Innovation in google algorithm
- 1. Google Algorithm Updates and Changes History Google changes it algorithm frequently and it is very hard task for marketers to know the Googleβs pattern of algorithm roll out. Most of the updates released by Google throughout the year are minor updates which have lesser impact on search queries and affect lesser sites throughout the world. Google occasionally releases major algorithm updates which have a bigger impact on search queries causing rank decrease of many sites and even penalisation of some sites which go against Google policy. It is surely a critical thing to know the pattern of Googleβs algorithm updates and changes, but keeping the track of Googleβs algorithm updates history can help you to get perspective on the rank fluctuations and organic website traffic, ultimately you can recheck your SEO strategies and improve search engine optimisation of your website. To help you keep track of all minor and major algorithmic updates by Google, we had a deep research on this and documented the major and minor SEO updates and changes that was confirmed by Google. However, some for the changes were not confirmed by Google, but some webmasters noticed sudden drop in their website rankings and some experienced ranking fluctuations which made them sure there was some changes or updates done by Google behind the curtain.
- 3. Now, letβs go through all the major and minor Google algorithm updates. 2016 Google Updates Google introduced a new algorithm βPossumβ algorithm in 2016 to diversify the local results and reduce spam. Updates to mobile friendly and Penguin algorithms where also seen. Major Updates Penguin 4.0 Released (23rd September, 2016) Google announced the release of Penguin 4.0 update on 23rd of September, 2016. The main objective of this algorithm was to reduce the spams in the search engine result. Websites that employed black hat SEO tricks such as keyword stuffing and linking schemes to rank their site in the SERP were found affected or penalised. People did see fluctuation in their rankings but in overall, nothing major effect were seen. Pengiun 4.0 had two major changes. First change, it is now real time. So, the Penguinβs data is refreshed in real time which results into the quick visibility of the changes. The next change is Penguin is now more granular. Rather affecting the whole website, it devalues the spam adjusting ranking based on spam signals. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/09/penguin-is-now-part-of-our-core.html "Possum Algorithm Update" (1st September, 2016) Google updated Possum algorithm with the objective to diversify the local results and prevent spam from ranking. This Possum algorithm was updated on 1st September of 2016. The algorithm used addresses and affiliation to filter out the duplicate local results. Possum algorithm update has given more priority to the physical location of the business. So, if a user is searching from a closer location from you then, the chances is more that your business get higher ranking. Source: http://searchengineland.com/everything-need-know-googles-possum-algorithm-update-258900 Mobile Friendly Update (12th May, 2016) Google rolled out the first mobile friendly algorithm on 21st April, 2015 which was to boost the ranking of the sites with mobile friendly pages. After one year of the mobile update, Google rolled out another mobile friendly algorithm on 12th May, 2016 with the objective to increase the effect of the ranking
- 4. signal to help the users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly. Those sites with mobile friendly design did not have any bad effect. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/continuing-to-make-web-more-mobile.html Unnamed Major Update (10th May, 2016) Though Google did not confirm this unnamed major update which took on 10th May 2016, many of the MozCast and other Google Webweather trackers went through a 97 degree spike algorithm changes. From 6th May to 13th May, there was a continuous fluctuation in Google SERP. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-no-recent-major-algorithm-update-22064.html AdWords Change Update (23rd February, 2016) Google performed Adword change update on 23rs February, 2016. The update made a major change to Adwords by removing the ads of right-column entirely and adding 4 ads at the top blocks on many commercial searches. These paid search updates not only lead to zero sidebar in the SERP, but it also lead to increase in bottom of the SERP ads. http://www.thesempost.com/google-adwords-switching-to-4-ads-on-top-none-on-sidebar/ Minor Updates SERP Shake-Up (13th September, 2016) High fluctuation in rankings, especially in local search was seen in between early to mid September. Webmasters were pretty sure there were substantial ranking shifts however, there were no confirmation from Google about the update. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-downplays-google-algorithm-ranking-update-week- normal-fluctuations-258923 Google Core Quality Rank Update (8th January, 2016) Webmasters found lots of changes in their ranking, which they thought was Penguin update. But, later on Google denied it and confirmed the update was core ranking change totally un-related to Penguin. Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-core-ranking-21460.html 2015 Google Updates 2015 was the year of mobile update, Google decided to give ranking boost to those sites which had mobile friendly web pages. Major Updates
- 5. RankBrain Related Algorithm Update (26th October, 2015) Google announced the release of RankBrain algorithm, which uses artificial intelligence to filter results. Webmasters viewed unusually high increase in SERP fluctuations in Google desktop for a month. This algorithm helped Google to deliver more intelligent and precisely focused related search results. Related: https://www.rankranger.com/blog/google-brain-update-related-search Panda 4.2 (17th July, 2015) The spammy links and sites with low quality which were penalised by Google Panda 4.1 in September, 2014 were refreshed by this update as Panda 4.2 was the first refresh after the update in 2014. The update took whole month to roll out and only 2-3% of queries were impacted by this Panda update. Source: http://www.thesempost.com/google-panda-update-everything-we-know-about-panda-4-2/ The Core Quality Update β May 3, 2015 After spikes in Google desktop SERP fluctuation from April end to mid-May, Google confirmed Google core quality update on 13th May, 2015 which was called Google βPhantom 2β algorithm update. This update had a broad impact on βquality signalsβ. Source: http://searchengineland.com/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is- assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118 Google Mobile Friendly Update (22nd April, 2015) On April 21st , 2015 Google pre-announced the Google Mobilegeddon Mobile Update to change the mobile results ranking. This update gave a boost to mobile friendly pages in Googleβs mobile search results and the sites without mobile friendly design were given less priority. However, the impact of this update was much smaller than expected. Source: http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-mobile-friendly-update Minor Updates HTTPS Update (17th December, 2015) Google announced HTTPS update on 17th December, 2015 in order to decrease the risk for users to browse a website over an insecure connection. After this update, HTTPS sites were give more priority and Google started giving ranking boost to those HTTPS URLs in search results. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2015/12/indexing-https-pages-by-default.html Hacked Sites Update (5th October, 2015)
- 6. In order to improve the quality of search, Google updated hacked sites algorithm which removed all the hacked sites from the search results. 5 % of the queries were expected to be affected by this algorithmic change depending on the language. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2015/10/an-update-on-how-we-tackle-hacked-spam.html Google Snack Pack Update (August, 2015) Google rolled out an important update in august of 2015. The update gave new design to local by removing the normal 7 packs map that shows up in the local business search results and replaced it by 3 packs map. Source: https://www.thehoth.com/blog/google-local-3-pack/ Unnamed Update (4th February, 2015) Although Google didnβt give any confirmation about the update, webmasters tracked fluctuation in Google SERPs. However, Google confirmed that the sudden movement in ranking was not related to Google Penguin or Google Panda. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-making-tweaks-search-results-says-no-update- announce-214401 2014 Google Updates 2014 was the year of the famous Google Panda Algorithm Update which hammered a lot of website rankings. Google also refreshed Pigeon and Penguin Updates. This year, Google made a big decision by removing the Google Authorship functionality. Major Updates Google Pigeon Expanded (22nd December, 2014) Google expanded the Google Pigeon Algoithm update that rolled out on 24th July, 2014. Though the update was confirmed on 22nd December, but, it was rolled out as early as 19th in UK, Canada and Australia. This update brought significant volatility in Maps results in UK, Australia and Canada. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-pigeon-update-rolls-uk-canada-australia-211576 Penguin 3.0 Update (18th October, 2014)
- 7. Google released its sixth Penguin refresh update on 18th October, 2014. This update was smaller than expected as it only affected 1 % of US English queries whereas the original Penguin update affected >3% of the queries. Recoveries of sites penalised by previous Penguin updated were reported. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-releases-first-penguin-update-year-206169 Panda 4.1 (#27) (23rd September, 2014) Google started a slow roll out of an improved Panda algorithm in early 20th of September. Few signals that helped Panda identify the low quality content more precisely were discovered in this update. This global roll-out affected 3-5% of the queries. Source:http://searchengineland.com/panda-update-rolling-204313 Google Authorship Removed (28th August, 2014) Google completely removed Authorship functionality from its search results and webmaster tools on 28th August, 2014. This update no longer tracked data from content using rel=author markup. Source: https://plus.google.com/+JohnMueller/posts/HZf3KDP1Dm8 HTTPS/SSL Update (6th August, 2014) Google announced that the sites with secure connections will be given higher priority with slight boost in the ranking from 6th August, 2014. Google carried out months of speculations before rolling out this update. Source:https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html Google Pigeon Update (24th July, 2014) Google rolled out this local algorithm update with an aim to provide more useful, relevant and accurate local search results. This algorithm update had an impact on local search results rankings with an increase and decrease in website referrals, leads and businesses of some sites. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-makes-significant-changes-local-search-ranking- algorithm-197778 Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 (12th June, 2014) After less than a month of Payday Loan 2.0 anti-spam update, Google rolled out another major update, Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 update. Payday Loan 3.0 targeted more spammy queries whereas Payday 2.0 targeted specifically spammy sites. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-payday-loan-3-spam-18695.html Panda 4.0 Update (#26) (20th May, 2014)
- 8. Panda 4.0 update rolled out with lots of chatter in SEO and webmaster forums causing sharp fluctuations in search result rankings. This major update included both algorithm update and a data refresh update affecting about 7.5% of English language queries. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-panda-4-0-now-192043 Payday Loan Algorithm 2.0 Update (18th May, 2014) Payday Loan Algorithm 2.0 targeted very spammy queries and was totally unrelated to the Panda and Penguin algorithm. This global roll out had an impact on English queries by about 0.2%. Source: http://searchengineland.com/official-google-payday-loan-algorithm-2-0-launched-targets- spammy-queries-192027 Page Layout Algorithm Update (#3) (6th February, 2014) Google updated its Page Layout Algorithm, which is also known as βTop Heavy 3 Updateβ in the beginning of February month. This algorithm update targeted sites with too many ads above the fold in order to make search experience more efficient and quick. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-updates-page-layout-algorithm-go-sites-top-heavy-ads- 183929 Minor Updates Penguin 3.0 Extended (11th December, 2014) Google spokesperson reported that the Penguin update is still rolling out and there wonβt be a particularly distinct end point to the activity as Penguin is shifting to more continuous updates on 11th Decembver, 2014. It confirmed to continuously optimise the algorithm with lots of minor updates. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-says-penguin-shift-continuous-updates-210580 Pirate Update #2 (21st October, 2014) A major drop in rankings of sites with pirated content or those sites which violated copyright laws were spotted. However, this update did not have much effect on sites as it specifically targeted those sites which received DMCA takedown requests. Related: https://torrentfreak.com/googles-new-downranking-hits-pirate-sites-hard-141023/ βIn The Newsβ Box Update (October, 2014) Google replaced the news box in the search result with the box named βIn the newsβ. This update spiked up the news results in SERP resulting substantial traffic changes of major sites.
- 9. Related: http://searchengineland.com/googles-news-listings-beyond-traditional-205213 Private Blog Networks De-Indexed (18th September, 2014) Google started de-indexing the sites with private blog networks which resulted in to the high drop down of the traffic of various sites. Related: http://www.nohatdigital.com/blog/pbn-sites-de-indexed/ Photos Removed from Authorship (28th June, 2014) To create a better mobile experience and a more consistent design across devices, John Mueller announced they were dropping all the authorship photos from SERPs on 28th June, 2015. Well, it took 3 days to complete the drop. Related: https://moz.com/blog/bye-bye-author-pics No Name Update (24th March, 2014) Webmasters noticed heavy fluctuations in search result rankings which cause lots of chattering in SEO and webmaster forums. But, there was no official confirmation from Google about any update. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-march-18313.html Unnamed Update (8th January, 2014) A minor unofficial update was noticed by the webmasters though Google did not confirm about it. Many people and webmasters noticed shifts in the search results. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-17935.html 2013 Google Updates 2013 was the year of new algorithm development and updates. Google developed and rolled out new algorithms such as βHummingbirdβ, βPaydayβ and βDown Crowdingβ whose main focus were on semantic search and spammy queries. Major Updates Google Authorship Update (19th December, 2013)
- 10. As promised by Matt Cutts in his keynote speech at Pubcon Las Vegas in October, there was the removal of authorship mark-up from the search results. Over a period of month, 15% of authorship drop-off was noticed which was the reason for the quality to go up. Related: http://angular.marketing/2013/12/19/authorshippocalypse-google-authorship- penguin-finally-appeared/ Hummingbird Update (20th August, 2013) Google developed and rolled out a new search algorithm, called βHummingbirdβ around 21st of August whose main focus was on semantic search. This algorithm was developed especially to provide more personalised results although there was no report of penalties like that of Panda and Penguin. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-17268.html Knowledge Graph Expansion Update (19th July, 2013) MozCast 10K Beta System tracked a number of queries which showed that there was an increase of over 50.4% in appearance of knowledge graph. Related: https://moz.com/blog/the-day-the-knowledge-graph-exploded Panda Recovery Update (18th July, 2013) This soft Panda update rolled out over 10 day period and was more finely targeted. This update was different than other Panda updates as many webmasters who were struck by Panda update were found claiming recovery. Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-update-17094.html Multi Week Algorithm Update (28th June, 2013) A massive signs of ranking volatility was seen which peaked up on 27th of June according to data by MozCast. However, the pattern of this multi week algorithm was unclear and it did not reveal any general insights too. Related: https://moz.com/blog/googles-multi-week-algorithm-update Panda Dance Update (11th June, 2013) Matt Cutts announced that they will be rolling out Panda update monthly over 10 of 30 days. Google repeated this cycle for months which many people did not expect. Source: http://searchengineland.com/googles-panda-dance-matt-cutts-confirms-panda-rolls-out- monthly-over-10-of-30-days-162950
- 11. Payday Loan Update (11th June, 2013) An update was made on 11th of June, 2013 to target βspammy queriesβ such as payday loan, pornographic and other spammed queries. This global update had roughly 0.3% impact of the US queries whereas it went higher than 4% for Turkish queries where web spam is typically higher. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-pay-day-loan-algorithm-google-search-algorithm-update- to-target-spammy-queries-162941 Penguin 2.0 Update (#4) (22nd May, 2013) Google released the fourth iteration of Googleβs spam-fighting βPenguin Updateβ. This update was an update to the algorithm not just the data refresh which affected 2.3% of the English queries. Related: http://searchengineland.com/penguin-4-with-penguin-2-0-generation-spam-fighting-is-now- live-160544 Down Crowding Update (21st May, 2013) In earlier days, there were problems such as one domain taking too many spots on the page. So, to solve this issue Google released down crowding update. The main goal of this update was to maintain a balance between providing diverse results and at the same time return the most authoritative search results for the query. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-domain-clustering-change-159997 Phantom Update (9th May, 2013) There was a huge uptick in chatter around major ranking and search result fluctuation in the period around 9th May. Although, it was confirmed that the update was βPhantom Updateβ but, the exact nature of the update was unknown. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-update-now-16762.html Minor Updates No Name Update (17th December, 2013) Although there was no confirmation of the update, a highest level of SERP flux was recorded since Penguin 2.0 on 17th of December. The fluctuation in results was followed for a week. Source: https://dejanseo.com.au/2nd-biggest-serp-flux-2013/
- 12. Unnamed Update (14th November, 2013) A large spike in chatter in the online discussion forums and social Medias were seen with the unusual activity tracked by lots of SERP tracking tools. However, there was no confirmation of this update by Google. Related: https://moz.com/blog/was-there-a-november-14th-google-update Penguin 2.1 (#5) Update (4th October, 2013) Penguin 2.1, a new version of Penguin affected roughly 1% of searches to the noticeable degree. This was just an update to Penguin update as there was no major changes seen. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-21-big-17479.html In-depth Article Update (6th August, 2013) Google introduced new search results to help those users who are searching for in-depth articles. In- depth articles are like news results or local packs which are rich search elements and sits in the left- hand column. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2013/08/in-depth-articles-in-search-results.html No Name Update (26th July, 2013) Though there was no official confirmation of the update, but many SERP tracking tools showed the signs. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-weekend-update-17142.html Panda Update 25 (14th March, 2013) Panda Update 25 was the last manual push of Googleβs Panda update as Matt Cutts pre-announced a Panda update at SMX West and told this update would be the last update before they integrate Panda into the core algorithm. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-25-seems-to-have-hit-151732 Panda Update 24 (22nd January, 2013) Google announced new Panda refresh update on 22nd January, 2013. This update had a noticeable impact on English queries by 1.2%. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-version-24-1-2-of-search-queries-impacted- 146149 2012 Google Updates
- 13. Google rolled out a number of updates in 2012. Many sites were penalised after the roll out of βPirate Penaltyβ update whose main focus was to penalise those sites with too many copy right notices. Major Updates Panda #23 Update (21st December, 2012) Google rolled another Panda update right before the Christmas holiday impacting 1.3% of the search queries. Google said they will try to avoid updates during the holidays. Source: http://searchengineland.com/official-google-panda-update-23-impacting-1-3-of- queries-143271 Page Layout Update #2 (9th October, 2012) Page Layout Update, also known as βTop Heavy 2 Updateβ which targeted too pages with too many ads above the fold. Less than 0.7 % of English queries were affected by this update. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-page-layout-algorithm-update-135847 August/September 65 Changes (4th October, 2012) Google rolled out 65 updates that happened in August/September. Some of the changes included knowledge graph, entity predictions, synonyms search features, a Panda refresh and many more. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/10/search-quality-highlights-65-changes.html Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update (27th September, 2012) Exact Match Domain update changed the way Google handled exact domains by reducing lower quality domain matches. This update had an impact less than 0.6% of search queries. Related: https://moz.com/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data Panda #20 Update (27th September, 2012) Google rolled out another major Panda update which had an impact of 2.4% on English search queries. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-20-released-2-4-of-english-queries- impacted-135291 7-Result SERPs (14th August, 2012)
- 14. With the release of β7-Result SERPsβ, Google started displaying only 7 results from their traditional 10 listings per page. Related: http://searchengineland.com/7-new-10-google-showing-fewer-results-131006 June/July 86 Google Updates (10th August, 2012) Google released an official blog post on βJune/July High Quality Highlightsβ which included 86 changes. Some of the changes included resource caching for mobile, images universal rankings, freshness and many more. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/08/search-quality-highlights-86-changes.html DMCA/Pirate Penalty Update (10th August, 2012) Google rolled out βDMCAβ, also known as βPirate Penaltyβ update which will start penalising the sites with number of copyright removal notices. The main aim of this update was to help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/08/an-update-to-our-search-algorithms.html Link Warnings Update (19th July, 2012) Google sent a number of unnatural link warnings to webmasters in March/April saying they should act on it. But, on 20th June of 2012, Google had another announcement telling publishers to ignore the previous unnatural link warnings. Related: http://searchengineland.com/insanity-google-sends-new-link-warnings-then-says-you- can-ignore-them-128297 May 39 Google Updates (7th June, 2012) Google posted a blog highlighting 39 changes they made in the month of May. It included changes like unified soccer feature, improvements to NBA search feature, improvements to news rankings, inorganic backlinks signals application and many more. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/06/search-quality-highlights-39-changes.html Penguin 1.1 (#2) Update (25th May, 2012) Google rolled out Penguin 1.1, an update to the Penguin update. This was the first update to the Penguin update launched on April 24th . The update had an impact of less than 0.1% of English searches. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-pushes-first-penguin-algorithm-update-122518
- 15. Knowledge Graph Update (16th May, 2012) Google introduced Knowledge graph to discover new information quickly and easily. This SERP- integrated display provided supplement object about certain people, places and things that Google knows about. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/introducing-knowledge-graph-things- not.html April 52 Google Updates (4th May, 2012) Google posted a blog with 52 minor updates including categorise paginated documents, more language relevant navigational results, anchors bug fix, domain diversity, improvement on local navigational searches, better query interpretation and many more. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/05/search-quality-highlights-53-changes.html Penguin Update (24th April, 2012) This was another step by Google to reward high quality sites and penalise the sites with the black hat web spam techniques such as keyword stuffing, link schemes, link farming and so on. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high- quality.html Parked Domain Bug (16th April, 2012) Though it was not intentional an intentional algorithm change, Google mistaken some domains as parked domain and caused the drop in ranking. Related: http://searchengineland.com/dropped-in-rankings-google-mistake-over-parked- domains-118979 March 50-Pack Update (3rd April, 2012) Another batch of updates which includes Panda 3.4, improvements of handling of symbols for indexing, better scoring, site links data refresh, UI refresh, improvements to results for navigational queries, high quality sites algorithm data update, better local results and so on. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/04/search-quality-highlights-50-changes.html February 40-Pack Update (27th February, 2012)
- 16. Google published a second set of search quality highlights on their Inside Search blog with 40 new updates which offered more coverage for related searches, less duplication, more locally relevant predictions, and refreshed per-URL country information and so on. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/02/search-quality-highlights-40-changes.html Venice (27th February, 2012) Googleβs Venice update localised organic results on broad search queries. After this update, when a searcher typed in queries without any geo-modifier, local sites started showing up. This was surely great news for local SEOs and usibility. Related: https://moz.com/blog/understand-and-rock-the-google-venice-update January 17-Pack Update (3rd February, 2012) Another round of search quality highlights were released by Google which included faster auto complete, fresher results, better spelling, high quality sites algorithm improvements, cross language refinements, image search quality and so on. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/02/17-search-quality-highlights-january.html Page layout Update (19th January, 2012) Page layout update also known has βTop Heavy #1 Updateβ penalised the sites with too much of ad-space above the βfoldβ. This update was made with an effort to help searchers find more high quality websites in the search results. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-iprovement.html Search + Your World Update (10th January, 2012) Google introduced new βSearch Plus Your Worldβ feature, which turned Google+ into an essential social network for any search marketer by providing personal results, profiles in search and people and pages. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html January 30-Pack Update (5th January, 2012) Google performed a series of updates related to relevancy, image search, soft 404 detection, accuracy, more rich snippets, spam detection, safer searching, faster mobile browsing and so on. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/01/30-search-quality-highlights-with.html
- 17. Minor Updates Knowledge Graph Expansion (4th December, 2012) Knowledge graph was now available in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian and Italian. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/12/get-smarter-answers-from-knowledge_4.html Panda #22 Update (21st November, 2012) Another minor Panda refresh which affected 0.8% of the search queries. Source: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-22-confirmed-16017.html Panda #21 Update (5th November, 2012) Another Panda Update affecting 1.1% of US queries in English, whereas it affected about 0.4% of queries world wide. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-releases-panda-update-21-138902 Penguin #3 Update (5th October, 2012) Another minor refresh to Penguin update which was not as bad as expected. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-3-15802.html Panda3.9.2 (#19) Update (18th September, 2012) Google rolled out another minor Panda update affecting less than 0.7% of the total search queries. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-392-15720.html Panda 3.9.1 (#18) Update (20th August, 2012) Google confirmed another Panda refresh affecting less than 1 % of the total search queries. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-391-15606.html Panda 3.9 (#17) Update (24th July, 2012) Another Panda refresh affecting 1 % of the total search queries.
- 18. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-3-9-128529 Panda 3.8 (#16) Update (25th June, 2012) Panda 3.8 was another minor update to Panda algorithm. It had an impact of 1 % of the total search queries. Source: http://searchengineland.com/official-google-panda-update-version-3-8-on-june-25th- 125945 Panda 3.7 (#15) Update (8th June, 2012) Google rolled out Panda 3.7 update affecting less than 1% of search queries. Source: https://twitter.com/google/status/212205487037493249 Panda 3.6 (#14) Update (27th April, 2012) Google confirmed another Panda data refresh. It was a limited update and did not affect that many sites. Source: http://searchengineland.com/panda-update-3-6-on-april-27th-120227 Panda 3.5 (#13) Update (19th April, 2012) Google quietly rolled out Panda 3.5 update which didnβt have much impact. The main target of this update was low quality content. Related: http://searchengineland.com/winners-losers-from-googles-webspam-update-119493 Panda 3.4 (#12) Update (23rd March, 2012) Another Panda update which targeted low-quality websites. Panda 3.4 update had an impact of 1.6% of the search results. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-says-panda-update-is-rolling-out-now-116444 Search Quality Video (12th March, 2012) Google published a video into a search quality meeting for those interested in the algorithm. The video included a context about the Googleβs process and their priorities. However, this was not an algorithm change. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2012/03/video-search-quality-meeting-uncut.html Panda 3.3 (#11) Update (27th February, 2012)
- 19. Another Panda refresh, which refreshed the data in the Panda system, making it more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes in the web. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-panda-update-link-evaluation-local- search-rankings-113078 Panda 3.2 (#10) Update (18th January, 2012) Google Confirmed another minor Panda update where some sites that were hit by Panda regained their traffic levels. Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-3-2-update-confirmed-109321 2011 Google Updates A number of 10 pack updates were rolled out in 2011. The algorithm updates of 2011 had an impact of 1% to 40% of search queries. Major Updates December 10-Pack (1st December, 2011) Google rolled out a second round up of 10 updates including related query results refinements, more comprehensive indexing, parked domain, auto complete predictions, original content, and fresher and more complete blog search results and so on. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2011/12/search-quality-highlights-new-monthly.html 10-Pack of Updates (14th November, 2011) Google announced 10 smaller changes that they made which included cross-language information retrieval, snippets with more page content and less header/menu content, fresh search results, rich snippets and so on. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2011/11/ten-recent-algorithm-changes.html Freshness Update (3rd November, 2011) Google rolled out βFreshnessβ update affecting 35% of the total search queries. This algorithm was designed to give the most up-to-date search results. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html Query Encryption (18th October, 2011)
- 20. In order to make search more secure, Google announced they would be encrypting search queries. Google enhanced their default search experience for their signed in users. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/making-search-more-secure.html Pagination Elements (15th September, 2011) Google introduced the rel =βnextβ and rel=βprevβ link attributes to indicate the relationship between the component URLs in a paginated series. This update was a great help to the crawl and duplication problems created by pagination. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html Expanded Sitelinks (16th August, 2011) Google expanded the display of Sitelinks, creating direct access to more of the site. The number of sitelinks per query was increased from 8 to 12. Source: https://search.googleblog.com/2011/08/evolution-of-sitelinks-expanded-and.html Panda 2.4 (#6) (12th August, 2011) Google rolled out Panda 2.4 internationally to most languages except for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The main focus of this update was to return high quality sites to users. This change in algorithm impacted 6-9% of search queries for most languages. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/08/high-quality-sites-algorithm-launched.html Google+ (28th June, 2011) Google launched Google+, a serious competitor to Facebook after a number of social media failures on 28th June, 2011. It was an attempt to make Google better by including user, userβs relationship and their interests. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html Schema.org (2nd June. 2011) Google, Bing and Yahoo united together to make search listings even richer through the structures data, Schema. With the sole use of Meta data, these three search engines enhanced the search results display. Related: http://searchengineland.com/schema-org-google-bing-yahoo-unite-79554 Panda 2.0 (#2) (11th April, 2011)
- 21. Google rolled out Panda 2.0 globally to all English-language Google users and also incorporated new user feedback signals. This user feedback signals helped people to find search results. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/04/high-quality-sites-algorithm-goes.html The +1 Button (30th March, 2011) Google introduced +1 button on 30th March, 2011 which was an easy way for Google users to share their content recommendation right from the search result pages. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/03/introducing-1-button.html Panda/Farmer (23rd February, 2011) Google launched a big update, the first of its kind. Googleβs new update, βPandaβ mainly targeted link farms and low quality content. This update had an impact of 12% of search results. Related: https://moz.com/blog/googles-farmer-update-analysis-of-winners-vs-losers Attribution Update (28th January, 2011) Google rolled out an algorithm change to drive spam levels even lower, to stop those scrapers form stealing content from others. This update affected 2% of the search queries. Source: https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/algorithm-change-launched/ Overstock.com Penalty (January, 2011) Google penalised OverStock for implementing bad SEO practices on their site. Since then, Google started calling out sites publicly for their SEO practices. Related: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704520504576162753779521700 Minor Updates Panda 3.1 (#9) (18th November, 2011) It was another minor update to Google Panda Update. This update impacted less than 1% of searches. Source: http://searchengineland.com/minor-google-panda-update-on-november-18th-101891 Panda "Flux" (#8) (5th October, 2011) Matt Cutts confirmed Panda βFluxβ Update which had an impact of 2% of total search queries. Though Google confirmed this βFluxβ update, but, they didnβt provide any detail information about this update. Related: http://searchengineland.com/taking-a-closer-look-at-the-googles-panda-2-5-flux-97603 Panda 2.5 (#7) (28th September, 2011)
- 22. Google released another Panda update as a part of commitment to returning high quality sites to Google users. Source: http://searchengineland.com/confirmed-google-panda-2-5-update-arrived-this-week-95222 Panda 2.3 (#5) (23rd July, 2011) It was another small update to Google Panda filter which incorporated some new signals that helped to differentiate between the higher and lower quality sites. After this minor update, many sites ranked higher. Source: http://searchengineland.com/official-google-panda-2-3-update-is-live-87230 Panda 2.2 (#4) β June 21, 2011 Panda 2.2 was an update to the Panda filter. Some of the webmasters found their sites ranking better with this Panda filter breaking out, whereas others were hit for the first time. Source: http://searchengineland.com/official-google-panda-update-2-2-is-live-82611 Panda 2.1 (#3) (9th May, 2011) Panda 2.1 was a minor update to Google Panda Update. This update impacted fewer rankings than in the past updates. Related: http://searchengineland.com/its-panda-update-2-not-3-google-says-76508 2010 Google Updates Google rolled out four major updates along with some minor updates in 2010. The major updates were Google Instant, Caffeine, Mayday and Google places. Major Updates Google Instant (8th September, 2010) Google Instant was an expansion to Google Suggest, which helped people get results as they type their queries. This search before type update came with features such as dynamic results, ability to predict and scroll to search. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/search-now-faster-than-speed-of-type.html
- 23. Caffeine Update (8th June, 2010) Google rolled out a new web indexing system named βCaffeineβ which provided 50% fresher results for web searches than the old index system. It created the largest collection of web content that Google has ever offered. Now, finding links to relevant content be it a news story or a forum post, much easier and sooner. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html Mayday Update (1st May, 2010) The release of Googleβs Mayday algorithm had a significant impact on the long tail traffic. Many sites with large scale thin content were found hit hardly, foreshadowing the Panda update. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/022293.html Google Places (20th April, 2010) Google turned Local Business Center to Google Places with this update. Along with this change, Google added few features like services areas, business photo shoots, customised QR code, favorite places and a simple new way to advertise. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/introducing-google-places.html Minor Updates Social Signals Use (December, 2010) Google and Bing announced that they are using social signals to influence rankings. They use social data from Facebook and Twitter to ranking the site. Related: http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 Negative Reviews (December, 2010) Google updated its algorithm to fix the issue of negative reviews. After the breaking out of the story about an eCommerce site using negative reviews to ranking in Google, Google made this rare move. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/being-bad-to-your-customers-is-bad-for.html Instant Visual (November, 2010) Google introduced a magnifying glass icon on search results which allowed user to quickly view a preview of landing pages directly from SERPs. However, this did not last too long. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/beyond-instant-results-instant-previews.html Brand Update (August, 2010)
- 24. Google allowed the same domain to appear multiple times on SERP. This was not an algorithm change. However, Google confirmed it to be a simple ranking change. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-search-results-dominated-by-one-domain-49025 2009 Google Updates Google had a huge infrastructure change in 2009 with the introduction of βReal Time Searchβ. Major Updates Real Time Search (7th December, 2009) With the introduction of βReal Time Searchβ, real time became the real deal. This feature brought search results to life with a dynamic stream of real-time, mobile and social search. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/relevance-meets-real-time-web.html Google Caffeine (10th August, 2009) Caffeine was Googleβs huge infrastructure change, next generation architecture for Googleβs web search. This change was intended to push the envelope on size, speed indexing, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2009/08/help-test-some-next-generation.html Vince Update (20th February, 2009) Google released a major update on 20th February, 2009 which brought a significant change in how Google returned results for a certain set of keywords. Many webmasters believed the focus of this major update on trust, authority and reputation was all to support big brands. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-searchs-vince-change-google-says-not-brand-push-16803 Rel-canonical Tag (12th February, 2009) Yahoo, Google and Microsoft announced their support to Canonical Tag. This change allowed people to publicly specify the preferred version of a URl. Source: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html 2008 Google Updates Google added a search box feature in 2008. There was no minor updates noticed.
- 25. Major Updates Google Suggest (25th August, 2007) After testing literally for years, Google finally added this major search box feature. After this change, related searches automatically appeared below where you start typing in the search box. Source: http://searchengineland.com/googlecom-finally-gets-google-suggest-feature-14626 Dewey Update (2nd April, 2008) There was a huge discussion among the SEO communities regarding the big changes in the Google search results, but the specifics were unclear. However, Google confirmed this was all because of βDewey Updateβ, it had been a while since Google named a update. This was also the first major update widely noticed by webmasters in a while. Related: http://searchengineland.com/google-update-dewey-google-confirms-algorithm-change-13679 2007 Google Updates Major Updates Universal Search (16th May, 2007) This was not an algorithmic update by Google, rather integration to traditional search results. With universal search update, Google launched the new architecture by breaking down the traditionally separated various search properties and integrated the vast amounts of information from images, maps, books, videos and news. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/universal-search-best-answer-is-still.html Minor Updates Buffy Update (17th June, 2007) Though it was not clear what happened with this update, Matt Cutts explained that this update was simply a collection of smaller changes. The name βBuffyβ was given to this update in honor of Vanessa Fox who was leaving Google. Related: https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/013882.html 2006 Google Updates There was no algorithm updates in this year. Though there was quite a fuss in SEO community, Google didnβt confirm any updates or refresh. Major Updates
- 26. Big Daddy Update (1st November, 2005) βBig Daddy Updateβ was technically intended to update infrastructure. This update changed the way Google handled URL canonicalization, redirects and other many technical issues. This update was announced on 1st of November, but it rolled out for few months, wrapping up in the beginning week of March month. Related: https://moz.com/blog/todd-greg-matt-cutts-on-webmasterradio Jagger Update (19th October, 2005) Jagger was another significant update by Google which targeted low quality links including link farms, reciprocal links and paid links. Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-jagger-update-is-official/2349/ Google Local and Maps Merge (6th October, 2005) Google made it easier for searchers by merging Google local and maps together. Searchers were able to find both local search and mapping information together on the same search results page by just using Google Maps. Source: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2005/10/google-merges-local-and-maps-products_06.html Google Sitemaps (2nd June, 2005) A new program was introduced by Google, βGoogle Sitemapsβ which allowed webmasters and site owners to create an XML files containing all their URLs that they want Google to crawl and add them in web index. However, this update was proved to be useful which gave a good influence to SEO. Related: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2061916/New-Google-Sitemaps-Web-Page-Feed- Program Bourbon Update (2nd May, 2005) Google came up with an update βBourbonβ to change the algorithm in terms of how duplicate and non- canonical (www vs. non-www) URLs are handled. This update affected 3.5% of the entire queries. Related: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2005/06/google_update_bourbon.php Nofollow Update (18th January, 2005) Google added a small yet very important feature βthe Nofollow Attributeβ which worked against the comment spam. The βNofollow Updateβ was not a traditional algorithm change but had a significant impact since it combated spam and controlled outbound link quality.
- 27. Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html Minor Updates Gilligan Update (8th September, 2005) Webmasters sensed changes over the web; however Google didnβt confirmed any update. Rather they claimed it was just a refresh. Related: https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2061165/googles-cutts-says-not-an-update-i-say- an-update-just-not-a-dance Personalised Search (28th June, 2005) With the release of personalized search, users were able to use search history that theyβve been building to get the better search results. Google was able to make the results more personal and more accurate with this update. Related: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/search-gets-personal.html Allegra Update (2nd February, 2005) On 2nd February of 2005, many webmasters went through ranking changes. But, the exact specifics of this update were unclear. Some of the people thought this update affected the βSandboxβ whereas the rest thought the LSI has been changed. Related: https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2047678/googles-feb-2005-update 2004 Google Updates Two popular algorithm updates βBrandyβ and βAustinβ were rolled out in the year 2004 which focused in LSI, link neighborhood and so on. Brandy Update (17th February, 2004) Lots of changes were encountered because of the βBrandy Updateβ released by Google. The changes seen were massive index expansion, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), the concept of link neighborhood and increased attention to anchor text relevance. Related: http://archive.webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/wpn-49- 20040217GooglesBrandyUpdateExposed.html Austin Update (23rd January, 2004) Google came up with another update βAustin Updateβ to fill the hole or missing point left by βFlorida Updateβ released on 16th November of 2003. Google was found continuing the crackdown on tricky on- page tricks; Google included invisible text and Meta-tag stuffing.
- 28. Related: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-latest-on-update-austin-googles-january- update/237/ 2003 Google Updates 2003 was the year of only major updates. Major Updates Florida Update (16th November, 2003) Florida is probably the larger and aggressive updates which completely shake out SEO world. During this update, many sites that applied low value SEO tactics like keyword stuffing and so on lost their site ranking. This update made many business owners unhappy. Related: https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2066309/what-happened-to-my-site-on-google Fritz Update (1st July, 2003) Googleβs Fritz update ended the monthly βGoogle Danceβ, where the index was updated every month. Instead, they came with more accurate information by the indexing every day. This every day small changes were referred as βeverfluxβ. Related: https://www.wired.com/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/ Esmerelda Update (15th June, 2003) Esmerelda update had some huge structure changes regarding Google update. This update was probably the last regular update of Google. Dominic Update (14th May, 2003) Though the exact nature of this update was not cleared, many sites experienced bounces. Google bots were found crawling through the web and bouncing the sites right and left. This update also changed the way Google counted and reported back links. Cassandre Update (12th April, 2003) Cassandre was yet another major update released by Google which mainly focused on basic link issues. Other main focuses of this update were massive linking from co-domains, hidden text and hidden links. Google has allowed banned sites to submit reconsideration request in this update. This happened for the first time. Boston Update (7th March, 2003)
- 29. Google released its first named update in March month of 2003. This was the first named major update. This update had a great impact on SERPs as with this update Google improved their algorithm further. Minor Updates Supplemental Index (September, 2003) After Google released Fritz update, it released another update to index more documents, which would help them to do so without having to hurt the performance. Related: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2067049/Search-Engine-Size-Wars-Googles- Supplemental-Results 2002 Google Updates Googleβs First Documented Update (26th September, 2002) Google released its first documented update in September month of 2002. All the SEO arguments and Google dance started from this update. This is the first major update performed by Google since its establishment. Related: http://searchengineshowdown.com/2002/09/google_dance_begun/ 2000 Google Updates Google Toolbar (December, 2000) Google launched toolbar for all browsers as well as toolbar page rank (TBPR) and from this all the SEO arguments started. Source: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/12/google-launches-google-toolbar.html 1998 Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergery Brin in September 4, 1998. Though the domain google.com was already registered in 15th September 1997, only after a year they filed for Incorporation on September 4 of 1998. Since, then the journey of Google officially began.