Google released the May 2026 Core Update on May 21, 2026, and said the rollout is expected to take up to two weeks.
Google’s Official Announcement
Google announced the May 2026 Core Update on its X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn pages.
Today we released the May 2026 core update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/ZfiT6txJk5
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) May 21, 2026
Previous Core Updates
The May 2026 Core Update is Google’s second core update of 2026 and one of the many Google updates we’ve documented over the years. Other core updates include:
- March 2026 Core Update: March 27 – April 8, 2026
- December 2025 Core Update: December 11 – 29, 2025
- June 2025 Core Update: June 30 – July 17, 2025
- March 2025 Core Update: March 13 – March 27, 2025
- December 2024 Core Update: December 12 – December 18, 2024
- November 2024 Core Update: November 11 – December 5, 2024
- August 2024 Core Update: August 15 – September 3, 2024
- March 2024 Core Update: March 5 – April 19, 2024
- November 2023 Core Update: November 2 – November 28, 2023
- October 2023 Core Update: October 5 – October 19, 2023
- August 2023 Core Update: August 22 – September 7, 2023
- March 2023 Core Update: March 15 – March 28, 2023
- September 2022 Core Update: September 12 – September 26, 2022
- May 2022 Core Update: May 25 – June 9, 2022
- November 2021 Core Update: November 17 – November 30, 2021
- July 2021 Core Update: July 1 – July 12, 2021
- June 2021 Core Update: June 3 – June 12, 2021
What’s Next – Dealing with This Update
The May 2026 Core Update has not yet caused visible volatility in Google search results. However, creators and SEOs observed significant volatility in the days leading up to its release.
In the meantime, you should monitor your site with Rank Math Analytics. If you lost traffic, refer to this article on recovering from a Google algorithm update.
