Live update log
Google confirmed seven ranking updates this year, and only two of them were core updates.
The Google algorithm updates 2026 list is short and specific: two broad core updates in March and May, four spam updates, and one Discover update in February. None of them targeted Malaysian sites. If your traffic moved, the date is the first thing to check, not the content.
Klang Valley clients never ask what changed, they ask whether it changed anything for them. It is the first thing we check before quoting professional SEO services on a site someone else built.
The Google algorithm updates 2026 log runs to seven confirmed releases: core updates in March and May, spam updates in March, June, August and September, and a Discover update in February. Every start and end date is published on the Google Search Status Dashboard.
Nothing has rolled out since the September spam update finished on 7 October 2026, and no core update has completed since 1 June. So a recent drop almost certainly has a cause inside your own site.
What experience teaches us
A confirmed update tells you when to look, not what to fix
Most commentary about a core update is written in its first week, before anyone has data worth reading. We have watched Malaysian sites lose four positions on a Monday and recover with no edits, and a client spend a year chasing a recovery after rewriting pages that were fine.
Our position is unglamorous. If a drop lines up with a published rollout window and spans most of your pages, treat it as a verdict on the whole site. If it does not, look at your tracking, your templates and your competitors.
Google Algorithm Updates 2026
Every confirmed update, and what changed
The 2026 Update Log
Two core, four spam, one Discover
01 / Update log
Which Google algorithm updates have landed in 2026?
Seven, as of 29 October 2026. Google names each release and publishes its exact window, so the Google algorithm updates 2026 record is fact, not opinion.
The whole year in one place.
| Update | Type | Rolled out | What it touched |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 Discover update | Discover | 5 to 26 February | Discover feed only, not search |
| March 2026 spam update | Spam | 24 to 25 March | Policy enforcement, under a day. |
| March 2026 core update | Core | 27 March to 8 April | Broad quality reassessment, all results |
| May 2026 core update | Core | 21 May to 1 June | Broad reassessment, twelve days |
| June 2026 spam update | Spam | 24 to 26 June | Policy enforcement, two days. |
| August 2026 spam update | Spam | 18 to 20 August | Policy enforcement, two days. |
| September 2026 spam update | Spam | 24 September to 7 October | Longest rollout of the year |
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard.
Spam updates outnumber core updates two to one, and the gap since the last core update is the longest of the cycle.
What Actually Changed
Quality, spam policy, generative layer
02 / What changed
What did the 2026 core and spam updates actually change?
Core updates re-scored quality across the index, spam updates enforced a written policy, and the Discover update touched a feed, not a search result. Three different machines, and confusing them is how recovery goes wrong.
Tap to open
Google calls a core update a reassessment, not a punishment, so there is often nothing specific to remove. For a sustained fall it asks you to judge the site as a whole.
A Google spam update is enforcement, and the behaviours are written down: scaled content abuse, expired domain abuse, third party content hosted to borrow your signals. These have a clear fix.
Source: Google spam policies.
The February update changed selection for the Discover feed only. If your reporting lumps Discover impressions in with search, a Discover swing reads as a ranking problem. Split them in Search Console first.
This one arrived without a named update. Search Console gained generative AI performance reports in June 2026 (Google Search Central, June 2026), and ads in AI Mode reached Malaysia on 28 October (Google, 28 October 2026). Position three can now sit below an answer nobody scrolls past.
For the wider picture, our plain English SEO guide for 2026 covers how these systems fit together.
Was It The Update?
Core update, or self inflicted
03 / Diagnosis
How do I know if a Google core update hit my site?
Check three things: whether the drop began inside a published rollout window, whether it spans many pages or a few, and whether anything changed on your own site that week. A core update is broad and dated.
Decision block
Was it the update, or was it us?
Three answers, then a read.
1. Did the drop start inside a rollout window published on the Search Status Dashboard?
2. Is the fall spread across most of your pages, or limited to a handful?
3. On mobile, is the site slow or visually unstable to load?
Your read
Answer all three to get a read
A dated, site wide fall points one way. An undated, narrow fall points at something you can fix yourself.
Talk to us about your dropGoogle asks site owners to wait a week after a rollout completes before reading Search Console data, because positions move while an update settles. Acting in week one is how good pages get rewritten for nothing.
After A Core Update
What to change, what to leave
04 / Recovery
What should we do after a Google core update in Malaysia?
Core update recovery starts with waiting a week, measuring before you touch anything, fixing what is measurable and leaving the pages that still perform alone.
| When | Do this | Leave this alone |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Confirm the window. Record clicks either side. Split search from Discover and AI. | Content, titles, internal links. Editing now destroys your baseline. |
| Week 2 | Find the pattern. Rank the ten worst pages by lost clicks. | Pages that held or grew. Google says not to touch them. |
| Week 3 | Fix the measurable. Core Web Vitals, content in the HTML, policy breaches. | Rewrites and mass deletions. Irreversible, and not diagnosis. |
| Week 4 | Improve the worst pages. First hand detail, a named author, an answer in forty words. | Your expectations of speed. Recovery may take months. |
A 30 day order of work, built on Google Search Central core update guidance.
Then the recurring cost of that hygiene. Website maintenance plans in Malaysia cost RM450 to RM3,200 per month, depending on site size and the support hours included. WDD Malaysia tiers are VLite at RM450 a month (30 hours a year), Managed at RM900 (60 hours), Growth at RM1,700 (120 hours) and Enterprise at RM3,200 (240 hours). Managed website security costs less than a recovery project.
If the pattern points at the whole site rather than a few pages, that is a strategy problem, and the work our SEO services Malaysia team scopes first.
The Malaysian Picture
AI Mode, WhatsApp, Klang Valley
05 / Malaysia
Why does a core update look different for a Malaysian business?
Because the competitive set is small, the enquiry does not arrive on the website, and the AI layer is live here. A Google core update Malaysia businesses feel shows up as a quiet WhatsApp, not a traffic chart.
In most Klang Valley categories the competitive set is six to ten firms, not six hundred. One competitor publishing something better moves you two positions with no update at all, so a reshuffle of a shallow market lands hard.
Measurement is harder here. Malaysian buyers click through, read, then message on WhatsApp, so the conversion never touches a form and a fall is felt a fortnight late.
Scale changes the shape, not the rules. On corporate builds for clients such as LBS Bina and Ranhill, commercial weight sits on a handful of high intent pages, so a site wide reassessment surfaces in a narrow place. A twelve page drop on 400 pages can be the whole pipeline.
Your Exposure Score
Seven checks, one risk band
06 / Exposure
How exposed is our site to the next core update?
Seven things, each documented or stated publicly by Google. Tick the ones true today and the block returns a risk band. It is the same seven we check before taking over a site.
Self audit
Your core update exposure score
Tick what is true today.
Checks passed, out of seven
0Tick the ones that are true today
Nothing is scored until you answer. Each box is something Google has said it reads, or something we check on every site we take over.
Talk to us about your siteCore Web Vitals thresholds are measured at the 75th percentile of page loads. Sources: web.dev Core Web Vitals and Google spam policies.
The first two are engineering, and the only items fixable inside a fortnight.
The Updates That Stuck
Older changes that still rank
07 / History
Which older Google updates still matter in 2026?
Four of them, and not as separate updates any more. The Google algorithm updates 2026 list is short because the named updates of the 2010s were folded into the core ranking systems. Tap each to see what survived.
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Panda targeted thin and duplicated pages, then was absorbed into the core systems. Its modern form is a 300 page site where 40 pages carry real information and the rest catch keyword variations.
Penguin went after manipulative links and now runs continuously, so bought links stop working quietly rather than triggering a penalty. An inherited directory profile is neither helping nor hurting you.
These two taught Google to read intent rather than match strings. They are why keyword density stopped being a strategy, and why a page ranks for queries it never mentions.
Page Experience brought Core Web Vitals into ranking. First input delay was retired on 12 March 2024 and replaced by interaction to next paint, so any audit still reporting the old metric is out of date.
The helpful content system went the same way, folded into the core systems in March 2024. One test survives: could a competitor have written this page without doing the work?
Next steps
Where to go next
The honest SEO guide for 2026
How the ranking systems, the AI surfaces and the basics fit together.
AI SEO services for Malaysian businesses
Entity authority, technical health and visibility in Google and the AI answers.
Request a core update review
Send us the dates and the drop. We will tell you which it was.
Straight answers
Frequently asked questions
Tap to open
Google confirmed seven named ranking updates in 2026: core updates in March and May, spam updates in March, June, August and September, and a Discover update in February. Smaller unannounced changes run continuously, so the Google algorithm updates 2026 list counts named releases only.
The most recent broad core update was the May 2026 core update, which began on 21 May and finished rolling out on 1 June, about twelve days. Nothing has been confirmed as a core update since. The September 2026 spam update, completed on 7 October, was the last named update.
Check three things in order. First, whether the drop began inside a rollout window published on the Search Status Dashboard. Second, whether the fall spans most of your pages or only a few. Third, whether anything changed on your own site that week.
Google says some changes can take effect within days, but it may take months for its systems to confirm a site is consistently producing helpful content, and improvement may only register at the next core update. Plan for a quarter, not a fortnight.
The ranking systems are the same everywhere, but the effect feels different here. Klang Valley categories often have six to ten real competitors, so a reshuffle moves you further. Most enquiries arrive on WhatsApp rather than a form, so a drop is felt a fortnight late.
Yes. We review this log every quarter against the Google Search Status Dashboard, and again after any confirmed core or spam update, then update the table, the counts and the modified date. We maintain it rather than redirect it, because a log answers its own question.
Every date and figure on this page comes from the Google sources linked in the text, checked against the Search Status Dashboard on 29 October 2026. Written and maintained by WDD Malaysia’s SEO team, reviewed every quarter and after each confirmed update.
