Google released the May 2026 core update on Thursday at about 11:43 am ET, with completion potentially taking up to two weeks. Early effects were reported by many SEO practitioners over late Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with some signs of temporary calming on Monday. The rollout was expected to continue and potentially intensify over the following weeks. Reported impacts included sharp drops in visibility, traffic, and inquiries, along with cases of initial surges followed by declines. Some observations suggested holiday timing and regional factors could influence perceived changes, including international and US differences.
"Google released the May 2026 core update on Thursday at around 11:43 am ET and said, "The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete." So what are we seeing? There is a lot of chatter across social, WebmasterWorld and this site - here is some of that chatter: Core update: that explains the sharp drop yesterday: again 50%. Another awful core "update". The only upside is that Google SERPs were already fantastically bad before this update, so the impact won't matter much."
"The update is far from done, but we saw signs that the early impact touched down this weekend. Maybe late Friday, into Saturday and Sunday. It might be calming a bit today, Monday but I am sure it will heat up again as it continues to roll out over the next couple of weeks. As a reminder, Google released the May 2026 core update on Thursday at around 11:43 am ET and said, "The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete.""
"I came to see if there was an update...first my visibility surged, now dropped through the floor. I knew something had to be up. This time I did not get any traffic bump or increase in inquiries at the beginning as I normally do. So far this weekend my global site has been very quiet however I did expect this with both US and UK having an extra day plus in much of Europe there is very warn weather at long last."
"Up about 30% internationally, and a little less for USA, which I suspect is due to the holiday weekend. Scared to feel any type of way since it can be gone at any moment. For me, it looks like a 50% drop from last week, but I'm hoping they change their mind midway through, as they've done in the pas"
Read at Search Engine Roundtable
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