Google Birthday Update: The September 27, 2018 Algorithm Change

Is your website losing traffic? Have you slipped below your usual positions for some of your key search terms over the past few days? The Google “Birthday Update” may be the culprit. Here’s what we know about the search engine’s latest algorithm change.

An Algorithm Update as a Birthday Present

On September 27, 2018, Google celebrated its 20th birthday: two decades in which the search engine has changed dramatically.

Google marked the occasion with a surprise: a new algorithm update, quickly nicknamed the Google Birthday Update. An unwelcome gift for some, a pleasant surprise for others, it certainly didn’t go unnoticed.

Just a Minor Update?

Google hadn’t announced anything, but many site owners quickly noticed significant changes in rankings and traffic. With alerts piling up in the SEO community, Google’s public Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, stepped in to clarify.

Asked by Barry Schwartz (of Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable), Sullivan explained that Google no longer announces minor algorithm changes, because there are so many of them, and that it would keep sharing major updates through its @searchliaison account. He confirmed, however, that a smaller change had indeed rolled out that week.

“We did have a smaller one this week.”

Danny Sullivan, Google’s public Search Liaison, on Twitter, September 29, 2018

Google may call it “minor,” but the SEO community clearly doesn’t see it that way. In response to the outcry, Google explained that only a small number of sites were affected, even if the changes were significant for them.

In short: at Google’s scale, not enough sites were affected by the Birthday Update to justify an announcement, even though the impact could be serious for the sites that were hit.

A Follow-Up to the Medic Update?

Some SEOs have also drawn a connection between the Google Medic Update, rolled out on August 1, 2018, and this Birthday Update. Some sites affected, positively or negatively, by the first were hit again by the second. For now, Google has neither confirmed nor denied the link.

Where Things Stand in 2026

Google still makes changes to its ranking systems constantly without announcing them. The broad core updates it does confirm are now posted on the Google Search Status Dashboard, along with their start and completion dates.

Was Your Website Affected by This Update?

First, check whether the drop comes from an algorithm update or a change on your site. Then tell us about it. Référenceur is a French-speaking digital marketing agency from Belgium and Luxembourg that helps U.S. businesses recover lost rankings remotely, through video calls, shared screens, and monthly reporting. Get a free assessment of your site.