Google Algorithm updates and history
Google algorithm updates are just like a trend that keeps on changing every now and then. Coping with these updates is quite a challenging task for SEO professionals. Understanding these updates demands intense research and a deep level of technical knowledge.
In simple words, the Google algorithm is a system that retrieves data from the search index and delivers the best possible results to the users.
There are numerous factors taken into consideration by the Google algorithm when it comes to ranking a webpage and actually delivering the most relevant result to the users.
Google wasn’t too frequent with the algorithm updates as it is now. However, the latest advancements in technology and the way people started making search queries along with several other aspects forced the search engine to advance and introduce new updates frequently.
Let’s deep dive into all Google algorithm updates that Google has introduced in order to improve the user experience of searchers.
Google introduced the Florida update in 2003. Yes, it was two decades back, but the importance of this update still stands firm. The decade was then introduced with several updates, with Florida being the first and quite important.
Florida update was introduced in November 2003, just before Christmas which forced a lot of sites to change their SEO strategies, specifically, eCommerce sites as it was sale season.
The Florida update was all about reducing spam tactics like keyword stuffing. It was that time when black-hat SEO was dominant and due to this, a lot of innocent and actual value-delivering sites weren’t ranked and hence, weren’t noticed.
Google has never actually entirely revealed what the Florida update actually was, but the clues that were presented along with the results noticed, it was quite evident that it was all about degrading the website rankings of the sites following black-hat tactics.
With the Florida update, Google put more emphasis on the website that provided relevant content with regard to the search query of the user. It implies that the website matching the search query of the user was rewarded by the search engine. Also, Google introduced the concept of “nofollow” with the Florida update. Hence, with this update, digital marketers started specifying to Google what links it shouldn’t consider when it comes to ranking a site.
Another interesting concept that Google introduced in the Florida update is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). LSI helps Google understand the relationship between words and concepts more effectively, and hence, deliver the search results accordingly.
Florida update witnessed the introduction of a new algorithm to determine the relevance of the website, which was termed PageRank. The web pages with relevant & quality inbound links were considered authoritative, which imparted a positive impact on the search engine results.
A Sandbox system was designed that worked as a layer of security for the sites that were spammy and delivered low-quality content. These sites witnessed a considerable drop in rankings, and rightly so.
Then, the Hammer system was introduced to penalize the websites following tactics like keyword stuffing. The penalties ranged from reduced visibility to even removal of the website from the search engine results.
There were a number of changes made to Google’s algorithm with the motive of reducing black-hat SEO and making sure that only the sites practising legit SEO tactics and delivering some valuable content ranked in the search engine results.
Yes, the Florida update was introduced way back in 2003, but as mentioned, it’s still equally important. Your website must comply with this update as it largely shapes the website rankings, and hence, it can play a significant role in deciding your success.
Some basic steps you can follow to make your website comply with the Florida update are as follows.
Keyword stuffing implies fitting keywords into the content even when they don’t fit. It is a spammy tactic that Google hates. It’s no longer difficult for the search engine to recognize the keyword stuffing and penalize the websites for it. Use keywords naturally in your content and let the search engine do its job in terms of crawling the content and ranking it.
Google Florida update also focused on link analysis. Previously, recognizing irrelevant & spammy links was difficult for search engines, which got easier after this update. Hence, make sure not to use any hidden or irrelevant links in your content, as it is a form of spam and breaches the Florida update rules. Use the “nofollow” link concept effectively.
From heading to website URLs to even navigation, after the Florida update, it’s absolutely necessary for the website owners to be right with the website structure. Website structure largely shapes the user experience on a website, and hence, the Florida update has this aspect on its checklist. Gone are the days when a website used to succeed with a haphazard structure. Now, you need to be a bit more logical with the way you structure your website.
Be it 2003 or 2023, the importance of content stays the same. Yes, it has increased after the introduction of the Florida update. Hence, the content on your website has to be crisp, clear, and non-spammy and deliver the values that your visitors deserve. The relevant content on your website will provide a top-notch user experience and hence, help your website to nail the Florida update considerably.
Image Source: Google
After Florida, Google introduced a number of minor tweaks & updates, but the Jagger update was a major one that came into existence in October 2005. It all started just a few weeks ago, in September and the update was confirmed entirely in October.
Jagger update covered a number of SEO aspects like a website’s backlink profile, content size & quality, and numerous other technical & non-technical aspects.
The Jagger update made the search engine put more emphasis on factors like content quality, domain authority, link quality, etc.
Google was committed to providing better search results to the audience, and the Jagger update was a clear testament to it.
As mentioned, various factors were affected by Google’s Jagger update. Let’s have a look at them below.
The Jagger update witnessed a considerable fall in the rankings of numerous websites. This was Google’s effort to subside manipulative links & scrap content, and it succeeded to a great extent.
Image Source: Google
Yes, the Jagger update demanded alterations in multiple variables, but none of them were complex or difficult to deal with. Some reported recovery steps for this update were:
The Jagger update was the start of today’s SEO best practices. Yes, Google wasn’t that dominant in the year 2005 with the search engines like Yahoo and Internet Explorer still active, but it still changed the SEO strategy for numerous businesses all over the world, and all for the right reasons.
It was in November 2005 that Google talked openly about the Big Daddy update. However, the entire update was completed in March 2006. It was an infrastructure update, and the update imparted a significant impact on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
The Big Daddy update was primarily a crawl update that focused on the trustability of the inbound & outbound links of the site. If the site didn’t score well in terms of trustability, not many pages of that specific site were indexed. If a site already had all the pages indexed, and if it didn’t score well in terms of trustability, many pages of it were removed.
As mentioned, the Big Daddy update played a crucial role in altering the SERPs and all for good. The primary focus was to identify sites with poor quality inbound & outbound links and penalize them. Some other key factors related to this massive update are:
Recovery from this Google algorithm update demanded a new approach, a new strategy, and certain changes to the linking strategy of the sites. Some of the best practices that brands followed to recover from this update are:
It took around 4 months for Google to launch the Big Daddy update completely. Hence, it is clear that it was launched in phases, with the next phase improvising the previous phase. Let’s have a look at the different phases in which this update was launched.
November 2005: It was the initial phase of this update. Website owners started noticing fluctuations in website rankings.
December 2005: Google continued to work on the Big Daddy update. Indexing & crawling issues were reported. Google primarily focused on the factors like duplicate content & URL handling.
January 2006: The accuracy of the search engine results was compromised due to this update. Hence, in this phase, Google worked on it and the update was now focused on improving the accuracy of the search engine results along with several other indexing issues.
March 2006: This was the phase when the Big Daddy update got a bit stable and website owners started aligning with the update. Many more updates were introduced after the Big Daddy update and this update worked as a foundation for them.
Big Daddy update was probably one of the biggest efforts from Google to enhance the search engine results and to reduce the spammy inbound & outbound links along with duplicate content. Yes, it took some time for the website owners to align with the update, but it was necessary.
Okay, enough of working on spammy backlinks, and duplicate content, for now! No, Google didn’t say that, but Vince update did. Vince update, also fondly termed as “Brand Update” actually did a lot of good to the brands.
The Vince update was launched in January 2009. Vince update could be considered a simple change, however, the impact that the update imparted was massive.
The exact update wasn’t disclosed by Google entirely, but the results noticed by SEO professionals largely gave a massive clarity on the same. Vince update primarily focused on improving the search engine rankings of a website by putting greater emphasis on factors like brand authority and brand trustworthiness.
After the Vince update, huge brands started appearing more than before for long-tail keywords. Of course, the trustworthiness and the domain authority were a couple of other factors that played a crucial role here.
As mentioned, exact factors that imparted the impact on website rankings were never mentioned by Google, but as per the results noticed, some crucial factors that circled around this update are:
As Google wasn’t entirely clear about the Vince update, recovering from it and making the site cope with it was difficult. However, based on the noticed results, some steps taken by the SEO community to deal with this update were:
Yes, Vince update was a bit unfair as for Google, it was a bit difficult to trust the new domains even though they followed entirely legit tactics to lead the competition. However, the update played massively in the favor of popular brands and uplifted their rankings & visibility into the search engine results considerably.
It was in August 2009 that Google announced the Caffeine update. Caffeine became one of the most crucial Google algorithm updates, even when the present-day scenario is considered.
Yes, Google announced the update in August 2009, but it provided developer preview for months so that both SEO professionals & developers could pinpoint any issues regarding the update. It clearly reflects the fact that how massive the update was.
After a lot of feedback & amendments, the entire Caffeine update was rolled out in June 2010.
The Caffeine update was primarily focused on the indexing system. This update allowed the search engine to crawl and store data with much more accuracy than before. Before this update, Google used to crawl data based on freshness requirements, while after Caffeine Google collected data, crawled it, and indexed it within seconds. Hence, no fresh content was missing, which was a problem Google & website owners came across before the update.
Unlike any other update, the use of the Caffeine update wasn’t clear to many SEO professionals. After all, what’s the need to change the indexing system entirely?
Well, Google’s indexing system was designed & launched in the year 1998, while this update was launched in 2009. In 1998, there were close to 2.5 million websites online, while in 2009, there were around 240 million websites. Yes, the change was drastic, and Google’s indexing system was simply not capable of crawling & indexing all the data seamlessly.
A lot of crucial information was missed in terms of indexing and several issues were reported. Plus, the different dimensional use of visual and media indexing was a crucial issue here. Google understood it well over time, and hence, decided to advance its indexing system. As mentioned, advancement in the indexing meant no fresh information was missed and indexing happened within a few seconds.
The Caffeine factor redefined how Google crawled, indexed & ranked the website data. Let’s check out some of the most important factors of the Caffeine update below.
So, how did the website owners recover from the massive Caffeine update? Let’s check out the answers.
Caffeine update was a massive one, but given the number of websites, and the increasing popularity of the internet those days, it was absolutely a must. There was some chaos initially, but the website owners who played smart, studied the update well, and understood the importance of fresh content on the website didn’t face much trouble.
Panda update was launched in February 2011. This update was part of Google’s efforts to eradicate black-hat SEO tactics. This was the time when tactics like content farming, and spammy link gain tactics were predominant.
Initially known as “Farmer”, the Panda update was quite successful in terms of helping Google recognize low-quality websites and reward high-quality websites with better rankings.
The Panda update was primarily meant to reduce the rankings of websites with low-quality content and rank the websites that delivered valuable content. Also, the sites that presented in-depth stats, facts, and analysis were rewarded with improved rankings. According to the stats, around 12% of the search queries were affected by the Panda update.
Google didn’t disclose the exact aspects of this update but presented a series of questions that defined the factors the search engine is going to consider in terms of ranking a website. Let’s have a look at these questions below.
As you can clearly see, all these questions were based on how authoritative the content of a website is and to what extent the website can be trusted. Plus, the extent to which the user experience is offered by the website was also covered in this series.
Google introduced the E-A-T concept in the year 2014. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. The concept was closely related to the Panda update. How? Well, this concept primarily focused on:
Ultimately, E-A-T was derived keeping the Panda update in mind. Not many sources mention that, but I would simply define E-A-T as an enhancement to the Panda update.
Image Source: Google
Several domains were initially hit by the Panda update. However, several strategies were implemented by the website owners to recover from the same. Let’s check them out below.
Several sites had to change the entire content on their site, which meant a lot of effort & unwanted hassles for them. Not only the relevance, but the content grammar, tone, etc. mattered too.
The content that was posted usually incorporated factors like keyword stuffing. With the abandonment of this practice, the keyword stuffing was largely subsided, which was a great thing in terms of content readability.
It was a no-brainer that excessive ads subsided the user experience, and this update was all meant to enhance it on any platform. Hence, the update took the factor of excessive ads seriously and made sure that user experience wasn’t hampered by any means.
Panda Google algorithm update redefined the way in which the website had content to a good extent. This update was purely meant to downgrade the website rankings of the website with thin content and improve the website rankings of the website with strong content.
Google’s Freshness algorithm update was another significant advancement to its algorithm. It primarily focused on improving the search engine results and matching the results with the user’s query as much as possible.
The Freshness algorithm was introduced in November 2011. It impacted around 35% of search queries. This update brought a significant change to how the websites were ranked.
Google introduced the Freshness algorithm update to deliver fresh search results to search engine queries. The Caffeine update made it possible for the search engine to index web pages quickly, and the Freshness algorithm update was just a piece of that infrastructure.
Google’s Freshness algorithm was to recognize the aspect that not every content needs to be fresh. Let’s understand it with an example. An article with the topic “Who won the FIFA World Cup in 1930?” need not be updated. Yes, the website owner might consider the inclusion of small pieces of information here & there, but it’s absolutely not mandatory for this article to be updated.
On the other hand, an article with the topic “Happiest countries in the world” is required to be updated on a regular basis as the list keeps on changing every year. Plus, the content that was old & outdated, but ranked higher in search engine results made way for other websites that provided fresh and comparatively valuable content.
With the Freshness algorithm, Google classified queries into 3 types of time-related queries, which were:
Let’s check out the important factors considered by the Freshness Algorithm update below.
Let’s check out the steps that website owners took to recover from the Freshness algorithm update.
Google received a lot of complaints about the poor user experience due to excessive ads and plenty of them being displayed directly on the topmost section of the page. This is why Google launched the Page Layout algorithm to prevent sites from displaying excessive ads along with helping users get some content on the page load rather than ads.
To enhance the user experience on a website and to help them get rid of the unnecessary ads they see on the website, Google launched the Page Layout algorithm in January 2012.
With the Page Layout algorithm, Google recognized the web pages that didn’t have enough content above-the-fold or had a large number of ads and didn’t rank them going forward. The reason was obvious, the user experience was massively impacted when the users saw only Ads on landing on a website.
It took a long time for several websites to recover from this update. While some website owners found this update harsh, the Page Layout algorithm was a need of the hour as users were simply frustrated seeing the ads more than the content.
So, how did websites recover from this algorithm impact? Yes, certain websites did take a long time to recover but the domains that followed the right steps took comparatively less time to get ranked again.
Numerous websites didn’t like the Page Layout algorithm much. Reason? It was obvious that they felt their revenue might subside if they didn’t show Ads on top. However, placing the Ads strategically on a website did both, maintain their revenue and provide a better user experience to the visitors. They eventually understood it, and things started falling into place after a while.
The Venice Google algorithm update launched in February 2012 was a significant update in terms of delivering personalized results to users. The primary motive of this update was to deliver the users with the results based on location. The Venice update was a significant step when the user-experience aspect was taken into consideration.
Yes, it might seem so, but Google has never specified that the update was named after a city. Hence, we absolutely have no idea why the name Venice.
Google continuously worked towards improving the user experience of the searchers and the Venice update was one step towards it. With this update, the algorithm detected the location of the searcher and displayed results accordingly. Plus, the accuracy of the search results when the user made a search with the city was improved.
Let’s check out some factors that were considered with the Venice Google algorithm update.
Well, recovery from the Venice update wasn’t that difficult, as the update’s primary focus was to improve user experience & not to penalize the websites by any means. However, some steps that website owners took to cope with this update are listed below.
It was after the Venice update that local SEO was truly recognized and website owners started taking this factor seriously. Plus, the results that Google noticed were absolutely fruitful as the users started seeing results based on their locale.
A decade before, the Penguin algorithm update was launched, and it was indeed one of the biggest Google algorithm updates. It was named “Webspam Algorithm Update” by Google. This update was launched by Google to reduce the number of sites appearing in SERPs that used black hat SEO tactics to get ranked in the search engine results.
The Penguin update was launched to reward high-quality websites with respect to website rankings and degrade the rankings that used black-hat SEO tactics to get ranked. There were a number of websites using manipulative links & followed practices like keyword stuffing, which were penalized with regard to the Penguin update.
This update impacted around 3% of the search queries initially. It was the year 2017 when Penguin was made a part of Google’s core algorithm update.
It was in 2013 that the Payday Loan update made everyone talk about itself. This update was quite significant, and it impacted around 0.3% of total search queries. The update was primarily focused on reducing spammy queries & spammy sites.
The Payday Loan update is an influential algorithmic change that was introduced by Google to reduce spammy queries & spammy sites. It primarily targeted websites that followed the keyword stuffing practice, manipulative & spammy backlinks and sites that lacked credible & authentic content.
This update was Google’s efforts to provide the users with accurate & trustworthy results. Plus, the search engine targeted to redirect the audience to relevant sources & not to the sources that were non-contextual.
Introduced in September 2013, Google defined the Hummingbird update as the biggest algorithm update since 2001.
Several Googlers defined it as the total rewrite of the core algorithm, however, the effects noticed were subtle. This update changed the SEO landscape completely and took Google search to a whole new advanced level.
The Hummingbird update interpreted natural language queries and context to deliver much more accurate results and meet the search intent considerably. As mentioned, this update was the rewrite of the core algorithm, and it was the biggest Google algorithm update since 2001.
The primary goal of this update was to precisely deliver the search results to the searchers and make sure that the search intent is met as much as possible.
Before this update, Google emphasized keyword density and displayed results accordingly for the searched keywords. Now, after the update, Google started understanding the context of the keywords, and what searchers mean with the keyword and displayed the results accordingly.
To cope with the Hummingbird update, the website owners took the following actions.
Image Source: Google
The Google Pigeon update changed the way local businesses ranked in organic search. Pigeon update meant a better search experience for the users. Also, better local search results meant a benefit for the local businesses in terms of displaying their business in the search results.
Pigeon update primarily focused on boosting the local search capabilities. It enhanced the Google search to a considerable extent. Also, Google Maps were worked upon. Hence, the location parameters were also improved, which allowed the search engine to deliver precise & better results.
There were some glitches with the previous Hummingbird update which were resolved with this update. Let’s understand this update with an example. For instance, I searched for something like “the best coffee shop in New York”. Now, after the Pigeon update, Google displayed the results that were in New York & that were near to me. Hence, the results that were in New York, yet far away, were given less priority, which wasn’t the case pre-Pigeon.
Google was done listening to the complaints about the poor user experience on mobile. This is the reason it launched the Mobilegeddon update in April 2015. This update brought changes to the mobile search engine results and rankings.
As mentioned, the Mobilegeddon Google algorithm update primarily focused on the mobile-friendliness nature of a website. The sites that were mobile-friendly were rewarded in mobile search engine rankings, while the sites that weren’t were penalized.
Google clearly stated that there’s absolutely no grey area. Your site is either mobile-friendly or isn’t. Also, the change impacted search results in all languages, and it only applied to the individual pages and not the website as a whole.
Eventually, the sites that weren’t mobile-friendly, like the sites that had small texts, difficult navigation, unplayable videos, had ads on the top and forced users to scroll down a lot to see the content, etc. were penalized in terms of rankings. It was Google’s efforts to encourage websites to follow a mobile-friendly design of the website and provide top-notch user experience to the visitors.
Recovery from this update took some effort from the website owners, but by no means it was difficult. Let’s check out the recovery steps from this update below.
RankBrain Google algorithm update revolutionized the way search engine results were displayed. It was a part of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm, or say an enhancement to it. This update was meant to deliver the users with the best matching results to the user’s search query.
RankBrain update is considered the third-most crucial signal that contributed to the search query. It is a machine learning AI that helps the search engine understand the search query and display the results accordingly.
An example of this update? Ever seen the “People also search for” section when you make a specific search? Well, that’s all a part of the RankBrain Google algorithm update.
This update has just made Google a bit more smart. For instance, if you search “Joe Biden Birthday”, you will also be displayed with the results like “Donald Trump”, “Jill Biden”, etc.
Today, the voice-based search query is common and RankBrain helps considerably with it. It helps Google understand the next possible queries and display results accordingly. For instance, I search for “Eiffel Tower”. The next query might be “Eiffel Tower height”, then “The tallest tower in the world”. RankBrain simply predicts the search queries, conveys them to the search engine, and then the results are displayed accordingly.
Check out the recovery steps that the website owners followed to cope with this update below.
Image Source: https://neilpatel.com/
Fred Update primarily targeted the websites whose only motive was to earn revenue by displaying excessive ads. Numerous content sites provided thin content & excessive ads to monetize the site. These sites by no means solved the user’s problem or delivered any value. They just focused on generating revenue.
Google Fred is an algorithm that targets sites with low-value content and sites with aggressive monetization, even without delivering any value to the users. You might have visited several sites that had less content but excessive ads & less content and weren’t really useful. Well, we term them dummy sites, which were targeted & penalized by Google’s Fred algorithm update.
After the introduction of this update, dummy sites noticed around a 50-90% drop in website traffic, which was a massive dip for them.
Fred’s algorithm update was one of the few updates that imparted an immediate impact on the websites. Sites struggled for several months to regain the lost traffic.
As already mentioned, the recovery from the Fred update was never easy. Some recovery steps taken by the affected sites to restore their website rankings are:
Well, no one other than Google itself knows that. We as SEO professionals just know the factors that the algorithm considers getting a website ranked, but how all the backend flow goes, other than crawling and indexing is not yet exactly known & even revealed by Google.
Well, the number is never fixed. Google continually works on reducing spam and hence, it keeps on introducing minor & major tweaks to all the updates.
If you notice the degradation in website rankings for a while after the algorithm is updated, you might be impacted by the update. However, do wait for some time before taking action as after the update numerous websites see degradation in their rankings temporarily due to the term “Google Dance”. If that’s the case with you, it will all fall into place after a while, and if it doesn’t, you might be required to take action.
Write amazing & value-delivering content on your website. Follow the right link-building strategy to acquire organic backlinks. Make sure to not follow any spammy tactics to get your website ranked. Stay away from concepts like keyword stuffing, bad backlinking, & excessive ads. Focus on providing relevant value to the users landing on your site. The more you are right & organic with your traffic acquiring & monetization strategies, the easier it will be for your website to stay away from Google algorithm updates.
It’s never a difficult task. Just follow authentic SEO blogs to stay updated with the latest algorithm updates. Also, keep an eye on the announcements from Google. Make it a practice of checking out Google’s announcements & blogs regularly.
Well, it was long, wasn’t it? But, with the number of algorithm updates introduced by Google and with the impact they left behind, it was absolutely important for us to give detailed information about the same.
We have listed all the major Google algorithm updates that you must know along with providing you with every crucial information regarding the same. As mentioned, Google works continuously on keeping the spam away, hence, introducing algorithm updates regularly. We will keep on updating our article with the launch of every Google algorithm update to help you out with every required information about it.
If you still want more information about any of the algorithm updates listed above, or if you are looking for professional help to cope with any of the Google algorithm updates, you need not look any further than us. Contact us now to safeguard your website against the strict Google algorithms.
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Visit Linkedin I am a Google certified SEO manager with over seven years of experience in search engine optimization (SEO) and CRO enthusiast . I work at seobyinventiv.com, a leading digital marketing agency that helps clients improve their online presence and performance. My core competencies include keyword research, on-page and off-page optimization, technical SEO, content creation and distribution, analytics and reporting, and link-building. I have developed and implemented interactive marketing strategies for about 20+ clients that increased their search engine rankings, website traffic, user retention, and conversion rates. I have also collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure SEO best practices are integrated with web development, design, and content management systems. As an SEO manager, I am passionate about delivering results that align with the client's goals and expectations. I use data-driven insights and industry trends to monitor, adjust, and refine SEO campaigns as needed to produce the most optimal return on investment. I also leverage my content writing and copywriting skills to create engaging and SEO-friendly web pages, blog articles, social media posts, and landing pages that attract and retain users, and generate leads for the business. I am always eager to learn new skills and tools that can enhance my SEO and PPC expertise and keep me updated with the latest changes in the search engine algorithms.
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