The Google algorithm update is one of the most important factors for any website, as it can determine how well a site ranks in search results. With so many updates happening all the time, understanding them and what they mean is crucial to your business’s success. In this blog post, we will take a look at 8 major Google algorithm updates that have been made thus far.
Google Algorithm Update #1: Panda
Panda Rolled out on February 24, 2011
First launched in February 2011, Google Panda is known as an algorithm that attempts to weed out poor quality sites from the SERPs. This means that websites that were not following Google’s guidelines for high-quality content saw their rankings decrease significantly. Panda targeted low-quality plagiarized thing content, keyword stuffing, and user-generated spam.
Google Algorithm Update #2: Penguin
Rolled out on April 24, 2012
With Penguin, the objective was to downrank websites that had very unnatural backlink profiles with which they were trying to manipulate their rankings.
Google Algorithm Update #3: Hummingbird
Rolled out on August 20, 2013
First launched in the summer of 2013, Hummingbird is a significant update to Google’s algorithm. Hummingbird relies heavily on natural language processing that uses latent semantic indexing (LSI). It focused more on understanding searcher intent and context rather than just keywords alone.
Google Algorithm Update #4: Mobile
Rolled out on April 21, 2015
First launched in April of 2015, the Mobile Update targets websites that have not yet adapted to mobile-friendly design. With more than half of site visits originating from a mobile device, your website must have an intuitive and easy-to-use layout for users on their phones or tablets
Google Algorithm Update #5: Rank Brain
Rolled out on October 26, 2015
Rank Brain is a machine learning system that helps Google understand the meaning behind queries and serve best-matching search results in response to those queries. Google calls RankBrain the third most important ranking factor, though we don’t know the exact formula behind this major update. The consensus is that RankBrain is responsible
Google Algorithm Update #6: Medic
Rolled Out On May 4, 2018
The Medic Update is a significant algorithm update that was confirmed to be rolling out in May of 2018. The Google spokesperson, John Mueller, has stated it may have targeted medical websites as well as other sites where users are making life-altering decisions (finance, education).
Google Algorithm Update #7: Bert Algorithm
Rolled out on October 22, 2019
The BERT update is the latest major Google algorithm to be rolled out, and it brings us closer than ever before to understanding natural language. With this update, Google essentially has access to much more data about what users are looking for when they type in queries into search engines. This allows them to better understand user intent and context
Google Algorithm Update #8: Core
Rolled out on 2017
The Google Core Update is another update that was announced by Google in 2017. This major algorithmic change has not been publicized as much as other Google updates. However, it is believed that the update might be tied to previous major algorithm changes like Panda and Penguin.