Google Algorithm Update Timeline: A Complete History of All Time Updates

Google has released numerous updates since 2003 and is still doing it and we aimed to give an overview of all of Google’s ranking updates to our readers through this article. But it’s not the end.

Google will keep rolling out ranking updates in 2023 and beyond, and we will keep informing you on the latest ones as they launch.

Google Algorithm Updates – 2023

Google Algorithm Updates October 2023

Core Update — October 5

Google released its core algorithm update of 2023 on October 5 and took about a fortnight to complete its rollout. It is the third core update of 2023, which started releasing a day after the October 2023 span update was launched.

Just like all the core updates, this one took a hit at many websites’ rankings as digital marketers complained about the ranking volatility during the rollout. So, it led to a substantial change in SERP rankings from October 10 to October 14.

Spam Update — October 4

Google started rolling out this update on October 4, taking 15 days and 12 hours to release it fully. It is a global update. This spam update hit various spam strategies and significantly influenced languages other than English.

Google intended to remove different kinds of spam that its users complained about in Vietnamese, Turkish, Chinese, Indonesian, Hindi, and other languages.

Google Helpful Content Update September 2023

Helpful Content Update – September 14, 2023

Its rollout started on September 14 and finished on September 28. September helpful content update changing Google’s third-party and AI content guidelines. Google also gave new suggestions to recover traffic after a helpful content update.

According to Google, this update has an enhanced classifier and offers different substantial modifications to the Helpful Content System.

Google Algorithm Update August 2023

Core Update — August 22, 2023

Google began releasing its second core update of 2023 on August 22. The rollout took 16 days to complete and finished on September 7, 2023. Google has [provided suggestions on what to do if your site gets hit by a core update previously which you can follow if the same happens to you.

Google Algorithm Updates June 2023

Possible Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update Around – June 23, 2023

from last few days in June 2023, there are a lot of unconfirmed algorithm updates have seen but Google hence not confirmed any of them. But the lot of webmasters are complaining about the websites rankings and organic traffic drop.

Lets wait for Google to confirm about the recent updates.

Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update Volatility Around – June 6, 2023

A possible algorithm ranking update by Google but not confirmed.

Google Algorithm Updates May 2023

Google Search Algorithm Ranking Volatility Update but Not Confirmed – May 25, 2023

Another Google search algorithm ranking update around 22^nd to 25^th May 2023 but Google did not confirm.

Google Search Topic Authority Ranking System – May 24, 2023

There was another Google blog post update about “topic authority” which is an old ranking system.

Google Search Algorithm Keywords Ranking Instability Around – May 18, 2023

There is another unconfirmed Google Algo update around May 17-18, 2023. People are claiming that their website rankings have shuffled.

Google Helpful Content System to Find Hidden Gems in Blogs & Forums in Future Update – May 11, 2023

Google revealed that the helpful content system will receive a new update in the “coming months.” in order to display more “hidden gems” in Google Search, this update will find content in challenging-to-find sites including forum discussions, blogs, and other places.

Google Early May Search Algorithm Unconfirmed Update Heats Up – May 5, 2023

There was another unconfirmed Google algo update around May 03 to May 05, 2023.

Google Algorithm Update April 2023

Reviews Update — April 12, 2023

It began on April 12 and finished rolling out on April 25, 2023, taking thirteen days to complete the process. This product reviews update encompasses more than Google’s previous similar updates and assesses reviews of any subject that is evaluable such as destinations, services businesses and media (movies and games).

Google Algorithm Update March 2023

Core Update — March 15, 2023

Google started rolling out a core update on March 15 and finished it through March 28. It was the second core algorithm update in 2023 and hit many websites’s rankings during the process.

Google Algorithm Update February 2023

Product Reviews Update — February 21

Google released Product Reviews Update on February 21 which finished rolling out on March 18. The update applies to multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, and Polish.

Google Algorithm Updates – 2022

Link Spam Update — December 14

Google released its second Link Spam Update of 2022, two months after it launched the first one in October. That update came after almost one year of the previous link spam update.

Released on 14th December, this update was fully rolled out on 12 January after about a month.

Google developers intended to capture sites that utilize fraudulent link-building strategies with this update. Google has spam-prevention software called SpamBrain that uses artificial intelligence to spot spammy backlinks. and it was working before the update was launched, However, Google enhanced it to better detect and remove unnatural backlinks, like those on websites that buy links.

Google’s Helpful Content Update — December 6

Google launched its second Helpful Content Update of 2022 on December 6 and completed it on January 12, 2023. It included new factors to the search engine’s classifier.

Google implemented this helpful content update to all languages worldwide. The idea behind this update is the same as the first one.

This algorithm analyzes your website with a couple of classifiers that can identify whether the content developed is helpful. It is a sitewide update which makes it more significant.

A Few Classifiers That Assess the Helpfulness of Content

• AI Content

• Link Spam

• Keyword Stuffing

• Cloaking

Spam Update — October 19

Unlike the previously discussed Update, Spam Update October 2022 impacts all languages globally. Google released it on October 19 and rolled it out completely on October 21.

Spam Update isn’t a site-wide update, which means it will only affect spammy websites.

Google defines this update as:

“While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates.”

Product Reviews Update — September 20

Google released its third product review update on September 20, 2022, and completed its rollout on September 26.

Like its predecessors, this update aimed to hit low-quality product reviews with low rankings. Note that this product review update was only applied to the English language product reviews.

Google calls thin content that only sums up a host of products, low-quality content. Though Google does not penalize thin product reviews manually or algorithmically, it prefers content that is higher in quality.

Core Update — September 12

Google launched its second Core Update of 2022 on September 12 and completed its release on 26.

Google’s Core Updates are part of the list of its search ranking updates and cause broad changes to its algorithms.

This update sent waves of excitement as Google announced it on Twitter in the SEO community. This September’s Core Update didn’t seem as volatile as the previous Core Updates, including those that rolled out in May 2022.

Helpful Content Update — August 25

Google started releasing its Helpful Content Update on Aug 25, 2022 and completely rolled it out on September 9. It is a site-wide update.

The rollout made this update talk of the town in the SEO industry. You might have heard people saying that it would be the end of AI content.

Google considers it its mission to offer searchers the most relevant and optimum search results. But the Helpful Content update was a groundbreaking update that ensures searchers get what they want when they type a query in the search bar.

Product Reviews Update — July 27

Google released the fourth product reviews update on July 27 and completed it on September 9.

Google said that the full rollout could take two or three weeks. But, it did so after 6 days, which was refreshing news for all SEOs and business owners.

If we compare this update with the previous product review updates, it had a narrow extent and didn’t impact rankings as substantially as previous ones.

With that being said, different websites had different experiences after google rolled out this update. But its low impact can be seen by the little talk it aroused in the industry.

Core Update — May 25

One of Google’s Core Updates was released on May 25, 2022, and completed on June 9. It was part of the group of updates that Google makes many times each year in its ranking algorithms.

With Core Updates, Google aims to improve its promise to deliver trustworthy and helpful results for users. They are called ‘Core’ updates as they focus on the overall user experience and not only on a single specific factor.

Product Reviews Update — March 23

As the name implies, this update is related to product reviews.

Google has written a guideline on writing top-quality product reviews that summarizes what Google prefers when ranking product reviews.

Best Practices to Follow While Trying to Rank Product Reviews

• Put yourself in a buyer’s shoes and analyze the product
• Don’t shy away from displaying your prowess and knowledge about a specific product
• Show users that you have used the product through images, audio clips, or other links to prove your expertise and strengthen the authenticity of your content
• Give users a reason to go for your recommended product against its competitors
• Share the positives and negatives of the product you found by either your experience or research
• Demonstrate how well your reviewed product performs in several categories of performance

Page Experience Update (Desktop) — February 22

Google released a Page Experience Update for its ranking signals for desktops on 22 February 2022 and completed it on 3rd March.

Optimizing for this ranking factor can help you list your page in top stories carousels without using AMP (accelerated mobile pages) versions.

What distinguishes it from the previous ranking factors is that those ranking factors focused on the experience a user has on your whole website.

While page experience only focuses on the experience a specific page of your site/URL provides to users independent of other pages on your website.

What’s Next?

SEO professionals are tasked with attempting to figure out the elements that influence search engine rankings on Google. We have our hand on the nerve of the industry and will keep informing you on the latest Google ranking updates as they launch.

We hope that this piece on Google’s ranking updates has helped you understand the search engine and its expectations from websites. Let’s hope 2023 to be an exciting year for the digital marketing and SEO industry. 

Keep coming back to us to know what updates Google releases in 2023 and beyond!