What is a Google algorithm update?
Google runs multiple algorithm updates every year. Two categories matter most for organic search performance: core updates, which recalibrate how Google evaluates content relevance and quality across the entire index, and spam updates, which target specific tactics like link spam, scaled AI-generated content, expired-domain abuse, and site reputation abuse. Google announces both categories publicly on the Google Search Status Dashboard.
This page is the complete Google algorithm update timeline for 2026, plus a full historical record going back to 2024. Each entry links to Google's own source announcement and includes a plain-English "What this means for you" impact analysis specifically written for behavioral health, healthcare, and specialty practice sites. Updated automatically every 3 days; manually reviewed on every major update.
September 2026 Spam Update (rolling)
Google confirmed a September 2026 spam update on the Search Status Dashboard, starting September 24, 2026. As of this writing the update is still rolling out ('Information' status on the dashboard, no completion time posted). Google has not shared additional detail on target categories yet; historically September spam updates have refreshed the same spam signals as prior refreshes rather than introducing new policy enforcement.
What this means for you
Since this is actively rolling out (as of Sep 25), do NOT make ranking-recovery decisions yet based on Sep 24-30 volatility. Wait until Google marks the update complete on the Status Dashboard before diagnosing. If you see position shifts this week, log them but hold off on content or link rewrites until the update settles. Historically, September spam-signal refreshes have not required new tactics from clean healthcare sites.
August 2026 Core Update
Broad core ranking recalibration, rolling from August 26 through September 21, 2026 (26 days, one of the longest rollouts of the year). Pages with weak originality, thin evidence, or vague search intent saw larger drops. Sites with strong Core Web Vitals reportedly gained 12–28% more traffic. Scaled AI-generated content and expired-domain networks lost visibility broadly.
What this means for you
For treatment centers, medical practices, and healthcare content sites: pages built to answer a clear patient question with concrete evidence (real clinical detail, staff credentials, verifiable outcomes) held up. Thin service pages that repeat generic 'we treat X, Y, Z' copy without real depth were hit. If organic traffic dropped in September, audit for pages with under 500 words that don't answer the actual question a searcher was asking.
August 2026 Spam Update
Global spam update launched August 18 and completed August 21, 2026 (three days). Ran alongside the August core update. Google confirmed it targeted the same spam-signal categories as prior refreshes and did NOT introduce new policy enforcement.
What this means for you
Practices doing legitimate SEO (real content, real backlinks from healthcare directories, no purchased links) were unaffected. Sites using expired domains, private blog networks, or programmatic AI-content churn saw sharp drops. If you were hit, this is usually not a slow recovery, the fix is removing the flagged tactic, not appealing the update.
June 2026 Spam Update
Global spam update across all languages and regions, rolled out June 24-26, 2026 (about two days). Google explicitly noted it did NOT target link spam or the site reputation abuse policy, treating it as a routine spam-signal refresh. Impact was moderate and narrower than the August 2025 cleanup.
What this means for you
Narrower and shorter than August 2025. Most legitimate healthcare sites did not feel it. Sites that were caught doing on-page manipulation (hidden text, doorway pages, cloaked content) saw drops. If ranking dropped mid-June without a corresponding traffic pattern change, this is usually not the cause.
May 2026 Core Update
Broad core update rolling from May 21 to June 2, 2026 (under 12 days). Community consensus was that it felt larger than the March 2026 core, with reversals for some sites that had recovered in March. News, YMYL, and affiliate/review sites saw the biggest swings.
What this means for you
YMYL (Your Money Your Life) sites, which includes every treatment center, psychiatric practice, and medical practice, got the biggest movements. Sites that had partially recovered in the March core often gave back gains. If your rankings shifted meaningfully in late May or early June, this was almost certainly the driver. Recovery pattern is typically 3-6 months of consistent E-E-A-T signals (author credentials, real clinical citations, verified reviews).
March 2026 Core Update
Broad core update rolling from March 27 to April 8, 2026, immediately following the March spam update. Google described it as a routine relevance/quality recalibration. Winners skewed toward established brand sites and original reporting; losers were programmatic and AI-scaled content sites that had rebounded post-December.
What this means for you
For healthcare: sites with real clinical authors, staff bio pages tied to license numbers, and verifiable outcomes gained ground. Sites publishing generic 'condition + treatment' pages generated at scale lost ground. This is the update that started the broader trend Google reinforced in August, quality signals now outweigh raw content volume for medical topics.
March 2026 Spam Update
Fastest spam update in the Search Status Dashboard's history, running under 20 hours (March 24-25). Global rollout across all languages. Google confirmed it did NOT target link spam or site reputation abuse, treating it as a normal spam-signal refresh.
What this means for you
Fastest-ever rollout means most sites either saw immediate movement or none at all. Typical clean healthcare sites were unaffected. Sites hit are usually running one of: doorway pages targeting many cities without unique local content, exact-match domain spam, or auto-translated content pretending to be original English.
February 2026 Discover Core Update
First Discover-only core update Google has publicly announced. Rolled out February 5-26, 2026, initially US English with global expansion planned. Goals: more locally relevant content, less clickbait/sensationalism, and boosted in-depth original reporting from demonstrated experts. Search rankings were not affected. Discover feed only.
Read the source ↗December 2025 Core Update
Broad core update rolling December 11-29, 2025 (18 days). Google described it as a routine relevance update. Community observation noted significant reshuffling across health, finance, and product-review verticals, some August-spam-update losers saw partial recovery, and some June-update winners gave back gains.
Read the source ↗August 2025 Spam Update
Global broad spam update rolling out August 26 to September 22, 2025 (27 days, one of the longest spam rollouts on record). Widely reported as the first fully algorithmic enforcement of the site reputation abuse policy (previously manual-actions-only), hitting parasite SEO pages on large publisher domains alongside general web-spam signals.
Read the source ↗June 2025 Core Update
Broad core update rolling June 30 to July 17, 2025 (about 17 days, faster than the three-week estimate Google gave). Impact concentrated in news, health, finance, and shopping verticals. Some sites hit by the March 2025 core saw partial recovery; small independent publishers continued to report losses versus large-brand competitors.
Read the source ↗March 2025 Core Update
Google's first core update of 2025 began rolling out in mid-March, with significant volatility for sites that hadn't recovered from the March 2024 core + helpful content overhaul. Pages with strong topical authority and clear EEAT signals saw lifts; pages relying on aggregated or thin content saw further declines.
Read the source ↗December 2024 Spam Update
Targeted manipulative ranking practices, primarily expired-domain abuse, site-reputation abuse, and scaled content abuse. Major media sites with 'parasite SEO' subdomains saw rankings stripped within days. Rolled out December 19-26, 2024.
Read the source ↗December 2024 Core Update
Mid-December core update, the second core update in two months. Affected many of the same niches as November's update but with partial reversals on previously-demoted sites that had restored quality signals.
Read the source ↗November 2024 Core Update
Rolled out November 11 - December 5. Significant volatility across health, finance, and news verticals. Sites with strong author authority and original reporting performed well; aggregated and AI-generated content continued to be demoted.
Read the source ↗August 2024 Core Update
August 15 - September 3, 2024. Google described it as targeting helpful, satisfying content. Many recovered from the March 2024 hit; many were hit for the first time. The update reinforced the 2023 helpful content system as a baked-in part of Core.
Read the source ↗June 2024 Spam Update
June 20-27, 2024. Targeted scaled content abuse and expired domain abuse explicitly. Sites using AI to mass-produce thin articles at scale lost large percentages of organic traffic.
Read the source ↗AI Overviews General Availability
Google launched AI Overviews (formerly SGE) to all US users on May 14, 2024. Traditional organic click-through rates dropped 10-40% on queries that triggered AI Overviews, depending on intent. Local + transactional queries were less affected; informational queries hit hardest.
Read the source ↗March 2024 Core Update + Spam Update
March 5 - April 19, 2024. Largest update in Google's history. Combined core + spam + helpful content system integration. Eliminated entire AI-content farming sites overnight. Many publishers lost 60-90% of organic traffic. Set the new bar for original-content + EEAT requirements.
Read the source ↗
