Google Algorithm Updates: A Timeline of the Latest Changes for Google
Latest Google algorithm updates:
- Google Panda Update - 2011
- Google Penguin Update - 2012
- Google Hummingbird Update - 2013
- Google Mobile Update - 2015
- Google Quality Update - 2015
- Google RankBrain Update - 2015
- Google AdWords SERP Update - 2016
- Interstitial Penalty - 2017
- Google "Fred" - 2017
- "Medic" Core Update - 2018
- Site Diversity June - 2019
- September Core - 2019
- BERT - October - 2019
- January Core - 2020
- May Core - 2020
- December Core - 2020
How have the latest Google algorithm updates impacted me?
Every year, Google updates or adjusts its algorithm hundreds of times. The vast majority of the time, the updates do not noticeably impact SERP and website owners do not even notice. However, there have been a few significant times when Google has made updates that cause obvious changes in rankings and
traffic rates.
This is a basic overview of some of these major changes so you can understand how the algorithm has developed over the past few years.
The Panda Update - 2011
This update was first launched in 2011, but it has had several updates over the years. In the beginning of 2016,
Pandawas added to Google’s core ranking algorithm.
Panda targets spam and weak content that did not help the end-user. Thin content, duplicate content and content with too many ads are all penalized.
The Penguin Update - 2012
About a year after the Panda update, the
Penguin update was released, creating another push towards quality content. This update targeted spam by looking at backlinks. It rewarded those with quality, organic backlinks and penalized those with artificial backlink profiles.
The Hummingbird Update - 2013
The
Hummingbird update was a change to Google’s algorithm to make it smarter at interpreting semantic search. It was designed to help Google better understand intent and context. This forced marketers to shift towards longtail keywords. It also encouraged marketers to develop pieces based more on user intent and needs rather than a single keyword.
The Mobile Update - 2015
The
mobile update forced all sites to become mobile-friendly or risk being penalized in the SERPs. Rather than mobile-optimization being reserved for the brands at the forefront of the industry, every site needs to have a mobile version of their website.
The Quality Update - 2015
This update, also known as Phantom II, was noticed a few weeks after the mobile update went live. This update rewarded sites that focused on the user experience and high-quality content while penalizing those with too many ads and certain types of user-generated content. Once again, thin content was hit hard. This is likely one of the reasons that user-generated sites, like HubPages, were penalized while user-generated sites, like Quora, saw a boost.
The RankBrain Update - 2015
When
RankBrain went live, it introduced artificial intelligence to the Google algorithm. This part of the algorithm has the power to monitor user behavior and response to queries to ‘learn’ more about intent and the value of certain pages. It is now Google’s 3rd most important ranking signal.
The AdWords Update - 2016
In Q1 2016, Google fundamentally changed the way that paid search listings appeared on the SERP. They removed the traditional 4-pack placement in the righthand column (where the
Knowledge Graph element now appears) and integrated them into the top of the main listings. The integration trend would continue, with the icons labelling listings as paid advertisements gradually being deemphasized over time.
Mobile Interstitial Penalty - 2017
This SEO penalty applied to sites running interstitial ads that blocked the user's view of the content on the page. This was not a blanket penalty on all interstitials. Instead, it focused on intrusive interstitials on mobile and interstitials that require the user to dismiss them manually.
The Google "Fred" Update - 2017
An unconfirmed algo update, Fred had
an outsized impact on organic listings, with a number of sites experiencing
traffic declines from 50 to 90%. The exact parameters of Fred have never been confirmed by Google, but seem to crack down on sites that emphasize display ads and/or traffic monetization widgets over content as well as making said elements difficult to differentiate from actual on-page content.
"Medic" Core Update - 2018
The "Medic" Core Update was a broad core algorithm update, one of the updates that Google does several times a year. While Google did not confirm the specific purpose of this update, it had a large impact on health, finance, and your money your life pages. SEO experts speculated that this Google update boosted the rank of high-quality articles that offer advice on major life issues, such as finances and health.
Site Diversity - 2019
The Site Diversity update is an adjustment that seeks to eliminate multiple listings from the same domain from the SERP. Multiple listings are now seen less often.
September Core - 2019
This update appears to have been a rollback to fix some impact from prior core updates.
BERT - 2019
BERT – Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers – is a neural network-based technique for natural language processing and has the ability to better understand the full context of your query by looking at all of the words in your search and delve deeper into the relevant information you’re seeking. This update was so significant that Google needed to buy new and more powerful computer hardware to process the information from the crawl.
January Core - 2020
Google recommends that users pay attention to E.A.T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. The content that continues to align with these objectives will be the content that then sees the best rankings. Better content contributes to this superior user experience, and the easier it should be for brands to see their material rise on the SERP, regardless of core updates.
May Core - 2020
Even though COVID-19 hit 2020 and businesses and sites struggled to keep up with how digital the entire world immediately became, Google went ahead with a huge core update known as the May 2020 Core Update. Because of the pandemic, search intent changed and Google made it easier for people to find relevant answers to their questions with the update.
December Core - 2020
Following E-A-T guidelines is once again invaluable to this Google Core Update. Google also recommends getting to know quality rater guidelines in order to understand how Google systems work and how your content is rated. Creating informative, unique and optimized content that speaks to your readers will continue to help the rankings of your site.
How do I succeed when the Google algorithm keeps changing?
If you look at the timeline of Google algorithm changes, you will notice that there is a clear purpose and pattern. Each algorithm update is geared towards improving user experience and helping searchers find the information they need as quickly as possible. The Google updates all focus on weeding out poor content and boosting the content that fills this need.