So far in 2026, Google has confirmed seven ranking updates:
- two core updates (March and May);
- four spam updates (March, June, August and September);
- a February Discover update that launched for English-language users in the US.
A drop in traffic around one of these dates doesn’t, on its own, show that the update caused it.
This guide sets out exactly what Google has confirmed, with dates from its own records. It then shows how to check your Search Console data and weigh the possible explanations before you decide what, if anything, to change.
Checked against Google’s Search Status Dashboard and Search Central documentation on 9 October 2026. This covers 2026 to date, not the full year.
Core, spam and Discover updates: what’s the difference?
Core updates are broad changes to how Google ranks results. Google says they “don’t target specific sites or individual web pages” (Google Search Central). If your pages move after a core update, it doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong with them.
Spam updates are improvements to Google’s automated systems that detect content and behaviour breaching its spam policies. Those systems run all the time. A named spam update means Google has made a notable improvement to them (Google Search Central).
Discover updates affect Google Discover, the feed of suggested articles Google shows on mobile, for example in the Google app. Discover is separate from the results people get when they type a search, and Search Console reports it separately.
Every confirmed 2026 update so far
All dates come from Google’s Search Status Dashboard. Google records times in US Pacific time. Converted to UK time, every start and completion still falls on the same calendar date shown here.
| Update | Started | Completed | What Google said about scope | What it means for a UK business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 Discover update | 5 Feb | 27 Feb | Released to English-language users in the US. Google said it would expand it to all countries and languages “in the months ahead”. | Launched for US users. Google hasn’t announced the expansion as of 9 October. It covers Discover only, not ordinary web search. |
| March 2026 spam update | 24 Mar | 25 Mar | “Applies globally and to all languages” | Applied in the UK. Finished two days before the March core update began. |
| March 2026 core update | 27 Mar | 8 Apr | No scope limit or target stated | A broad change, not limited by country |
| May 2026 core update | 21 May | 2 Jun | No scope limit or target stated | A broad change, not limited by country |
| June 2026 spam update | 24 Jun | 26 Jun | “Applies globally and to all languages” | Applied in the UK |
| August 2026 spam update | 18 Aug | 21 Aug | “Applies globally and to all languages” | Applied in the UK. There was no August core update. |
| September 2026 spam update | 24 Sep | 8 Oct | “Applies globally and to all languages” | Applied in the UK. Completed on 8 October. |
These are the only ranking updates the dashboard lists for 2026 as of 9 October. Some articles online give different dates for the 2026 core updates, or describe updates Google hasn’t confirmed. Check any date against Google’s record before relying on it.
What Google actually said about each one
Where Google didn’t name a target, this guide doesn’t either.
The February Discover update. Google’s announcement said it would change Discover in three ways (Google Search Central Blog):
- showing users more locally relevant content from websites based in their own country;
- reducing sensational content and clickbait;
- showing more in-depth, original and timely content from sites with expertise in a subject.
Google said it judges expertise topic by topic, so a site with a dedicated section on a subject can show expertise in it even if it covers other subjects too. It said many sites may see no change, and that its general core update guidance applies.
The update was released to English-language users in the US. Google said it would expand it to all countries and languages, but neither the dashboard nor the Search Central blog had announced that expansion as of 9 October.
The March and May core updates. Google’s notices said only that each update had been released and might take up to two weeks to roll out (March, May). They named no type of site, sector or content. Claims that either update “penalised AI content” or targeted particular industries aren’t supported by Google’s records.
The March, June, August and September spam updates. Each notice said the update “applies globally and to all languages”. None named a specific type of spam (March, June, August, September).
Spam policy changes announced in 2026
Two policy changes are separate from the updates above, but worth knowing about:
- “Back button hijacking”. Google made interfering with a visitor’s back button an explicit breach of its spam policies, enforced from 15 June 2026. Affected pages may face manual actions or automated demotions (Google). If your site uses a script that changes what the back button does, check it.
- Site reputation abuse. This means publishing third-party content on a trusted site to borrow its ranking strength. From 30 August 2026, manual actions under this policy no longer affect results for users in the European Economic Area. They still apply for users elsewhere, including the UK (Google).
Two points from Google’s guidance
- A completed rollout doesn’t mean everything has settled. Google says some changes show within days, but it can take several months for its systems to recognise that a site has improved (core updates guidance).
- Benefit from spammy links doesn’t come back. If a spam update stops crediting links that broke Google’s policies, Google says any ranking benefit from those links “cannot be regained” (spam updates guidance).
Before you blame an update: what else causes drops
Google lists six broad causes of falling search traffic (Google Search Central):
- Technical problems that stop pages being crawled, indexed or shown.
- Security problems, such as a hacked site showing warnings.
- Spam issues, including a manual action from a human reviewer.
- Algorithm updates, such as the ones listed above.
- Changes in demand, including seasonal patterns.
- Site moves and migrations, such as changed URLs.
Several of these can be checked quickly, and some, such as an outage or a page accidentally set to noindex, need fixing straight away. That’s why they come before any update analysis. It doesn’t mean they’re the likeliest cause for your site; only your data can show that.
How to check your Search Console data, step by step
You don’t need to be an SEO to do this. Allow half an hour.
Choose the right report
- Open the web search report. In Search Console, go to Performance → Search results.
Using the Search type filter at the top of the report, choose Web. The report also covers image, video and news results, and searches made with images (Google).
Discover has its own report under Performance → Discover. It only appears once your site has enough Discover impressions (Google).
- Turn on all four measures. Tick clicks, impressions, average CTR and average position. They tell you different things (Google):
- Impressions: how often a link to your site was shown in Google.
- Clicks: how often someone clicked through.
- CTR: clicks divided by impressions.
- Average position: the highest position your site held each time it was shown, averaged. 1 is the top. It’s an average across many searches, not a fixed ranking for any one query.
Compare the right periods
- Look at the long view first. Set the date range to the last 16 months. Google suggests this so you can see whether a dip repeats at the same time each year (Google).
- Pin down the start date. Find the first day the line clearly changed. Write it down, then compare it with the update table above and with your own list of website changes.
- Compare fair periods. For a core update, Google suggests waiting at least a full week after the rollout completes, then comparing that week with a week before the rollout started (Google).
- For the September spam update, which completed on 8 October, that full week isn’t available until after 15 October.
- For seasonal businesses, also compare with the same weeks last year.
Find where the change is
- Break it down. Use the tabs under the chart:
- Pages: is it every page, or a few?
- Queries: which searches dropped?
- Countries: is it UK traffic, or somewhere else?
- Devices: mobile or desktop?
Then repeat with the Search type filter at the top, if image or video results matter to you.
Rule out problems you can see directly
These don’t need to wait for any comparison period.
- Check the warning reports. Open Security & Manual Actions. A listed manual action or security issue is a specific, reported problem, and should be dealt with first (manual actions, security issues).
- Check whether your important pages are indexed. Open Pages under Indexing.
Google says “not indexed” isn’t necessarily bad. Duplicates, pages you’ve set to noindex and alternate versions are often left out on purpose (Google).
So don’t judge by the total. Look at the reasons given, and check whether your key pages, such as your homepage and main service pages, are affected. Our guide to pages not indexing explains the common statuses.
- Compare with Google Analytics fairly. GA4 and Search Console measure different things:
- GA4’s Organic Search channel counts sessions from a list of search sites (Google).
- Search Console counts clicks from Google.
To compare them, filter GA4 to Google organic traffic and use the same dates and landing pages. If GA4 falls but Search Console doesn’t, check your tracking and consent setup. Our guide to tracking calls and enquiries covers the measurement side.
A note on small sites. If your site gets a few clicks a day, week-to-week comparisons will be noisy, and a fall from 30 clicks to 20 can be chance. Look at longer periods and treat any conclusion as a hypothesis until more data builds up.
What different patterns suggest you check next
Each of these is a possible explanation to test, not a conclusion. More than one can be true at once.
| What you see | A possible explanation | What to check next |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks and impressions fall across most pages, position drops, and the start falls within a core update rollout | A broad ranking change, possibly linked to the update | Wait a week after completion and compare as Google suggests. Check for other changes in the same period. Avoid quick fixes. |
| Only a few pages or queries fell | Something specific to those pages or searches, or competitors improving | What changed on those pages? Are they still indexed? What now ranks above them? |
| Impressions and position steady, clicks down | People are seeing your listing but clicking less, possibly because the results page looks different | Search your main queries and look at what now appears. Review your titles and descriptions. |
| Impressions down, position steady | Possibly fewer people searching | Same period last year. Check the queries in Google Trends. |
| Traffic falls sharply to near zero | Possibly a technical fault. Check this first, because it can be confirmed quickly. | The Pages report reasons, robots and noindex settings, hosting status, recent plugin or theme changes |
| GA4 down, Search Console steady | Possibly tracking or consent | Tag changes, the consent banner, form and call tracking |
| A manual action or security issue is listed | A specific, reported problem | Follow the report’s instructions before anything else |
| Only Discover traffic fell | A Discover change rather than web search | The Discover report by country and page |
| Drop in one country or device only | Something affecting that segment | That segment’s pages and queries |
| Drop near a spam update, and the site used tactics in Google’s spam policies (for example, paid links) | Spam systems may no longer be crediting those tactics | Review the spam policies. Stop the tactic. Expect any lost link benefit not to return. |
| Drop coincides with a redesign, migration or agency change | The change is a strong competing explanation alongside any update | Redirects, removed pages and tracking. See redesign lost traffic. |
A worksheet for your own investigation
Copy this table into a spreadsheet and fill one row per observation. Writing down your confidence stops a single chart from turning into a conclusion.
| Observation | Evidence | Possible explanation | Next check | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low / Medium / High |
A hypothetical example (an imaginary site, to show how the worksheet works):
| Observation | Evidence | Possible explanation | Next check | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clicks down about 30% from 22 May | Search Console (web), compared with the week before 21 May | The May core update | Compare a week after the 2 June completion with the week before 21 May | Low |
| Google organic sessions also down in GA4 for the same pages and dates | GA4, filtered to Google organic | A real traffic fall, not only a reporting change. A tracking fault is less likely, but not ruled out. | Confirm the tag and consent setup didn’t change | Medium |
| Most of the loss is on three service pages | Search Console Pages tab | Page-specific, not site-wide | Check whether those pages changed in May | Medium |
| Those three pages were rewritten on 20 May | Website change log | The rewrite and the update are both possible causes | Compare old and new versions against the queries lost. Check whether similar pages that weren’t rewritten also fell. | Low |
In this made-up example, the timing pointed at the update, and the change log added a competing explanation. Neither is proven yet. The next checks are what decide which is better supported. If the unchanged pages held steady while the rewritten ones fell, the rewrite becomes the stronger hypothesis.
What to do now
- Fix confirmed problems straight away. A noindex left on a page, a broken redirect, a security warning or a manual action doesn’t need to wait for any comparison period. Each can be put right and checked.
- Collect evidence before changing anything else. Export your Search Console data by page and query, note the dates of any website changes, and fill in the worksheet.
- If the evidence points towards a core update, follow Google’s advice. Review whether your pages are genuinely helpful and reliable for the people searching, and make changes that make sense for your customers, not quick fixes (Google). Google says there’s no need for drastic action after a small drop.
- If the evidence points towards spam policies, read the spam policies and stop anything that breaches them.
- Don’t automatically delete content, disavow links or change URLs. Each can cause new problems. Google says most sites don’t need its disavow tool (Google).
- Make one change at a time and record the date, so you can tell what helped and what hurt.
- Allow time. Google says improvements can take months to be recognised, sometimes until the next core update.
For the full order of checks when rankings fall, see what to check first when rankings drop. If a switch of SEO provider coincided with your drop, our guide to leaving an SEO agency covers what to check in the handover.
When to get help
If your checks don’t point to a clear cause, or the drop is large and sustained, an evidence-led investigation can save you from changing the wrong thing.
Our SEO recovery diagnosis starts at £145. It confirms the symptom, builds a timeline, rules out measurement faults and reports the supported causes, with each finding labelled. Any fixes are quoted separately once the cause is clear.