Google Algorithm updates for SEO
Google Algorithm updates, one of the key components and core elements of Search engine optimization. Search engines release a series of updates to make the algorithm much more productive, refined and related to the user’s queries.
So today let’s try to understand each and every algorithm released till date, details about the same and its impact on SEO.
List of All Google Algorithms for SEO
I have categorized these algorithms in different categories for easy understanding such as
- Major impactful Updates
- Core updates
- Review updates
Major Impactful Update
These updates created more buzz around the marketing space and have a major impact on SEO results. So let’s deep dive into each one of them and understand in detail.
Google Dance (1998)
One of the oldest and initial stage google algorithm updates released in 1998. This update mainly focuses on informing the period that Google releases any updates it will result in significant fluctuations in search engine rankings. During this time website keyword rankings might bounce around as the new index was implemented.
Florida (November 2003)
The Florida update was released in the year of November, 2003. It is mainly targeting sites that are using keyword stuffing and other spammy SEO practices. After this update it makes sure whichever site is using such practices to rank higher in SERP gets down and keyword ranking goes down.
Panda (February 2011)
Pand update(Named after engineer Navneet Panda) officially released in Feb 2021, Mainly focused on site content quality such as targeted low-quality, thin, or duplicate content. The main objective of this update is to benefit sites that contain high-quality content and also penalize sites who are maintaining low-quality content.
Penguin (April 2012)
Penguin Update officially launched in April 2012, aimed to downgrade site rankings that are followed by manipulative link-building practices. Meaning that it is focused on practices like buying links or participating in link schemes. In similar lines it also added SEO benefits to the sites that are following link building practices as per search engine guidelines.
Hummingbird (August 2013)
Hummingbird was officially launched in August 2013, It is a concept of semantic search. It is aiming to understand the intent behind user queries rather than completely relying solely on exact keywords by the user. Meaning that it not only focuses on exact keywords what users search for, also rank for meaning behind the words if it matches to content.
Pigeon (July 2014)
As we all know, pigeons used to pass communications between places in the old days. The name of this update originated based on the same. The pigeon algorithm update launched in July 2014 aimed to improve local search results. After this update businesses operating based on locations have impacted quite a bit and received maximum SEO benefits.
Mobile-Friendly Update (April 2015)
Mobile-Friendly Update( known as “Mobilegeddon,” ) was launched in April 2015. It is aimed to emphasize mobile-friendly websites in mobile search results, it is also encouraging website owners to optimize for mobile devices. The main objective of this update was to improve the mobile search experience for users by ranking high mobile-friendly websites.
RankBrain (October 2015)
Rankbrain was not a regular algorithm update released, it is a machine learning system designed to better understand the meaning behind complex and ambiguous queries.
Fred (March 2017)
Fred was officially launched in March 2017, it is aimed to punish sites that are having low-quality content and aggressive monetization. Meaning that all monetization enabled sites have to maintain quality content for the users rather than focus on revenue modelings.
Mobile-First Indexing (March 2018)
In addition to the mobile friendly update, google released another update focused on mobile friendliness. This mobile-first indexing was officially released in March 2018 aimed to boost sites that are using the mobile version of websites for indexing and ranking, considering mobile-friendliness as a significant factor.
Conclusion
In our Final words, it is very important to keep very close to the latest google algorithm updates that are released every month by search engine central. Make sure you as site owner followed each one of them to stay away from de-indexing and pushed back to the bottom of SERP.
