Google updates

What Google says
Google updated its guidance on using AI to create content. It now says AI models “don’t retrieve facts, but predict a likely sequence of words,” so what they write can contain mistakes. Google calls it “critical” to fact-check and review all AI-written content by hand before publishing. The review also covers page titles, meta descriptions, structured data and image descriptions, because all of them can appear in search results. Google’s guidance

What this means for you
If you use AI to write your content, you or someone on your team needs to check everything before you publish, including the SEO elements behind the scenes.

What Google says
Google released the September 2026 spam update on September 24. It applies worldwide and in all languages. It finished rolling out on October 8. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between September 24 and October 8, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google released the August 2026 spam update on August 18. It applies worldwide and in all languages. It finished rolling out on August 21. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between August 18 and August 21, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google released the June 2026 spam update on June 24. It applies worldwide and in all languages. It finished rolling out on June 26. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between June 24 and June 26, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google released the May 2026 core update on May 21. It finished rolling out on June 2. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between May 21 and June 2, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the March 2026 core update on March 27. It finished rolling out on April 8. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between March 27 and April 8, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the March 2026 spam update on March 24. It applies worldwide and in all languages. It finished rolling out on March 25. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between March 24 and March 25, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google released the February 2026 Discover core update on February 5, for English-language users in the US. It finished rolling out on February 27. Google says Discover now shows more locally relevant content from sites based in the reader’s country, less sensational content and clickbait, and more in-depth, original and timely content from sites with expertise in a topic. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your Discover traffic changed in February, this update is the first place to look. Google judges expertise topic by topic, so Discover now favors in-depth content on the subjects you know best.

What Google says
Google released the December 2025 core update on December 11. It finished rolling out on December 29. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between December 11 and December 29, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the August 2025 spam update on August 26. It applies worldwide and in all languages. It finished rolling out on September 22. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between August 26 and September 22, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google released the June 2025 core update on June 30. It finished rolling out on July 17. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between June 30 and July 17, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the March 2025 core update on March 13. It finished rolling out on March 27. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between March 13 and March 27, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the December 2024 spam update on December 19. It applies worldwide and in all languages. It finished rolling out on December 26. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between December 19 and December 26, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google released the December 2024 core update on December 12. It finished rolling out on December 18. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between December 12 and December 18, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the November 2024 core update on November 11. It finished rolling out on December 5. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search, and it doesn’t target specific sites or pages. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic changed between November 11 and December 5, this update is the first place to look. Wait at least a full week after the rollout ends before you compare numbers in Search Console. Google advises against quick fixes and calls deleting content a last resort.

What Google says
Google released the August 2024 core update on August 15. It finished rolling out on September 3. Google says it was designed to show “more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.” It also took into account feedback from small and independent sites that create useful, original content. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your site lost traffic in an earlier update and you have improved it since, this update was built to notice. Google says it “aims to better capture improvements that sites may have made.”

What Google says
Google released the June 2024 spam update on June 20. It finished rolling out on June 27. A spam update improves how Google’s systems find pages that break its spam policies. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
If your traffic dropped between June 20 and June 27, check your site against Google’s spam policies. Google says sites that see a change after a spam update should review them.

What Google says
Google Merchant Center asks sellers to send AI-generated product titles and descriptions in their own fields, marked as AI-generated, separate from the ones written by people. Google’s update

What this means for you
If AI writes your product titles or descriptions for Google Shopping, label them as AI-generated when you send them to Google.

What Google says
Google released the March 2024 core update on March 5. It finished rolling out on April 19. Google called it more complex than its usual core updates, with changes to several core systems. With this update, the helpful content system became part of Google’s core ranking systems. Google says the update was designed to show “less content that feels like it was made to attract clicks, and more content that people find useful.” Google’s announcement

What this means for you
Google expected more ranking changes from this update than from a regular core update. It says search results now show 45% less low-quality, unoriginal content. If your content is written for people, Google says there is nothing new you need to do.

What Google says
Google released the March 2024 spam update on March 5. It finished rolling out on March 20. With it, Google added three spam policies. Scaled content abuse is publishing many pages mainly to manipulate rankings, whether AI, people or both write them. Expired domain abuse is buying an expired domain and reusing it mainly to manipulate rankings. Site reputation abuse is publishing third-party pages on a site with little or no oversight from the site itself. That policy took effect on May 5, 2024. Google’s announcement

What this means for you
Publishing pages in bulk to rank breaks this policy, whether AI writes them or people do. Sites that break a spam policy can rank lower or drop out of results. If Google applies a manual action, you get a notice in Search Console and can ask for a review.

What Google says
Google Merchant Center requires every AI-generated product image to carry the IPTC DigitalSourceType tag “trainedAlgorithmicMedia,” the label inside the file that marks it as made by AI. Sellers must keep that tag and not remove it. Google’s requirement

What this means for you
If you use AI to create product images for Google Shopping, the files have to keep the tag that marks them as AI-made. Keep it in place when you edit or compress them.