Google constantly evaluates and updates its algorithms. There can be hundreds or even thousands of individual changes per year.
Google does confirm some of the major updates, such as site reputation abuse, the March 2024 core update, and the November 2023 reviews update.
But, often, Google will not officially confirm an update, and these are only picked up through high volatility in the SERPs.
For example, in May of 2024, Lily Ray observed huge changes in traffic to a dozen publisher sites using rank tracking tools. Google rejected the idea of an algorithm update.
Google rejects the idea of an algorithm update observed by SEO tools.
The volatility mentioned in the tweet was observed around May 7, a day after Google announced that it rolled out a reputation abuse update with manual actions, with the algorithmic part following later.
Since it didn’t mention specific dates, many assumed that those websites were hit by the reputation abuse algorithmic rollout. However, SearchLiaison responded and refuted that assumption, leaving many SEO pros in a state of confusion.
A lot of common SEO advice you’ll see (especially from Google) amounts to “don’t chase algorithms, just do what’s best for the user” – but algorithms can have a catastrophic impact on SEO performance (sometimes unjustly).
For this reason, if you are managing a site for a brand, you need to act quickly if there is an update.
Knowing when an update hits and understanding each update will help you to adjust your strategy as needed, to avoid being impacted in future updates and also to try and recover quickly if you do have a negative impact.
Why You Should Track Google Updates
Understanding algorithms and updates is a core SEO skill. Occasionally, Google releases an update that is consequential enough to get a name (e.g., Florida, Panda, Penguin, RankBrain), and significantly impact how Google search works. You don’t want to get caught out by a big update, which means you should analyze the history of the algorithms to understand their future trajectory.
An algorithm change or update primarily impacts your website’s organic visibility in Google Search. Mostly, that comes in the form of rankings. But updates can cause disruption in other ways, too, for example by adding Search features to a particular search engine results page (SERP) that reduce click-through rates and traffic.
Tracking and understanding Google updates helps you adjust for sudden performance instability. It also helps you create SEO strategies that will be effective in the long term. Understanding where the algorithms have been helps you project where they might go. This will help you avoid risky SEO practices and reduce the risk of an update significantly impacting your website.
Recovering from updates that impact you negatively takes work and time. If you track updates, you can understand why your site’s ranking might have changed and take the necessary steps to recover as quickly as possible.
Resources For Tracking Google Algorithm Updates
1. Google Search Status Dashboard2. X (Formerly Twitter)3. Search Engine Journal4. MozCast5. Semrush Sensor6. Similarweb7. Accuranker ‘Grump’ Rating8. Advanced Web Rankings Google Algorithm Changes9. CognitiveSEO Signals10. Algoroo
Here are resources that can make your life easier and help you keep track of Google algorithm updates.
Google Search Status Dashboard
Image from Google search dashboard, June 2024
The advantage of this dashboard is that it also tracks indexing and crawling incidents alongside algorithm updates in the Ranking section.
You can subscribe to updates using this RSS feed it provides.
Keep an eye on this resource to stay updated on the latest changes and incidents straight from Google.
X (Formerly Twitter)
Ten years ago, Matt Cutts was the best person at Google to follow as he regularly kept the SEO community informed about changes to search.
This role is now performed by Google SearchLiaison, which is managed by Danny Sullivan.
Google SearchLiaison’s Page on X
Make sure you follow the real @searchliaison page that has a verified badge on the profile.
If you have questions regarding Google’s algorithm updates, you may post your question on X by tagging @searchliaison, and you may be lucky to get answers directly from Google. Try to be comprehensive and provide as many details about your issue as possible to increase your chances of getting a response.
Other than the official page, you may want to follow Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) and Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes), who are always on the lookout for news about algorithm changes.
Search Engine Journal
History of Google Algorithm Updates
Search Engine Journal has a dedicated page about the history of Google’s algorithm updates – from 2003 to the present. It includes the following information:
Algorithm name.
The rollout date.
A brief overview of the impact.
Whether it is confirmed or unconfirmed.
Related publications and official announcements so you can dive deeper and understand the changes.
You can also sign up for SEJ’s newsletters, and we’ll keep you posted on every major algorithm update.
Google isn’t a fan of third-party tools that track algorithm updates. It warns the SEO community that they are prone to errors and may have false positive detections.
I can see why Google disliked them, as they are crawling Google SERPs regularly to gather data – which, of course, Google doesn’t like. 😀
It is often true that they report volatile changes in search result pages. Still, in most cases, these tools report accurately by providing “volatility scores,” representing how much the SERP has changed.
Below is a table detailing the SERP volatility levels for various tools:
Now, let’s review a few tools you can use to track Google’s algorithm updates.
1. MozCast
Screenshot of MozCast from moz.com
MozCast makes rank tracking fun in the style of a weather report.
It compares the rankings of the same set of keywords on two consecutive days and calculates how much the positions of these keywords have moved up or down, translating into a temperature scale. Per their specifications, 70°F represents a normal, stable day, and higher temperatures indicate more drastic changes.