move your rankings. Minor updates (left) cover guidance, volatility, tooling and AI features worth tracking but lower-impact. When you see movement, match the dates here against your analytics before assuming a technical cause, then review Google's core and spam guidance rather than chasing a single fix.

Need help reading what an update did to your traffic, or recovering from one? I work with Dubai brands on AI search optimization and measurable organic growth.

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