There is no single best Google algorithm update history, because the good ones answer different questions. Moz’s is the deepest editorial archive and the only one that seriously covers unconfirmed updates. Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal are the best for news and context as an update happens. Ahrefs is the cleanest reference list. The live tracker here exists for one narrow job: matching a drop date against rollout windows and volatility in the same place. This page says which to use when, including when the answer is not this site.
The resources, compared on what they do
| Resource | Coverage | Measurement (its strength) | Where it is weaker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Status Dashboard | Ranking incidents from February 2023 | The only authoritative source. Official start and end times | No context, no analysis, nothing before 2023 |
| Moz Algorithm Change History | Back to the early 2000s | Detailed write-ups, and the only serious coverage of unconfirmed updates | Editorial curation, so entries appear when written up |
| Search Engine Land | Continuous news archive | Reports rollouts as they happen, with community reaction | A news feed rather than a structured reference |
| Search Engine Journal | Continuous news archive | Strong linked context per update | Same: built for reading, not for lookup |
| Ahrefs update history | 2015 to present | Clean, filterable, links to Google’s own documentation | Confirmed updates only, minimal analysis |
| This site’s tracker | 2020 to present | Synced twice daily, sits beside a volatility sensor and a date checker | Narrower history, no pre-2020 coverage |
Read the last column rather than the third. Every one of these is good at its own job, and the differences are about purpose rather than quality.
When Moz is the right answer
Worth being direct, since this page could easily be written to say otherwise. Moz’s history is the best resource available for three jobs, and no live tracker replaces it.
- Anything before 2020. Why: Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Pigeon, Mobilegeddon, RankBrain, Fred, Medic. Moz documented these as they happened and the write-ups are still the reference. The tracker here starts at 2020 because the dashboard does not go back further.
- Unconfirmed updates. Why: This is the genuinely distinctive part. Moz has always covered community-observed movement that Google never acknowledged, which official sources by definition cannot. Since Google now confirms far less than it ships, that coverage matters more than it used to.
- Understanding what an update meant. Why: A dashboard entry gives you dates. Moz gives you an analysis of who won, who lost and why, written at the time.
MozCast is separate from the history and does a different job again: SERP temperature across more than ten thousand keywords in five US cities. It is one of the longest-running volatility indexes and worth checking alongside others, as covered in tracking tools compared.
What a live tracker does differently
Any editorially maintained history has a lag between an update starting and someone writing it up. That is normal and usually fine, because most people read these pages long after the event.
It stops being fine in one situation: your traffic dropped this week and you need to know whether something is rolling out right now. That is the case the tracker here was built for.
- Synced with the Search Status Dashboard twice a day. Why: A confirmed update appears within hours, with a live status showing whether anything is currently rolling out.
- Rollout length recorded, not just start dates. Why: Recent core updates ran 12 to 24 days. A drop on day nine belongs to that update even though it does not match the announcement date, which is a common misattribution.
- Volatility sits alongside the confirmed list. Why: When no update matches your date, the next question is whether search was turbulent anyway. Having both in one place answers it without switching sources.
- Date matching is automated. Why: The date checker compares your drop date against every rollout window rather than making you scan a list.
- Recurring figures are computed live. Why: The gap between core updates, currently averaging 82 days, is calculated from the dates rather than typed, so it cannot go stale.
The trade-off is coverage. Nothing before 2020, no editorial commentary on what each update meant for the industry, and no coverage of unconfirmed events beyond what the sensor measured. For those, use Moz.
Which to use for your situation
| What you need | Best source | Measurement (why) |
|---|---|---|
| Is something rolling out right now? | Search Status Dashboard, or this tracker | Official, and synced within hours |
| My traffic dropped on a date | The date checker here | Matches against every rollout window automatically |
| What did the 2018 Medic update do? | Moz | Written up at the time, with analysis |
| Was there an unconfirmed update in October? | Moz, plus a volatility sensor | Official sources record nothing that was never confirmed |
| What is happening with this rollout today? | Search Engine Land or SEJ | News coverage as it develops |
| A clean list to cite | Ahrefs or the Search Status Dashboard | Structured and linked to Google’s documentation |
| How long until reassessment? | The core update countdown here | Computed from real gaps between core updates |
Most people need two of these rather than one: a reference for what happened historically, and something current for what is happening now. Those are rarely the same source.
What no update list can tell you
The limitation every one of these shares, including this site’s, is worth stating plainly because it is where most wasted recovery work begins.
None of them can tell you whether your site was affected. A confirmed update rolling out on your drop date is correlation. Sites also fall during rollouts for technical reasons, and roughly one in five cases I audit turns out that way. The only source that shows what happened to you is your own Search Console.
Start there. The drop analyzer finds your exact break date from an export and tells you whether you lost rankings or lost clicks, which is a distinction no update history can make for you. Then use whichever list answers the question you have.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Google algorithm update history?
It depends on the question. The Google Search Status Dashboard is authoritative but only covers February 2023 onward with no context. Moz has the deepest archive and the best coverage of unconfirmed updates. A live tracker is better for checking whether something is rolling out now.
Is there a free alternative to Moz’s update history?
Moz’s history is itself free. So are Ahrefs’ list, Search Engine Land’s archive and the Search Status Dashboard. The question is not cost but which one answers your question, since they are structured for different uses.
Why do update histories disagree on dates?
Usually because some record the announcement date and others the rollout start or completion. Since rollouts run 12 to 24 days, those can differ by weeks. Where possible, use the start and end dates from the Search Status Dashboard rather than a single date.
Do these lists include unconfirmed updates?
Official sources cannot, by definition. Moz has the strongest tradition of documenting community-observed movement Google never acknowledged, which matters increasingly since Google confirmed four updates in 2025 against eleven in 2021.
How far back does this site’s tracker go?
2020. Entries from February 2023 come directly from the Search Status Dashboard including the official rollout log; earlier ones were recorded from Google announcements. For anything before 2020, Moz is the better reference.
Can an update history tell me if my site was hit?
No. It can tell you what was happening on a date. Whether your site was affected is only visible in your own Search Console, and a date match is a lead to investigate rather than a diagnosis.
Found the update. Now the harder question
Matching a date is the easy part, and every list on this page can do it. Whether that update actually caused your drop, and what specifically to fix, needs your own data. Send your Search Console access and within 48 hours I will tell you both. Free, no obligation.
Get free recovery auditResource descriptions are based on each publisher’s own pages as reviewed in September 2026. Moz, Ahrefs, Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal are independent publications with no affiliation to this site, and no commission is earned from any link here.