Annotations
Annotations are dated notes on your charts. This page covers property and account scope, the fields and limits, categories and colours, and the read-only Google update markers.
✓ Checked in the workspace code and Google’s status dashboard · 7 October 2026
What annotations are for
An annotation is a dated note on your charts: a release, a redesign, a migration, a campaign, a Google update. When a line moves, the note beside it shows what you did that day, so you do not have to reconstruct it from memory. Annotations are also the way to mark the start date of a test (see forecasts and experiments).
Property and account annotations
| Scope | Where it appears | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Property | charts of that property | a change on one site |
| Account | charts of all your properties | an event that touches every site, such as a tracking change |
What you can enter
- Date: a calendar date from the year 2000 up to next year.
- Label: required, up to 160 characters.
- Description: optional, up to 1,000 characters.
- Category: core update, spam update, content, technical, agency or other. Each has a colour, and you can set your own colour as a hex value such as #129a92.
The dashboard chart has a “+ Annotation” button so you can add a note while looking at the chart.
Google update markers
The workspace shows a read-only list of Google ranking updates next to your own notes, so a drop can be compared with an update date. The 2026 entries (September, August and June spam updates, the May and March core updates, the March spam update, the February Discover update and the December 2025 core update) match the start dates on Google’s Search Status Dashboard. An update date next to a drop is a lead, not a diagnosis: updates roll out over days or weeks.
Habits that make annotations useful
- Write the date you shipped, not the date you planned.
- Be specific: “Rewrote titles on /blog/”, not “SEO changes”.
- Use categories so a glance separates your work from Google’s.
- Add the note before you analyse, so the result is not bent to fit the story.
If something looks wrong
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| “invalid date” | use a real date between 2000 and next year |
| “invalid label” | the label is empty or longer than 160 characters |
| “invalid color” | use a seven-character hex value such as #2563eb |
| Cannot edit a Google update | those markers are read-only |
Annotations, answered
What is the difference between property and account notes?
A property note appears on one site’s charts; an account note appears on all of them.
Can I change the Google update list?
No. It is read-only.
How long can a label be?
Up to 160 characters, with an optional description of up to 1,000.
Continue
Next, see advanced analysis, where change points can be compared with your notes.