Google Algorithm Updates From 2003 To Date: Comprehensive Guide

Are you keeping up with the latest Google algorithm updates? Are you aware of the updates the search engine giant rolled out this year, including those released in previous years?  

With the evolution of search engines, changes in internet users and customer behavior, and Google’s desire to remain a leader in the global search engine market, algorithm changes have become crucial.  

Google is the biggest search engine globally. According to reports, it processes over 99,000 searches every second and over 8.5 billion searches daily.  

As a business owner, understanding Google’s algorithm changes and how they impact your website’s search ranking is crucial for online marketing success. That’s what this post is all about. We’ll cover both the latest Google algorithm updates and previous ones. Keep reading to find out more! 

March 2025 Google Algorithm Update – Google Core Update 

On March 13, 2025, the online community witnessed Google’s first Core Update of the New Year. There were notable volatility spikes on both mobile and desktop, which were more noticeable around the 6th and 7th of March 2025.    

The volatility spike confused the internet community, forcing many to assume that the search engine giant was planning to introduce a new update.   

Google’s response helped to calm many worried nerves. Google confirmed the volatility wasn’t related to any perceived update.      

The volatility experienced during the March 2025 algorithm update lasted for 30 days. It peaked from March 14 to 16th, then again on March 20 through 22nd, and once more on March 26 before the update ended on March 27.  

Note: Confirmed Update 

Google Algorithm Update For 2024: Everything You Need To Know 

 Here are all the Google updates for 2024. Find out how these updates help shape the SERPs and online searches.  

December 2024 Google Algorithm Update: Google Core Update December 12 

A week after the November 2024 core update, Google released the December 12 Core Update. Following the December 12 Core Update release, Google announced on its X (formerly Twitter) platform why they released a new update barely a week after the previous update. Here’s a summary of Google’s announcement on X after the release of the December 12 Core Update. 

“If you were wondering why there is a Core Update this month after one last month – we have different core systems we are always working to improve.”  

Google’s announcement on X wasn’t a surprise for many, as the search engine heavy had already revealed in the previous month that there would be more frequent Core Updates.  

Note: The best and most effective way to prepare for Google’s algorithm changes is to stay up-to-date with the latest information on the changes the search engine giant implements. It’s also essential to provide relevant content, products, and services to users, which are important in improving user experience.  

Note: Unconfirmed Update 

November 2024 Google Algorithm Update: Core Update Released November 11 

The spate of algorithm changes Google implemented in 2024 alone shows the search engine wasn’t slowing down on its promise to roll out frequent algorithm updates. This Core Update was released November 11, 2024.  

Was there anything new about this update? Was Google trying to target anything with this update?  

The Google algorithm update of November 11, 2024, had no noticeable target. The only thing we noticed was the usual volatility associated with algorithm updates. This update was a continuation of the processes Google claimed they were paying attention to in August.  

Though not related to the November algorithm update, Google introduced in its documentation an FAQ section for the “site reputation abuse policy.” While Google claimed the policy’s enforcement wasn’t algorithmic, several high-profile websites got surprisingly hammered with related manual actions.  

The manual action caused volatility in search queries in November, as several websites lost their positions on the search engine result page (SERP). 

From the graph below, you can see that SERP volatility was low leading up to the update but later spiked during the crucial phases, especially on November 25 and December 5. Furthermore, the volatility was higher in the United States of America than in the United Kingdom.  

Note: The November 11, 2024, update occurred, as Google confirmed it on their X handle.  

August 2024 Algorithm Update: Google Core Update   

On August 15, 2024, the online community witnessed another major algorithm update from Google. Launched on August 15, the update rolled over 19 days, and its impact on search ranking was tricky to access.  

Upon the release of the update, Google’s John Mueller wrote on the Search Central Blog that the update was a continuation of their previous work, aiming to improve the quality of search engine results.  

Mueller’s comment indicated Google’s focus on showing more content people find relevant and useful and less content that appears to have been drafted to perform well on the search engine results rather than deliver real value to searchers.  

This update considers feedback from users and creators made available after the last update, rewarding helpful content on many websites, such as content from smaller and independent websites. Sites that have made improvements also got rewarded.  

One of the major complaints after the March 2024 update was the negligence of sites that made significant improvements after getting hit by the Helpful Content Update. After making noticeable improvements, they didn’t reap any reward.  

Post-March 2024 Update: John Mueller Announcement 

Sites that got hit during the fall Helpful Content Update can recover. However, as Google’s John Mueller announced on X in early May 2024, the recovery process could take longer. He stated that the reason for the lengthy recovery was that it would take Google a longer time to reassess the websites that were hit.  

March 2024 Update – Google Core Update March 15   

Google’s first algorithm update in 2024 was a major one. Google released the update after notifying SEOs of an incoming change in the search algorithm that would change everything. Did the changes impact the SERP? Like other major updates, they did.   

Google released the “Algorithm Core Update” and “Spam Update” on March 5. While the search engine giant suggested the update would take less time, it took 15 days.  

Let’s discuss both updates separately. 

The March 2024 Google Core Algorithm Update:  

Google confirmed the March 5, 2024, Core Algorithm Update on its official X handle. The announcement showed that the search engine giant was initiating changes to various core systems.  

What was Google’s main goal with this update? Its goal was to deploy several approaches and signals to improve search engine results. It wants to ensure helpful content is promoted to the top of the search engine result pages, while content created for clicks is demoted.  

This update indicates that content that offers value and is relevant to users will likely rank higher than search-engine-first content. Web pages populated with search-engine-first content are demoted on the search engine result page.  

How impactful was this update? It was severely impactful.  

Within days of the update’s release, many websites started to feel the brunt of it. The penalty was harsh, resulting in the removal of several websites from the Google search index.  

A study Originality AI conducted revealed the extent of the March 2024 Google Core algorithm Update on websites. The research focused on the website negatively impacted by manual actions. Here is a summary of the outcome of this research: 

• Originality AI discovered that 100% of websites contained some AI-generated posts. 

• The research also revealed that 50% of websites had AI-generated 90-100% of their posts.  

Google Core Update for March ended April 19, 2024. Check out Google’s announcement on its official X handle below.  

March 2024 Google Spam Update: 

While announcing the March 2024 Core Algorithm Update, Google also announced the Spam Updates for 2024. The update includes several policies to eradicate spam from the search engine result page. 

Google released the Spam Update in response to multiple complaints about the number of spam messages appearing on the search engine result pages. People complained that they were seeing more spam than they had for years.  

The update included three vital policies, such as: 

• Expired domain abuse: Most people purchase expired domains of sites that have great reputations and build low-quality websites using the same URL. They do this to rank well on Google search engine results, relying on the good reputation the old domain once had. The primary focus of these websites is to rank well in the Google search engine results. That is the reason for their creation.  

• Scaled content abuse: Another important policy in the spam update is scaled content abuse. Most websites generate many pages to manipulate the algorithm to rank high in search engines. While this situation is more peculiar with AI-created content, Google isn’t sparing human-generated content. As long as the pages were created to manipulate the search engine ranking, Google considers them spam. It doesn’t matter whether the content is AI-generated or human-generated.   

• Site reputation abuse: Most people are guilty of adding links from low-quality third-party sites to their websites with good reputations. Their aim is to improve their search ranking. Google considers this a violation of the site reputation policy and has given site owners until May 25, 2024, to prepare.  

As usual, BitChip Digital’s SEO team is staying up-to-date with these algorithm changes, so you don’t have to. We want you to focus on your business while we fix your website’s SEO. If you have any concerns about your website’s performance on the SERPs, contact our SEO expert to resolve the problem.  

Google Algorithm Update 2023: All The Updates For 2023 

2023 was a fantastic year for Google and its algorithm’s evolution. It was a year when Google rolled out multiple core updates that impacted unprepared websites. These include websites that aren’t prepared to handle the storm that comes with changes in Google’s algorithm.  

Using MozCast, you can predict an algorithm update’s impact on queries. MozCast is a temperature-based measurement platform that displays the daily changes in search rankings.  

On a typical day, MozCast average temperature could be as low as 70°F. However, a significant algorithm-instigated fluctuation saw the temperature increase massively. An example is the fluctuation experienced on March 15.    

What caused the temperature spike on March 15, 2023? 

There was a 13-day Google Core Update. The MozCast captured the temperature fluctuation. The temperature spiked to 108°F during the 13-day period the Core Update was in effect, though six days recorded a temperature above 100°F.  

November 2023 Reviews Update: How It Happened  

Google started the update on its search reviews system on November 8 and kept it going until December 7. So, the review lasted approximately a month, which is usually the norm for most Google algorithm updates.  

What was the focus of this extensive update? What was Google targeting? 

The focus of the update was on review content. It wants to empower the search engine to evaluate better and rank review-related content, including search queries.  

Will there be future updates on the Review System? 

Possibly! However, Google explained that this would be their last update. But this doesn’t mean they won’t initiate future updates. Instead, they will roll out any future updates on an ongoing and occasional basis.  

What should review site owners do to rank in the SERPs?  

If you have a review site, you can refer to the Google Help Page for more tips on how to create high-quality and first-page ranking-worthy reviews.  

The algorithm rewards websites with original and valuable reviews. These include reviews with original research and insightful analysis. An enthusiast or expert can be the review’s author; it doesn’t matter. Google just wants the review to be original, high-quality and helpful to users, not mislead them.  

Tips for review sites from the November 2023 Reviews Update 

• Showcase your expertise in the review. That means you should have expert knowledge on the topic and let users see that you do 

• Showcase your evidence. Backing up your reviews with evidence is crucial to authenticating the information you provide in the reviews.  

•  Provide in-depth information on the pros and cons of the subject matter. Allow readers to choose; do not decide for them.  

If your review site isn’t doing well, you can use the tips above to improve your content and kick-start your website’s recovery process. Alternatively, you can get an expert to audit your review site and address the issues preventing you from ranking high in the search engine result pages.  

The tips above show that improving the quality of a review website’s content can positively impact ranking. Provide valuable information that will help your visitors make informed decisions.  

November 2023 Google Core Update: Released November 2 

Google rolled out the November 2nd Core Updates too soon for many website owners. It came unexpectedly shortly after the October Core Update. The update Google rolled out in November was its fourth and last core update for 2023.  

The release of the November 2 Core Update surprised many. However, anyone who’s used to Google’s frequent updates will not be surprised.  

How did Google respond to the questions people raised regarding the timing of this update? 

As usual, Google didn’t stay silent. They provided a series of advice in their Q&A on the Google Search Update section. Here is what the search engine stated: 

“Understand that we possess diverse systems that are crucial to how we rank websites on the SERP. However, the core system improved this month differs from the one updated the previous month.”   

While this core system update differed from the one updated the previous month, Google made it clear that its guidance about core updates remains intact for both core systems (the one updated last month and the one updated this month on November 2). 

Did the update cause volatility in the search engine ranking?  

Of course, it did! However, the amount of volatility caused was considerable. However, the average level of volatility looks the same as the one that occurred in the October Core Update.  

October 2023 Core Update: Roll Out Completed October 19  

The October 2023 Core Update rollout finished on the 19th, only lasting a few weeks. 

 Was the update highly volatile? 

The discussions in the SEO community suggest otherwise. They suggest the update wasn’t as volatile as people had expected. The August 2023 update caused more volatility than the October 2023 update.  

October 2023 Spam Update: Released October 4 

Google launched the October 2023 Spam Update on the fourth day of the month, which coincided with the search engine giant’s release of the October 2023 Core Update.  

What was the target of the Spam Update?  

Google intended to target websites and pages that use unethical practices to improve their ranking. These practices include content scraping, including auto-generated content, and cloaking.   

Though unconfirmed, there are reasons to believe this Spam Update was an upgrade to Google’s Spam Detection System, “SpamBrain.”  

How does Google’s Spam detection system operate? 

 It detects spam using machine learning and artificial intelligence. In addition to detecting spam, SpamBrain penalizes websites that promote unethical SEO practices. In other words, it penalizes the websites involved once it detects spam.   

The Spam Update was rolled out for two weeks and helped improve spam detection in several non-English-speaking markets.  

September 2023 Indented Result Drop: Second Part Released September 20 

In August, webmasters witnessed a slight drop in indented results. Then, it became apparent that Google wouldn’t settle for the partial drop.  

By September 20, 2023, indented had ceased to exist. It had vanished from the search engine result page (SERP), and even the MozCast tracking couldn’t find it.  

Google waited a few weeks before confirming the massive change it had initiated.  

What did the disappearance of the indented result cause?  

Following the disappearance of the indented results, webmasters could testify to the least clustering of the search engine results from a single domain. Indented results also returned to their original search rankings.    

Google Helpful Content Update: Released September 14, 2023 

The September Helpful Content Update, the first of 2023, was released on September 14, 2023. Google rolled out the update for over 13 days.     

This update shows Google’s readiness to prioritize people-first content over content generated to rank high in the search engine.  

What was Google’s target with this update? 

The Helpful Content Update algorithm ensures that only valuable, relevant, and high-quality content can rank high in the search engine. Low-quality content and those created to rank high in the search engine have little or no chance of ranking high in the search engine.  

In this update, we witnessed Google loosening its tough stance on machine-generated content. Before now, helpful content used to be content generated by people, for people, and in search results.  

The search engine giant claimed their automated ranking system generates a signal that helps ensure users find original and relevant content in the search result.  

Core Update Released August 23, 2023  

Google’s second Core Update of the year, the August 22, 2023 update, lasted approximately 16 days.  

But here was the observation made during the update. 

Ranking volatility remained fixed before, during, and after the update’s completion, in stark contrast to the volatility experienced during the March 2023 Core Update.  

The biggest winners of the August 2023 Core Update 

Members of the SEO community observed that the biggest winners of the August 2023 Core Update were people who were smart enough to demonstrate experience and expertise in their content. They experienced a noticeable improvement in their online visibility.  

2023 How-to and FAQ Changes Released on August 8 

August began with Google releasing the How-to and FAQ changes. The search engine giant announced its desire to reduce how-to and FAQ-structured data in certain situations.  

Was this confirmed update implemented? 

Google announced the changes in August, but they were incompletely implemented. FAQs still appeared in search results displayed on the desktop.  

Launching of the May 23, 2023 Search Generative Experience 

Google began the month of May by introducing a critical project. The SEO community witnessed the launching of the Search Generative Experience (SGE). 

What does the Search Generative Experience imply? 

The SGE enables Google to display AI-generated results at the top of several searches. Powered by Google Bard   

Google Released the April 2023 Review Update 

The image displayed in: Google’s April Review Update for April 2023 was more volatile than previous review update, data providers say

The above image shows the rank volatility of the April 2023 Review Update. The update came a month after Google released a similar update in February. However, the April 2023 update’s volatility was higher than that experienced in the February update.   

What’s special about the April 2023 Review Update? 

This time, Google didn’t just focus on product reviews. The search engine giant extended the update to businesses, destinations, services, and media.   

This update lasted under 2 weeks. And the volatility experienced was massive.  

Why did the April 2023 update result in higher volatility? 

The reason is that the Review Update targeted not only product review websites but also businesses, destinations, services, and media.  

This update affected numerous websites, causing them to lose their positions on the search engine result page.    

You can see how high the volatility reached from the image provided above. 

Core Update Released March 15, 2023 

A core Update in March 2023 had higher volatility than even the one in September 2022.  

Fortunately for the SEO community, the high volatility didn’t last long. Many assumed the days of extended volatility had ended.  

Furthermore, the Core Update began on March 15 and lasted only 13 days.  

Product Review Update Released February 2023  

February 21, 2023, was one of the product review updates that changed everything for website owners.  

What was the focus of this review?  

The update’s primary focus was product review content, including blogs, articles, and pages that review products.  

The Product Review Update focused on rewarding reviews with in-depth analysis and research data. It considers reviews that are original and written by experts in the field.  

What is the product review content that the Review Update did not impact? 

The update doesn’t concern reviews on products and service pages. It didn’t take reviews from these pages into consideration.   

Another unique aspect of this update was the number of languages it covered. While the previous updates only covered the English language, the February 21, 2023 update included ten languages.  

The languages include: 

• German 

• French 

• Russian 

• Spanish 

• Italian 

• Portuguese 

• Vietnamese  

• Dutch 

• Polish 

This means that product reviews written in languages other than English are still covered. Therefore, to improve the chances of your reviews ranking high in SERPs, you must provide in-depth analysis and original research.  

You need to convince Google that you’re experienced and an expert. Only then will your review have a chance of appearing at the top of the search engine result pages.  

Google Released Link Spam Update On December 14, 2022 

The Link Spam Update introduced in December 2022 brought an end to websites acquiring links fraudulently. The update didn’t only focus on spam but links acquired unethically.  

The December 14, 2022 Link Spam Update took nearly a month to roll out. It took approximately 29 days.  

While SpamBrain, an artificial intelligence spam detection system, was named in the official documentation, there was limited information on the spam detector.     

What made the Spam Link Update important?  

The update allowed websites that genuinely build their link profiles to reap the benefits of backlinks.  

This update aims to identify and neutralize spam links, but it will also negatively affect pages engaged in such practices.   

The December 2022 Continuous Scroll On Desktop Update 

Google released this confirmed update precisely on December 5, 2022. It came a year after Google had announced the “continuous scroll search results” for mobile devices.   

Did this update directly impact search engine ranking?   

Most blogs didn’t dwell much on this update because it didn’t impact search ranking like the other Core Updates Google releases.  

The fact that this update didn’t affect search ranking doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. On the contrary, it’s important.  

The update impacted website click-through rates (CTRs) and other important engagement metrics. 

Helpful Content Update Released December 6, 2022 

The Helpful Content Update, released in December 2022, took the SEO community by storm. The first was the suspense it generated within the community because the implementation took time.  

After the update’s announcement, Google took 38 days to roll it out completely. The delay was also attributed to the update impacting all languages, not only English.  

The Helpful Content Update empowered Google’s systems to identify low-quality articles and ensure they don’t rank ahead of high-quality ones.  

In this context, low-quality articles or content refer to content written for a search engine in the hope of ranking high in the SERPs.  

High-quality content refers to well-written content that is helpful and relevant to users. The main focus of the content is to help people solve their problems, not to rank high in search engines.  

Because the Helpful Content took a long time to roll out, it overlapped the Link Spam Update. However, both updates had several missions, solving different problems for the search engine.  

Spam Update Released October 19, 2022 

After releasing a spam update in November 2021, Google took 11 months to release another update. The spam update released on December 19, 2021, was global in scope. 

Google updated its spam detection system to identify link spam and punish the perpetrators. The search engine giant punished websites that violated its spam policy but allowed offenders to make the necessary adjustments on their websites to remove the penalty.     

This update was one of the shortest Google has had, lasting only 48 hours. However, despite its short implementation time, it greatly impacted queries globally.  

Product Reviews Update Released September 20, 2022  

The September 20, 2022 Product Review Update focused on rewarding genuine product reviews. It identified and rewarded reviews written by people who had experience using the product.  

The update was for review articles written in English and excluded customer reviews. It rewards reviewers who have tested the products they are reviewing and have experience using them. 

Google started the update on December 20, 2022, and it lasted six days (September 26, 2022). It also overlapped with the September Core Update. 

Core Update Released September 12, 2022 

Google released another confirmed update on September 12, 2022. It was the second of the Core Updates Google released in 2022.  

While Google launched the update on September 12, it lasted until September 26, 2022, overlapping the Helpful Content Update.  

What was the primary focus of this update?  

The primary focus was to evaluate site content against the E-A-T framework.   

The update impacted websites globally and caused some volatility in search ranking. However, the volatility wasn’t that serious, so there wasn’t any clear sign of a massive impact.  

Helpful Content Update Released August 25, 2022 

Google released Helpful Content to reward websites for publishing people-first content, which comprises content written for users.  

These include relevant and valuable content for users. Google’s aim with this update was to reward people-centric content and devalue content written to rank high in search engines.      

Google rolled out the August 25, 2022, update for two weeks, ending on September 9, 2022.     

The August 2022 Data Center Outage   

It is unfair to discuss the various Google algorithm updates and neglect the data center outage that occurred in August 2022. The outage caused significant fluctuations in search ranking.  

The incident occurred at a Google data center based in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was so serious that searchers were unable to access several search results. However, the issue didn’t last for too long, as Google fixed the problem the next day, and everything returned to normal.    

Product Reviews Update Released July 27, 2022 

The Product Reviews Update (PRU) released in July 2022 was the fourth of Google’s product review updates. It suggested that reviews should be evaluated from the user’s perspective. Additionally, you must show that you have a sound knowledge of the product you’re reviewing.  

What made this Product Review Update unique?  

The most intriguing aspect of this PRU was that Google rated reviews accompanied by an image or video favorably. 

This update lasted for only a week. It started on July 27 and ended on August 2. 

Note: While the July 27, 2022 Product Reviews Update was Google’s fourth release, the search engine giant didn’t provide much detail on how the review differed from the other three PRUs.   

Core Update Released May 26, 2022 

The Core Update, released on May 26, was Google’s first Core Update in 2022. It rolled out for two weeks.  

Product Reviews Update (PRU) Released March 23, 2022 

The March 23 update was the third of the Google PRUs. It took Google 19 days to roll out this update.  

This PRU seeks to build on Google’s other review updates, which reward high-quality product review content. It favored content that contained in-depth analysis and original research.  

Page Experience Update For Desktop Released February 22, 2022 

Google has always focused on improving user experience. All its updates have shown how focused the search engine is on ensuring users have a great web surfing experience.  

While they successfully rolled out the “Page Experience Update” for mobile devices, they didn’t immediately roll out the update for desktops. The search engine giant will likely release the update for desktops in the future.  

Google announced on February 22, 2022, that the Page Experience Update rolled out for mobile SERPs would also roll out for desktop.  

The update was released on February 22, 2022, and ended on March 3. 

Top Stories Redesign Updated December 6, 2021 

Was Google’s redesign of its top stories an algorithm update? No, it wasn’t. Google made a move to give the top stories a new look.  

When you visit the Top Stories on Desktop, you will find it split into two columns. The design caused the “Top Stories” to occupy more space on the SERP.   

Product Reviews Update (PRU) Released December 1, 2021 

The December 1, 2021, Product Reviews Update was the second of the PRUs but was bigger than the first one. It took Google around three weeks to roll out this update. Google started implementing it on December 1, 2021, and ended on December 21, 2021.  

What was the aim of this PRU? 

Google aimed to reward high-quality content. The December 1, 2021, Product Reviews Update was bigger than the first one. 

This update affected the online visibility of several product review websites. However, those affected were advised to provide links to diverse sellers or the appropriate multimedia.  

Note: This update generated high volatility, as captured by MozCast, and it occurred for multiple days.  

Google Local Search Update Released November 30, 2021 

This update took place between November 30 and December 8. Google used this update to rebalance several factors.  

Unfortunately, Google didn’t provide much information about this update. But that doesn’t mean the SEO community didn’t observe anything. On the contrary, they did. 

Upon implementing the Local Search Update, many users discovered that sub-par Google Business Profiles replaced their well-performing profiles.  

Google Broad Core Update Released November 17, 2021  

The November 17, 2021, update was the final broad Core Update of the year. Google rolled out the update from November 17 to November 30.  

This update was implemented during the United States of America’s biggest holiday season. In addition to Black Friday, there were holidays like Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.  

A report on the volatility that occurred during this period shows that many websites were hit hard and fast. Check out the image below. 

Image featured in: Google’s Broad Core Update For November 17 hit hard and fast    

When you check most of the tracking sites on the day Google launched the update, you’ll discover a single-day spike. MozCast recorded a single-day spike on November 17.    

Broad Spam Update Released November 3, 2021  

The Spam Update released on November 3, 2021, was Google’s fourth and final spam update for 2021. However, the search engine giant didn’t provide information on the tactics targeted or whether the update was a link spam update.  

Careful observations of the update showed that Google used this broad Spam Update to upgrade its system to prevent untrustworthy and harmful websites from being added to the Google Index.  

How did Google identify untrustworthy and harmful websites?  

The search engine giant used its advanced AI systems to identify websites that offered little value or utilized black hat SEO techniques to rank on the SERPs. The AI systems identified and prevented low-quality websites from getting listed on the Google Index.  

Note: This Google Spam Update lasted for 8 days.   

Page Title Rewrites Announced August 16, 2021  

What happened on August 16, 2021, were a couple of changes Google implemented that SEOs noticed. People started noticing that Google was rewriting their page titles in the search engine result page (SERP).  

While Google acknowledged that it rewrote some of the page titles, it didn’t provide an actual date for when the incident started.  

Many people didn’t like the idea of Google rewriting their page title and complained about it. But while Google would undoubtedly be aware of the dissatisfaction the changes in page titles brought, the search engine giant still waited until September 2021 before changing websites’ page titles to how they were.  

Google Link Spam Update Released July 28, 2021 

The July 28 Link Spam Update was Google’s third spam update in 2021. It took the search engine giant two weeks to roll out this update.  

What was the target of this update?  

The update focused on sponsored, affiliate, and guest content.  

Google issued a strong warning to site owners, particularly when links will be inserted into the content.  

If there was an exchange of value, Google advises website owners to include tags in these links.  

This update took weeks to finalize because it was a broad algorithm update across many languages.  

Google Core Update Released July 1, 2021  

The July 1, 2021 Core Update didn’t surprise anyone, particularly those aware of the incoming update. Google announced it a month before releasing the update. Unfortunately, the planned improvement wasn’t available when they initially had the idea.      

It took Google over a week to release and implement this update.   

The Page Experience Update Released June 25, 2021 

The SEO community has been expecting the page experience update, and after delaying the release multiple times, Google finally released it on June 25, 2021.  

Google announced it would roll out the update from June through August, and it did.  

What did the June 25th update entail?  

The Page Experience Update released on June 25 included Core Web Vitals. This update also impacted organic results, news results, and even “Top Stories.”   

Spam Update Released June 23 and 28, 2021 

Why are there two dates? Google released two Spam Updates in June. The first was released on June 25, while the second was released on June 28.  

What did the Spam Update target?  

Unfortunately, Google didn’t mention the type of spam the update targeted. It just considered it as one of its regular spam updates.  

This was a global update, and there were several reasons to believe the update targeted something. 

After careful observation, people in the SEO community noticed the update affected both web pages and images.  

The connection between the Spam Update released on June 23rd and 28th remains unclear.   

Page Experience Update Released June 15, 2021 

The page experience update rolled out on June 15, 2021, was too slow. Though launched in June, the update lasted until August.  

Because the update was so slow, it was difficult for website owners to understand how it impacted their website’s online visibility.  

This update considered many page experience signals Google uses, including the three Core Web Vitals.  

Alongside the page experience update, Google also released the page search performance report and page experience report.  

These two reports provide valuable insights and help identify opportunities for improvement.     

Google Core Update Released June 2, 2021 

The June 2nd update was slow to release. It was launched on June 2 and completed on June 12.  

After careful observation, it was noted that websites exploring local infrastructure or finding local businesses significantly improved their ranking position on the SERP.   

Note: Website owners didn’t react to the changes in this Core Update because the next update was very close. The July update was approaching, so people were asked to wait for it.   

MUM (Multitask Unified Model) Introduced In May 2021 

Google released MUM in May 2021 to serve as a replacement for BERT. There were claims that MUM was 1000 times more efficient than BERT in processing users’ search requests.  

Here is why MUM was better than BERT 

The claim that MUM was a thousand times better than BERT wasn’t a fluke. BERT was designed to understand language and users’ search intent, but MUM went further.  

MUM utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language, making it capable of understanding over 75 languages. 

Another thing MUM can do that BERT can’t is understand and interpret videos, audios, and image files.  

While MUM can understand up to 75 languages, it also can provide accurate responses based on the information provided.  

Product Reviews Update Introduced April 8, 2021    

The product reviews update released on April 8, 2021, focused on review quality. It aimed to reward high-quality reviews while demoting thin and low-quality reviews.  

Google took the whole of April 2021 to roll out this review update, which was also global but focused on English-language queries only.   

Passage Indexing Introduced February 10, 2021 

The “passage indexing” introduced on February 10 was close to Google’s page ranking. However, the update was only for US/English search queries.  

Upon rolling out the update, Google estimated it would affect at least 7% of websites. Unfortunately, the SEO community did not make much noise about the impact.   

Google Core Update Released December 3, 2020  

While people were still trying to recover from the May 2020 Core Update, Google hit them harder again with the third and final Core Update of 2020.  

December 2020 Core Update was bigger than the May Core Update. Google also implemented this update fully quickly.  

This update affected many websites. What made it even worse was that many website owners were still trying to resolve the devastation caused by the May 2020 Core Update before another one struck. 

Indexing Bug Fixed October 12, 2020 

Nothing special happened on October 12, 2020, that made the SEO community restless. However, Google announced on October 14 that it had fixed the bulk of the indexing and canonical bugs. 

Indexing Bug September 29, 2020 

In early September, the SEO community woke up to Google’s announcement about the indexing and canonical bugs. The search engine giant confirmed the bugs’ existence.  

Mobile-First Indexing Introduced September 2020 

In September 2020, the SEO community woke up to Google’s crucial mobile-first indexing announcement.  

Google announced that it was moving to mobile-first indexing. This means that the mobile Googlebot will crawl sites optimized for mobile devices.  

The mobile-first indexing announcement Google released wasn’t new to many. The search engine giant had already started the groundwork and had been testing mobile-first indexing since 2016.  

Google’s John Mueller even tweeted about it. Three years later, he tweeted that Google had started crawling websites fully with the mobile Googlebot.  

This means websites that aren’t mobile-friendly will be crawled by the desktop Googlebot, leading to a loss of mobile search traffic.  

Google Core Update Introduced May 4, 2020    

The May 4, 2020, Core Update was the second of the year. It was a significant update similar to the Core Update released in January.  

The May 4, 2020, Core Update caused a considerable fluctuation in ranking. Websites in several niches were hit harder than they envisaged.  

The hardest-hit categories include online communities, arts and entertainment, games, businesses, and industrial.  

On the contrary, news websites weren’t hit. Instead, they got rewarded.  

The SEO community associated the May 4, 2020, update with the E-E-A-T signals. Websites with strong signals saw improvement in search ranking. However, those with quality and valuable backlinks were rewarded, while affiliate websites missed out.  

Featured Snippet De-dupping Confirmed January 22, 2020 

Google’s January 22, 2020, announcement was regarding Featured Snippets. The search engine giant clarified that URLs appearing in Featured Snippets will eventually appear as traditional organic results.  

This update had massive implications for organic CTR, including ranking tracking.   

 Core Update Introduced January 13, 2020 

The January 13, 2020, Core Update shook the SEO community, affecting every niche. It was a big Core Update, so the level of fluctuation generated was expected.   

While the update’s impact touched all niches, the health niche felt the impact the most.  

Websites with thin content were hit hardest, indicating that Google was still considering the E-E-A-T signals.   

International BERT Rollout Confirmed December 9, 2019 

On December 9, Google announced that it rolled out the BERT natural language processing algorithm internationally across 70 languages.   

While this update did occur, as Google confirmed, members of the SEO community couldn’t identify the exact date Google released the update.  

BERT Update Confirmed October 22, 2019  

On October 22, 2019, it was confirmed that Google was upgrading its algorithm and hardware to ensure the smooth running of the BERT natural language processing (NLP) model.  

In addition to helping Google understand contexts, BERTs enable Google to interpret natural language searches.   

BERT massively enhanced the Google search algorithm and impacted search queries. It improved featured snippets, ensuring they contained concise and valuable texts that addressed search queries.  

Google Broad Core Algorithm Update Released September 24, 2019  

The September 24, 2019, Core Update was a global one. Its impact was felt in all search indexes and markets.  

What websites were hit the most by this update? 

The SEO community observed that those in E-E-A-T sensitive topics took a massive hit. These include sensitive niches like finance and health.  

This update caused massive fluctuation in search ranking, as many websites dropped massively in search ranking.  

However, video content that was informational enjoyed some level of reward.  

Featured Snippet Update Confirmed August 1, 2019 

Google introduced a Featured Snippet Update on August 1, 2019. This algorithm update addressed content freshness, relevance, and accuracy.  

Google wants to know the longevity of information in the featured snippet and be able to decipher when it becomes obsolete.   

Diversity Update Confirmed June 6, 2019  

Smaller retailers were the happiest following the release of the June 2019 “Diversity Update.” These smaller retailers had to compete with established retailers, who occupy the entire SERPs, leaving no room for smaller retailers. 

The competition to rank on SERPs was tough for small retailers until Google released the “Diversity Update.”  

Here is a continuation Google’s tweet on X.  

Google stated on X that it had stopped displaying more than two listings from the same domain and could only do otherwise under certain conditions.  

Google Core Update Confirmed June 3, 2019 

The June 3, 2019, Core Update brought two notable surprises. Firstly, we witnessed websites that suffered severely in the March update return to their places in the search results. 

Another thing I witnessed during this update was the rise of video carousels in search results when viewed on desktop devices.  

The results of this update confirmed that E-E-A-T content remains crucial when competing for the top position on the search engine result pages.  

Indexing Bugs Confirmed May 23, 2019 

Another confirmed update was the indexing bugs. The indexing bugs took two whole days.  

The first bug that reported targeted new content. It made it impossible for new content to be appropriately indexed.    

The De-indexing Bug Confirmed on April 5, 2019 

The SEO community was shocked when Google announced that specific bugs were dropping web pages from the search index. The bug started its activities on April 5, 2019, during a weekend.  

While the bug’s activities affected several websites, the recovery process didn’t take long. The affected websites recovered immediately after the bug had been taken care of.   

Google Core Update Released March 12, 2019  

March 2019 Core Update was the first of its kind. However, analysis of the impact of the 2018 update revealed that websites that benefited from that update experienced a decline in this update. Among the websites that suffered the most declines were those in the health sector.  

Niche websites suffered a massive decline in search rankings, but that wasn’t the case for websites with solid profiles.  

The “Medic” Core Update Confirmed August 1, 2018     

The “Medic” Core Update was a nickname for the August 1, 2018 update. While Google confirmed the update, it didn’t confirm the “Medic” Core Update name.  

The update’s nickname, “Medic,” was from it targeting websites in the health and medical sectors.  

Unfortunately, MozCast, a revered tool for tracking ranking fluctuations, noticed that the update affected websites in the health sectors and those in hobbies and leisure, beauty and personal care, vehicles, and arts and entertainment niches.  

Check out the image from Search Engine Land showing how the update impacted search ranking across diverse niches.  

Google took a week to roll out this update, and as rightly explained, it mainly affected websites in the health and wellness niche. However, websites in other niches weren’t spared.  

Chrome Security Warnings (Full Site) Confirmed July 24, 2018 

The first thing Chrome 68 did was issue a warning to users regarding unsecured (non-HTTPS) forms. The warning came a month earlier to enable people to initiate the required changes.  

After the warning, Chrome marked non-HTTPS websites as “not secured.”    

Chrome introduced the changes on July 24, 2018, and people were tasked to take appropriate action.   

The Mobile Speed Update Confirmed July 9, 2018 

The mobile speed update didn’t take webmasters by surprise, as Google had already announced it six months prior. The update marked an era when page speed became a major ranking factor.   

Google’s statement regarding this update was something the SEO community expected. 

According to Google, mobile speed updates only impact slow mobile websites and those not optimized for mobile search.  

The mobile speed update will not impact search ranking for sites that aren’t slow on mobile devices.   

Confirmation of Video Carousels on June 14, 2018  

The June 14, 2018, update didn’t cause any major change in search ranking or impact website ranking.  

Google moved videos from the popular organic-like results (together with their thumbnails) into a new format: video carousels.  

These changes increased the number of search engine result pages with videos. That was what the MozCast observed.  

Confirmation of The Snippet Length Drop May 13, 2018  

Google introduced the snippet length drop after conducting the test for several months. The snippet tested had 300+ characters.  

After several months of testing the 300+ snippets, Google realized the former was better. Therefore, they had to revert to the former snippet length of 150 to 160 characters.  

Confirmed Google Broad Core Update Launched April 17, 2018 

Google launched a broad Core Algorithm Update on April 17, 2018, which took over a week to roll out.  

Many assumed the update focused on low-quality pages, but Google’s John Mueller refuted this claim with his response. According to him, the focus of the update was on relevance.  

His response emphasized the need for website owners to create content relevant to users’ search queries.  

Publishing high-quality and valuable content improves one’s chances of ranking high in the SERP. That is practically what this update indicated.  

Following this Core Update, the Google Penalties Guide received a new update. It started focusing on the quality of content, as high-quality content was bumped up in the SERPs, which is why low-quality thin content was penalized.  

Confirmed Mobile-First Index on March 26, 2018 

The SEO community was well-informed of Google’s plans to roll out a mobile-first index update but didn’t know when. After several months of testing, which Google usually does before releasing an update, they finally announced the introduction of the mobile-first update.  

The scale of this update’s impact wasn’t well-known, as Google was still gradually migrating websites. The best place to get information on this update was the Google Search Console.    

Confirmed “Brackets” Google Core Update on March 7, 2018 

On March 7, 2018, Google confirmed its core update. The update caused several fluctuations in search ranking and was rolled out for two weeks.  

How was the name “Brackets” formed?  

Glenn Gabe coined the name “Brackets.” Google didn’t coin the name or provide much detail about the update.  

The Maccabees Update Confirmed December 12, 2017 

After a period of volatility between December 12th and 14th, Google confirmed they were making minor changes to the search algorithm. A spokesperson for the search engine giant was quick to diffuse the concerns of the SEO community, claiming the update involved several minor changes rather than a single major change.  

What websites were hit the hardest by this update?  

Affiliate websites suffered massive volatility from this update compared to e-commerce websites. Many e-commerce websites reported not experiencing any significant change in their search ranking.  

The update seemed to follow the “Fred Update,” which took place earlier in the year. Poor-quality websites that engaged in unethical SEO practices suffered severely.  

Confirmed Chrome Security Warnings (Forms) on October 17, 2017 

The launch of Chrome 62 alerted users about web security. But this time, Google used the update to warn users visiting sites with unsecured forms.  

This move doesn’t qualify as a Google algorithm update and didn’t affect website ranking. However, it started something remarkable: Google’s push for the adoption of HTTPS.  

While the changes Google initiated didn’t impact website ranking, it certainly impacted website traffic.  

The warning Google issued visitors with unsecured forms will scare many away from visiting the websites, leading to a drop in traffic.  

The Fred Update Released March 7, 2017  

What was the “Fred Update” confirmed on March 7, 2017? The update focused on low-quality pages with thin content. The primary target was pages that not only had thin content but also those with many adverts. Pages in this category suffered severely in search visibility.  

The solution for websites hammered by this update was simple. Webmasters were suggested to fix their content (reduce the number of adverts and make the content enjoyable to read) and links, including website structure.  

The Intrusive Interstitials Penalty Confirmed January 10, 2017 

Google warned website owners five months before rolling out the “Intrusive Interstitials Penalty.” They started warning website owners in 2016 and took action in 2017.  

Google was against websites displaying aggressive interstitial and pop-up adverts. They rolled out an update to penalize websites using such ads because they can negatively impact user mobile experience.  

The impact of this update was too severe. However, Google penalized websites that heavily utilized the advert.  

A good number of SEOs didn’t notice a significant impact of the update on their websites that should have been punished. The reason they got minimal punishment is something they cannot phantom.  

Confirmed Penguin 4.0 Update Released September 27, 2016 

Google introduced the Penguin 4.0 Update and announced that the update would be the last of the Penguin Update.  

Google also announced that Penguin would become part of its core algorithm after the update had been completely rolled out.  

What was the implication of the fourth and final installment of the Penguin Update?  

Penguin’s introduction and the decision to make it part of the core algorithm mean that it would evaluate sites and links more frequently and in real-time.  

The fact that the Penguin will evaluate sites and backlinks in real-time wasn’t the only unique thing the update brought, but the fact that Penguin also became “granular.” 

This means that Penguin will now evaluate and rank web pages individually, not the entire website. It could alter web pages’ rankings rather than the whole website.  

Google launched Penguin 4.0’s first phase around September 22 – 23, 2016. This gentler Penguin devalued poor-quality backlinks instead of penalizing the entire website.  

Google Mobile-Friendly 2 Update Released May 12, 2016 

One year after releasing the first mobile-friendly update, Google announced plans to introduce another similar update: the “Mobile-Friendly 2”.  

Google confirmed it launched the Mobile-Friendly 2 Update to strengthen its mobile-friendly ranking signal.  

The update to the mobile-friendly ranking signal took longer because the algorithm evaluates websites page by page. The same was true of the first mobile-friendly update the search engine giant rolled out.  

Several websites suffered a significant drop in search engine ranking following the release of this update. But this wasn’t Google’s fault. Instead, it was their fault.  

The websites that suffered significantly were those that had refused to make their websites mobile-friendly.  

This means that the update benefited mobile-friendly websites. The benefits include an increase in search ranking and organic traffic.  

The Google AdWords Tweak of February 23, 2016 

While the Google AdWords tweak wasn’t an algorithm update, it marked a notable period in the search engine’s evolution. Without these changes, Google wouldn’t have reached its current heights in the search engine market.  

Google initiated significant changes to AdWords on February 23, 2016. One step was wiping off the right-column adverts and introducing a 4-ad top block, particularly for several commercial searches.  

These changes had nothing to do with organic searches but indirectly impacted them, particularly for highly competitive keywords. It was a paid search and impacted CTR to a significant extent.  

RankBrain Update Confirmed October 26, 2015 

Google released RankBrain at the end of October 2015 to replace the more simplistic algorithm operating then.  

Google was optimistic that RankBrain would do a fantastic job, as it had been testing it for several months.  

What was RankBrain designed to do?  

RankBrain was designed to perform two delicate tasks: 

• Understand users’ search queries 

• Measure how the internet users are interacting with search results. 

Upon RankBrain’s release in 2015, Google only used it to process 15% of new queries. But everything changed in 2016. It started using it to process all queries. 

What is RankBrain? 

RankBrain is a machine learning system designed to help Google match search queries against users’ intent.  

RankBrain’s ability to learn and quickly adapt to new data made it unique. This feature allows it to function as expected.  

That is why when you search on Google, the search engine can easily understand what you’re seeking, including your intentions behind the query.  

Panda 4.2 Update Launched July 17, 2015 

Google confirmed the Panda 4.2 Update on July 17, 2015. Unfortunately, the update’s rollout took approximately two months.  

The slow rollout of the Panda update worried the SEO community, as it was difficult for website owners to understand the impact the update had on their websites.  

The Quality Update (Phantom Update) Confirmed May 3, 2015 

Google introduced this update to target unnatural links and low-quality content.  

The update impacted the ranking core algorithm. However, websites with poor design, content, and low-quality link profiles were hit the hardest.  

Here are websites that suffered during this update: 

• Websites mass-producing articles 

• Websites populated with thin content 

• Web pages loaded with heavy advertisements.  

With this update, content with little or zero relevance to searchers had no chance of ranking in the SERPs. Google introduced the update to force website owners to start creating quality content.  

The Mobile Update Confirmed April 22, 2015 – The Mobilegeddon  

The mobile-friendly update, “Mobilegeddon,” was rolled out to reward mobile-friendly websites. Google wanted to encourage other website owners who haven’t considered making their websites mobile-friendly to do so.  

The Mobilegeddon update only impacted mobile search ranking, not desktop ranking. In other words, mobile-friendly websites were pushed to the top of the SERPs while their mobile search traffic increased.  

Google rolled out the Mobilegeddon Update at the appropriate time. Everyone in the SEO community could attest to this. Why? Not too long after the update’s release, mobile search surpassed desktop search. In other words, the number of people surfing the internet with mobile devices surged.  

This update’s impact was global and affected all languages. However, the good thing about the update was that Google had already issued a warning long before officially rolling it out.  

The warning Google issued helped many website owners. It encouraged them to work on their websites and fix whatever they needed before the update, making the impact minimal.  

Pigeon Update Confirmed December 22, 2014   

The Pigeon Update of December 2014 was among the most impactful updates ever. Google began the update in the United States and later expanded it to the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.  

The Pigeon Update focused on local search. It improved the ranking signal for both Google searches and Maps. 

Following the Pigeon Update, Google started serving search results to users based on proximity. This update benefitted small and medium-scale businesses, particularly those already optimized for local search.  

This update initiated changes to the number of local search results displayed on the SERPs. For example, the number of local business listings that appear in the search results went from 7 to 3.  

Reducing the local business listings meant less competition for those already ranking in the local pack.  

The Pirate 2.0 Update Launched October 21, 2014  

Google hates piracy and has demonstrated this through its numerous updates. Google released the DMCA/Pirate Update two years ago to combat intellectual property theft, but the October 21, 2014 update was released to combat digital media and software piracy.  

Upon the release of the Pirate 2.0 Update, there was chaos for a select group of websites. Ranking for a tiny group of websites dropped significantly.  

Penguin 3.0 Update Released October 17, 2014     

Over one year after releasing Penguin 2.1, Google introduced another Penguin update. According to Google, the launch was spread out for a couple of weeks, but the search engine didn’t provide detailed information regarding the update.  

From how the update occurred and was spoken about, it was clear that only a handful of websites were affected. Some SEOs report that the update impacted less than 1% of US queries.  

Panda 4.1 Update Confirmed September 23, 2014     

Google announced that a major Panda update was rolling out. The search engine giant made it clear that the update included some algorithmic components, which made it special.   

Website owners had issues with this update due to its slow rollout. While estimates suggested that the update affected 3-5% of queries, the slow rollout made it challenging to determine the percentage of websites affected by the update.    

Authorship Removal Confirmed August 28, 2014 

This update marked the disappearance of authorship bylines from all the search engine result pages.  

Webmasters had seen these changes coming. On June 28, Google dropped authorship photos. However, the August 28 update took the final step: removing authorship markup from the SERP.  

The HTTPS/SSL Update Released August 6, 2014     

Before the official announcement, members of the SEO community knew it was only a matter of time before Google started acknowledging secured websites. On August 6, 2014, the search engine giant proved everyone right.  

 After several months of speculation, Google announced its intention to favor secured websites. Thus, adding encryption to a website slightly boosted search rankings. 

In the announcement, Google made it clear that the encryption’s impact on search engine ranking would kick off gradually but promised that it would increase significantly if the change turned out positively. 

Pigeon Update Released July 24, 2014    

Google surprised the local SEO community on July 24, 2014. The search engine giant released an update that had a noticeable impact on local search results.  

In the announcement, Google mentioned that the Pigeon generated close ties between core and local algorithms.    

Confirmed Authorship Photo Drop on June 28, 2014 

On June 25, John Mueller noticed the online community of Google’s intentions to stop displaying authorship photographs on the SERPs. The drop started on June 25 and ended three days later.  

The Payday Loan 3.0 Update Launched June 12, 2014 

Google used the June 12, 2014, update to target spammy search queries. The search engine giant’s previous update targeted spammy websites, while the Payday Loan 3.0 update targeted spammy queries.  

The update also protected against harmful search engine optimization (SEO) attacks.  

Google rolled out the Payday Loan 3.0 update a month after releasing the 2.0 anti-spam update. The 2.0 update targeted specific websites, while the 3.0 update targeted spammy search queries.  

Panda 4.0 Update Launched May 19, 2014 

Before the launch of Panda 4.0 on May 19, 2014, Google updated the Panda algorithm 25 times. This update made it the 26th time the search engine heavyweight had updated the Panda algorithm.   

Only the first Panda update was bigger than the Panda 4.0 update. The 4.0 update significantly impacted search queries more than the others that had been released.  

Though the Panda 4.0 update wasn’t as massive as the first update, reports showed it impacted 7.5% of all English-language queries. As Google had stated, the update also impacted queries in other languages to different degrees.  

Payday Loan 2.0 Update Released on May 16, 2014 

Google started rolling out the “Payday Loan” algorithm before the release of the Panda 4.0 update. The algorithm’s Purpose was to target spammy queries.    

The update impacted a handful of queries, around 0.3 of those in the United States of America.  

Page Layout Update Confirmed February 6, 2014 

In 2012, Google released two “Page Layout” updates. Then, on February 6, 2014, the search engine giant announced the rollout of the “Page Layout” Update, a continuation of the update released in 2012.  

This update targeted advertisement-heavy pages. This time, the algorithm targeted pages with too many advertisements above the fold.  

Google targeted web pages in this category to improve user experience. It wants users to have a positive experience when they visit any of the websites ranking in the SERPs.   

So this page layout update, also called the “Top Heavy” update, was the third of its kind Google was launching.  

Penguin 2.1 Update Launched October 4, 2013 

The Penguin 2.1 update was primarily a data update. Therefore, we can’t classify it as a major Penguin algorithm update.  

This update had minimal impact on websites. Nevertheless, several webmasters complained that they experienced a significant impact following the update.  

Hummingbird Update Confirmed September 26, 2013 

While Google confirmed the complete rollout of the Hummingbird Update on September 26, 2013, it also confirmed that the update was rolled out a month earlier.  

When exactly did Google release the Hummingbird update in 2013? Was it September or August?  

Members of the SEO community have several reasons to believe the update occurred on August 20, 2013. This claim is based on the spike that MozCast captured on that date.   

Since Google claimed they released the update a month earlier, it probably caused the spike MozCast captured on August 20.     

Google considered the Hummingbird Update to be its biggest since the 2001 update. They considered it a rewrite of their whole core algorithm.  

When the Hummingbird update occurred, it affected over 90% of searches.      

Why did Google launch the Hummingbird update? 

The reason was to enable Google to understand the search intent of every query. In other words, Google was no longer looking at the keyword but the query’s semantic meaning.  

Google’s primary aim in launching this update was to improve the quality and accuracy of the search results displayed in the SERP and eliminate poor-quality content.  

The Google In-depth Articles Update was Confirmed on August 6, 2013  

The in-depth article update happened on August 6, 2013. Google included a special type of news results called “in-depth articles.”   

Google dedicated this update to long-form and evergreen content. Upon launching the update, they even added links to three articles. 

The Panda Recovery Update Launched July 18, 2013 

On July 18, 2013, Google confirmed a Panda update. Unfortunately, members of the SEO community were uncertain whether the update was part of the search engine’s 10-day rolling updates or whether they were planning to release something entirely different.  

People concluded the update was algorithmic and may have softened the penalties the previous Panda updates placed on several web pages.      

Google Multi-week Update Confirmed June 27, 2013 

Google’s Matt Cutts tweet on June 27, 2013, made members of the SEO community assume the search engine heavyweight could be planning a “multi-week” algorithm update around June 12th and one week or two after July 4.  

What was the update’s target? Unfortunately, the target wasn’t clear, and the SEO community couldn’t understand the focus of this update.  

The huge ranking volatility caused by this update scared the SEO community. However, the effect didn’t last long. Many assumed Google used the update to test new features, which they may have eventually rolled back.  

Payday Loan Update Confirmed June 11, 2013 

Google launched a special algorithm update called “Payday Loan” on June 11, 2013. The focus of the algorithm update was spammy results. The idea was to identify and punish disreputable websites, especially in niches like casinos, payday loans, debt recovery, and even porn.   

The update targeted websites heavy on spam and impacted 0.3% of search requests in the United States of America. However, other areas reported over 4%.       

Upon announcing the update, Google’s Matt Cutts suggested it would take 1-2 months to roll it out completely.  

Penguin 2.0 Update Launched May 22, 2013  

The Penguin 2.0 update was the fourth of its Kind. Google had launched three other Penguin updates before it.  

Google called this update “Penguin 2.0.” However, the impact wasn’t as massive as expected; it was minimal.  

The nature of Google’s alterations wasn’t clear, but many suggested the algorithm update could be targeted at the web page level.       

The Domain Crowding Update Confirmed May 21, 2013  

On May 21, 2013, Google launched a special update to control domain crowding/diversity deep within the search engine result pages (pages 2+). 

The Panda Update Confirmed January 22, 2013 

Google informed the community of its update for the year. It was the Panda update #24.  

The update affected 1.2% of queries. 

Panda Update Confirmed December 21, 2012  

This was the Panda update and the 23rd of such updates the search engine giant had rolled out.  

Google released the update a few days before Christians worldwide celebrated Christmas.  

Google tagged this Panda update “refresh.” However, the Update impacted more English queries than the other two previous updates.  

The Panda #24 update generally impacted 1.2% of English-language queries.    

Knowledge Graph Expansion Confirmed December 4, 2012  

On December 4, 2012, Google introduced a new functionality to non-English-language queries such as Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian, French, and Russian. It was termed the update of the “Knowledge Graph” functionality.  

The primary focus of this update was “translation.” Google used it to incorporate some improved KG capabilities  

Panda Update Confirmed November 21, 2012 

The Panda update confirmed on November 21, 2012, was data-only. Google confirmed that it would be their 22nd Panda update.   

Panda Update Confirmed November 5, 2012 

The Panda update rolled out on November 5, 2012, was Google’s 21st Panda update. It came a few weeks after the 20th Panda update.  

The impact of this update was minimal, as it impacted only 1.1% of the English-language queries.   

Page Layout Update Confirmed October 19, 2012 

This “Page Layout” update was the second of its kind. Google announced a similar algorithm update in January that focused on pages with excessive ads above the fold.  

This Page Layout update caused some controversy in the SEO community. It was unclear if the update was a change in algorithm or a Panda-style data refresh.  

Penguin Update October 5, 2012 

Google shook the SEO community when it announced that its next Penguin update could be significant. After the announcement, Google launched a minor Penguin update, the #3 update. However, this was a mere data update.  

The impact of this update was mild, as only 0.3% of queries.    

The Exact Match Domain Update Launched September 27, 2012 

The interesting thing about this algorithm change was the fact that impacted websites had the privilege of recovering within the same month. Google allowed the Exact Match Domain (EMD) algorithm to run periodically. That means websites hit by the update can make the necessary improvements and be reconsidered by Google.  

The EMD algorithm focused on exact match domains that produced thin and low-quality content.  

The solution to the impact of this algorithm update change was simple.  

You can address this problem by identifying and removing poor-quality content from your website or improving the quality of low-quality content.  

Another way to fix this issue and give your website a fighting chance on the SERPs is to audit your link profile, identify low-quality links, and remove or disavow them.  

The final and essential step was to improve your authority and trust signals. This will make Google and users trust your website again.  

By implementing all these changes, you can improve your website’s ranking and reduce the impact the algorithm change would have on it.  

Note: An article published by Search Engine Journal during the EMD update suggested that the update affected non-dot-com domains more than dot-com domains.    

Panda Update Launched September 27, 2012 

When Google rolled out the 20th Panda update (algorithm + data), a fairly major update, it impacted 2.4% of the queries.  

Furthermore, Google didn’t number the Panda updates; industry sources did. The numbering helped the SEO community keep track of them.  

Panda Update 3.9.2 Launched September 18, 2012  

2012 already looked like the year of the Panda updates, with Google launching its 19th Panda update. However, this update was “data-only.”   

Panda 3.9.1 Update Launched August 20, 2012 

On August 20, 2012, Google released another Panda update, a data-only one. The update’s impact was small, so the SEO community had no cause for concern.  

DMCA Penalty Update Announced August 10, 2012 

Piracy has always been an issue for creators but has received attention from Google for a long time.  

On August 10, 2012, the search engine announced its readiness to use DMCA takedown requests to penalize websites with repeat copyright violations.   

Google started penalizing violators a few weeks after the announcement.    

June/July 86-Pack Confirmed August 10, 2012 

In one huge post, Google rolled out its Search Quality Highlights for June/July. The significant updates released include: 

• Panda data-only updates and algorithm refreshes 

• Changes to site clustering 

• Ranking boost for “trusted sources 

• Improved rank-ordering function 

Panda 3.9 Update Released July 24, 2012 

After launching the Panda 3.8 update, Google started another Panda update a month later.  

This update caused the search ranking to fluctuate for 5-6 days. However, only 1% of queries were impacted.  

The Panda 3.8 Update Launched June 25, 2012  

The Panda update launched on June 25, 2012, was a data-only update; it wasn’t algorithm changes. 

Only a handful of queries felt the impact of this update. The Panda 3.8 impact was smaller than the one caused by Panda 3.7.    

Panda 3.7 Update Released June 8, 2012 

The June 8, 2012, Panda update was the 15th of the year. Ranking fluctuation data showed that this update had a higher impact than the previous updates, such as the 3.5 and 3.6 updates.  

May 39-Pack Update Confirmed June 7, 2012 

On June 7, Google released its May Search Highlights, which are usually released monthly and contain 39 updates.  

Here are the most significant changes the highlight captured: 

• Penguin improvements 

• Updates to Google News 

• Changes to title/snippet rewriting 

• Better link-scheme detection 

Penguin 1.1 Update Announced May 25, 2012 

After the “Penguin” algorithm update was released, Google started rolling out its first targeted data update. However, little information was available about the significance of the update’s impact on queries.  

The Knowledge Graph Update Released May 16, 2012   

In Google’s quest to improve semantic search, they released the “Knowledge Graph.”  

Google defines the Knowledge Graph as a search engine ranking page (SERP)- an integrated display that provides supplemental information about specific people, things, and places. 

The April 52-Pack Updates Announced May 4, 2012  

Google released information regarding 52 updates executed in April, including significant changes related to the “Penguin” update.  

Here are other major highlights from the update: 

• Improved pagination handling 

• 15% larger “base” index 

• Several updates to site links 

The Panda 3.6 Update Launched April 27, 2012 

A week after Google launched the Panda 3.5 update, it introduced another Panda update. Fortunately, the impact of this update wasn’t profound, though the target remained unclear.    

The Penguin Confirmed April 24, 2012 

The number of backlinks one had used to be a website-ranking deciding factor. In other words, the more backlinks one has, the higher your chances of ranking high in the SERPs.  

Unfortunately, many people used this ranking strategy to acquire backlinks via unethical practices. This forced Google to release the Penguin update on April 24, 2012, which was a continuation of the Panda update it had released before.  

There had been speculations about Google’s “Over-optimization penalty” a few weeks before the April 24 Penguin update, which was also called the “Webspam” update. 

This update adjusted a wide range of factors and punished violators. It analyzed backlinks and penalized links that were:   

• Built by bots 

• Acquired from irrelevant websites 

• Acquired from untrustworthy sources. 

The update was released to penalize websites that acquired backlinks via black hat SEO tactics and reward those that built their backlink profiles naturally. It also punished websites that engaged in practices like keyword stuffing. 

This Penguin update significantly impacted search queries, as 3.1% of English-language queries were affected.    

The Panda 3.5 Update Released on April 19, 2012     

Google didn’t alert the SEO community like it used to when rolling out the Panda 3.5 update. It did it quietly. 

The Panda 3.5 update was a data update. However, the update’s impact was difficult to measure due to several changes and factors. A report from the SEO community showed that the impact wasn’t too profound.    

The Parked Domain Bug Released April 16, 2012 

The April 16, 2012, incident left many webmasters in total shock. Many of them confirmed ranking shuffles, which Google didn’t deny.  

According to the search engine giant, a data error caused several domains to be treated as “parked domains, ” which devalued them. Google claimed the reason for the ranking shuffles wasn’t an algorithm change but the data error reported.   

Panda 3.4 Update Released March 23, 2012 

Google released its 12th Panda update on March 23, 2012. The search engine giant announced the update on Twitter and claimed it impacted 1.6% of search queries.  

Panda 3.3 Update Released February 27, 2012 

Google released its 11th Panda update on February 27, 2012. According to Google, the update released three days after Panda’s first anniversary was minor.   

Venice Update Confirmed February 27, 2012 

The “Venice” update code-named by Google came with something different. It changed the focus of SERP results.  

Here is what happened. 

SERP results significantly focused on local search intent upon the update’s release.  

Following this update, Google started serving search results to users based on geographical location. The update allowed small businesses to rank high in the SERPs over established brands.  

Unfortunately, Google had to contend with spam, as several small businesses engaged in link spam to improve their search engine rankings.  

The Ads Above The Fold Update Launched January 19, 2012 

Google launched this update to devalue websites that allowed excessive advert space above the fold. Members of the SEO community believed a similar update occurred in Panda but couldn’t prove their suspicions.  

Google didn’t give this update any official name, though members of the SEO community called it the “Top Heavy.”  

This update’s primary target was websites that placed too many static adverts above the fold, not pop-ups or overlay adverts.  

Google rolled out this update to improve user experience. With excess ads above the folder, users may have to scroll down web pages to see the content. Google didn’t want this to happen, so it rolled out the update.   

Late in the year, Google released another similar update, which, as Matt Cutts tweeted, affected less than 1% of English-language queries https://x.com/mattcutts/status/255737483566927872.  

When asked about the update’s name, Matt Cutts claimed it wasn’t a Panda, Penguin, or EMD update. Unfortunately, he failed to provide an actual name for the update.   

Here is Matt Cutts’s reply in the same tweet below.   

The Panda 3.2 Update Released January 18, 2012  

Google released its 10th Panda data update on January 18, 2012. Fortunately for SEOs, the update had little impact on the algorithm change.  

The Panda 3.1 Update Released November 18, 2011 

Google gravitated towards the “Panda Flux” season after releasing the Panda 2.5 update. The season marked a period when updates occurred more often, even though some were minor.   

Some SEO analysts called the November 18th Panda data update the 3.1, though Google didn’t release a 3.0.  

The Freshness Update Released November 3, 2011 

The announcement of the Freshness update shook the SEO community. The update impacted over 35% of queries.  

Google released the November 3, 2011, “Freshness” update to reward fresh content. Time-sensitive and outdated content was the target.  

Those affected by the algorithm change were advised to update their content. Updating historical posts was also a significant factor. Furthermore, Google paid attention to the frequency of the updates.  

The Query Encryption Update Announced October 18, 2011 

This update was not too serious. Instead, it was one of Google’s strategies for testing new features.  

Google announced its plans to encrypt search queries. According to the search engine giant, the reason was strictly privacy.    

While the update did happen, it disrupted organic keyword referral data. So, aside from the disruption it caused, this update was nothing special.  

The Panda “Flux” Update Confirmed October 5, 2011  

Everyone in the SEO community respects Matt Cutts and trusts his tweets. He was one of Google’s key insiders who loved to relate to the SEO community and share valuable information.    

On October 5, he alerted the SEO community to expect some Panda-related flux in the weeks ahead. His tweets indicated that the updates would impact around 2% of queries.   

The Panda 2.5 Update Launched September 28, 2011  

Google waited over a month before stunning webmasters with the Panda 2.5 update. Unfortunately, people couldn’t envision the actual changes the update brought. 

The update was quiet but had a severe impact on several websites. After the update, a handful of sites reported a significant loss in search ranking.   

The 516 Algo Revelation On September 21, 2011  

What happened on September 21, 2011, wasn’t an update. Instead, it was a revelation Eric Schmidt made to Congress.  

The then-Google CEO informed the United States Congress that Google initiated 516 updates in 2010 alone. However, the SEO community didn’t know that Google tried over 13,000 updates during the period.     

The Pagination Elements Confirmed September 15, 2011 

Did you know that Google created attributes like rel=”next” and rel =”prev” to resolve the duplication and crawl problems created by pagination?   

In the same period, Google also told the community that they had initiated some improvements in automatic consolidation and canonicalization for “View All” pages.   

The Expanded Site-links Confirmed August 16, 2011 

After several months of experimentation, Google released its expanded site links update on August 16, 2011. However, the expanded site links released were mostly for brand queries.  

The Panda 2.4 Update Confirmed on August 12, 2011 

On August 12, 2011, Google released the Panda for all queries. The impact was international, affecting both English and non-English queries. The only exceptions were the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean queries.  

This update had a significant impact, affecting 6-9% of queries in the affected regions.   

The Panda 2.3 Update Released July 23, 2011 

The Panda 2.3 update was confirmed to be Google’s fifth update. Unfortunately, it was challenging to identify the new features Google was introducing.   

The Google+ Confirmed June 28, 2011 

Google had numerous social media failures as it attempted to compete with other leading platforms. Finally, it launched Google+, which was like an attack on Facebook. 

Within a short period of 2 weeks, Google+ grew massively. It had over 10 million users.  

The integration of Google+ into products such as Gmail made it grow faster.   

The Panda 2.2 Update Confirmed June 21, 2011 

Panda 2.2 was Google’s fourth Panda update. The search engine kept updating Panda data, and the updates impacted sites.   

The Shema.org Confirmed June 2, 2011 

June 2, 2011, was the day the partnership between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo took place. It was a partnership of tech heavyweights agreeing to work together to create something that would transform search results.  

In addition to taking a unified approach to structured data, they developed diverse schemas to enrich search results.  

The Panda 2.1 Update Confirmed May 9. 2011 

The Panda 2.1 update was Google’s third during the “Panda flux.” However, the impact of this update was unknown, and the same was said of the reason Google released it in the first place.   

The Panda 2.0 Update Confirmed April 11, 2011 

After releasing the first Panda update, Google waited for a few months before releasing Panda 2.0, the second update. In 2011, Google released around seven Updates.  

While the first Panda update only impacted English queries in the United States, Panda 2.0 impacted all English-language queries internationally. Google also focused this update on websites users had blocked. The new signals integrated considered websites blocked via the search engine result pages, directly or via the Chrome browser.  

The +1 Button Update Confirmed March 30, 2011 

Google introduced the +1 button as a response to Twitter and Facebook competitions. The button appeared near the search results, allowing users to have some influence over the search results.    

The Panda/Farmer Confirmed February 23, 2011  

A significant algorithm change affected several websites. Google confirmed that the update affected over 12% of the search results.  

Panda went after content farms and sites packed with thin content. It targeted diverse quality issues, including sites boasting a high number of adverts to content ratio.   

It took Google several months to roll out this update, but it was worth it. The solution for sites hit by the update was to produce high-quality content that provided value to users.   

The Attribution Update Released January 28, 2011 

How did Google respond to the high-profile spam activities on January 28, 2011? The search engine giant introduced an update to end scrapers and fixed content attribution.  

Matt Cutts claimed this update impacted 2% of queries, which was a small number.   

The Negative Reviews Update Confirmed December 1, 2010    

In 2010, Google discovered several websites, particularly e-commerce websites, were using negative reviews to improve search rank. A New York Times expose confirmed this.  

It was after the expose that Google took action. The New York Times report named DecorMyEyes is one of the sites that is taking advantage of the negative reviews to rank.  

Google decisively took action on December 1, 2010, to stop the act. It adjusted the algorithm to confront websites deploying similar strategies to improve search engine ranking.  

The Instant Previews Confirmed November 1, 2010 

The landing page’s usability, design, and quality became important. How did it happen? 

There was a magnifying glass icon on the search results, making it possible for visitors to preview landing pages of sites from the search engine result pages before visiting them.   

While there was nothing special about this update, it is worth nothing that there was a time Google paid special attention to the quality and design of landing pages.  

The Google Instant Updated September 1, 2010 

The Google Instant was an expansion of Google Suggest. However, while SEOs were getting ready to adopt the new update, it seemed Google was only conducting a test. The update didn’t last long and had no impact on search queries.  

The Caffeine Rollout Confirmed June 1, 2010 

June 1, 2010, marked the day Google introduced the Caffeine infrastructure. After several months of testing, the rollout was successful.  

The introduction of the Caffeine infrastructure did two things: 

• Injected a boost to Google’s crawl speed. 

• Integrated crawling and indexation. 

According to Google, this infrastructure created a 50% fresher index, a remarkable achievement for the search engine.   

The May Day Update On May 1, 2010 

In early May, the SEO community started noticing a massive drop in traffic of their long-tail keywords. What happened?  

Webmasters were relieved following Matt Cutts’s revelation. He revealed the drop in ranking was due to May Day, an algorithm change targeted at long-tail.        

Following this update, websites with thin content were hit hard. Websites hit by the update were advised to fix the quality of their posts. 

This algorithm update focused on how Google assesses content to identify which content best suits the long-tail queries.  

Google Places Confirmed April 1, 2010  

Google introduced the “Pages” page first in 2009 and later considered it part of Google Maps. The search engine giant had to relaunch the Places page in 2010, rebranding the Local Business Center and incorporating diverse features.    

The Real-Time Search Confirmed on December 1, 2009 

Google dedicated the “real-time search” to the following: 

• Real Twitter feeds 

•  Newly indexed content 

• Google News  

• Other sources 

Google integrated the sources into a real-time feed on some search engine result pages. The number of sources displayed on the SERPs continued to increase over time.  

Caffeine Update Launched August 10, 2009 

To this day, Google considers the 2009 “Caffeine” update a crucial update in its history of algorithm changes. This update improved how the search engine crawled and indexed search results.  

The Caffeine update was more of an update to Google’s indexing infrastructure. It had nothing to do with the search engine’s ranking algorithm, so it had minimal impact on queries.  

Vince Update Released January 18, 2009 

The “Vince” update Google released on January 18, 2009, favored established brands. Unfortunately, less authoritative websites didn’t perform well.  

This update’s implementation was quick, though that didn’t bother webmasters. Many felt Google was favoring established brands and considered such bias unacceptable.  

Matt Cutts responded to the concerns raised by stating that Google wasn’t trying to place more weight on established brands but was rewarding websites with higher authority, relevance, and trustworthiness. 

The Rel-canonical Tag Confirmed on February 1, 2009 

The expectations are high when tech heavyweights like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft combine for a project.  

On February 1, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft agreed to collaborate on the Canonical Tag. This development allowed the smooth delivery of the desired canonicalization signals to search bots. 

The Google Suggest Confirmed August 1, 2008 

The Google Suggest wasn’t an algorithm update. Instead, it was an important event in the search engine’s history. However, the search engine heavyweight didn’t disclose much about the Suggest it introduced, and the SEO community didn’t pay much attention either since it wasn’t an algorithm change.  

The “Suggest” allowed users to find options for related search terms online.  

The Dewey Confirmed April 1, 2008    

Google shuffled many things around early April, though it didn’t provide much detail about the activities. Nevertheless, the SEO community had reasons to believe Google was shuffling some of its internal properties, like Google Books.  

The Universal Search Confirmed on May 1, 2007 

The Universal Search introduced on May 1, 2007, wasn’t one of Google’s typical algorithm changes. But it’s worth discussing because it marked a remarkable step in the search engine’s evolution over the years.  

The Universal Search saw Google incorporate several features into its search results. These features include news, videos, books, local results, and images.  

The introduction of this search feature opened up a new opportunity for marketers to target a diverse audience through a wider range of search listings. Users also benefited from this update, as they no longer had to utilize the tabs to conduct specialized searches. The update ensured that all relevant search listings appeared on the same page.  

This update ended the 10-listing search engine result page, making searching for diverse listings easy.     

 Supplemental Update Confirmed November 1, 2006 

Google introduced the “Supplemental Results” during its early days, with the supplemental index powering the results.  

The supplemental index was a secondary bank of pages the search engine heavyweight collected to ensure no bloat in its primary index. It considered this move necessary as the main index had surpassed the billion mark in 2003.   

It is essential to state that the supplemental index has been inactive for decades. So, it was obsolete and unuseful to Google.     

The Big Daddy Update on December 1, 2005 

Google took around four months to roll out the Big Daddy update completely. They started on December 1, 2005, and concluded it in March.  

This update focused more on the technical aspects of search engines, such as redirects and URL canonicalization.  

The Big Daddy Update changed how Google handled technical issues regarding redirects (301/301) and URL canonicalization, among other cases. 

The Jagger Update Confirmed October 1, 2005 

Google rolled out the Jagger update in three phases, and it took the search engine giant three months (from September to November) to implement.  

Why was October 1, 2005, named the day the Jagger update started?  

Since Google took three months to roll out this update, the biggest impact was felt in October.    

Google rolled out this update to target websites with duplicate content, unnatural links, and many doorway pages.  

Jagger is the precursor to algorithm updates such as the penguin.  

Following the Jagger update, websites with duplicate content suffered the most impact, followed by those with a massive number of doorway pages. It also hammered websites using unethical link-building strategies like cloaking, hidden texts and redirects.  

The Google Local/Maps Confirmed October 1, 2005  

Google succeeded in launching the famous Local Business Center in March 2005. After the launch, it encouraged businesses to update their information on the platform.    

After launching and ensuring businesses complied, Google took the next step by merging its Maps data into the LBC. This move marked the evolution of the local.  

XML Sitemaps Confirmed on June 1, 2005 

Google made a historic move by allowing webmasters to submit their XML sitemaps through the Webmaster Tools. This move allowed webmasters to bypass the usual HTML sitemaps. Additionally, website owners now had direct influence over their web page’s activities, such as crawling and indexation.      

The Nofollow Attribute Confirmed on January 1, 2005 

Google didn’t introduce the nofollow attribute alone. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft worked together.  

Why was the nofollow attribute introduced? 

The reason was to fight spam and have more control over the quality of outbound links.  

The nofollow task was to clean up spammy links, including blog comments considered spammy.  

The nofollow attribute wasn’t a traditional algorithm change. However, it did help to control the quality of links and played a significant role in the evolution of the link graph.  

The Florida Update Confirmed November 1, 2003 

The Florida update remains one of Google’s most important updates to date. The update placed the search engine optimization (SEO) industry on the map.  

While Google never really provided details of this update, the general consensus was that it targeted websites engaged in unethical SEO practices such as keyword stuffing and spammy links.  

The Florida update was a significant update and a massive success for the search engine. Upon its release, several high-profile websites and those engaged in unethical SEO practices were hammered severely.  

The Fritz Update July 1, 2003  

Many webmasters and SEOs appreciated the Fritz update upon its release. Its introduction marked the end of the monthly “Google Dance.”  

The introduction of the Fritz update gave rise to what was termed “incremental index updates.” This means Google will roll out its updates daily instead of monthly.  

The daily updates following the introduction of the Fritz update turned out to be more subtle than the Google Dance, which was why webmasters and SEOs appreciated them.   

The Boston Update Confirmed on February 1, 2003   

The Boston update of February 1, 2003, was Google’s first algorithm change. It was named “Boston” because of the location Google introduced it.  

Google announced the update during Boston’s Search Engine Strategies Conference (SES).  

Upon announcing the Boston update, Google continued releasing subsequent updates monthly throughout 2003. However, this update’s major target was meta information, not spammy strategies like keyword stuffing.   

Finding An SEO Agency 

Having trouble keeping track of Google’s frequent algorithm changes? Have you suffered a significant drop in search rankings following a recent or past update and can’t reclaim your position on the SERPs? 

The solution is working with BitChip Digital to navigate the ever-changing organic search landscape.  

This detailed guide explains all the algorithm updates and historical changes that marked Google’s evolution. We provided details of all the updates, from the first update in 2003 to the current update.  

Watch out for more updates in the future. We will continue to update this page to keep you informed.