A comprehensive list of Google Updates over the years, and their impact on SEO.

1. GOOGLE
UPDATES
A LIST OF MAJOR GOOGLE UPDATES
AND THEIR IMPACT ON SEO
OVER THE YEARS

2. INTRODUCTION
Google is constantly evolving its algorithms
to display the users the most accurate,
relevant, and secure pages. And every year,
it seems to introduce more and more
updates every year. Knowing what kind of
updates have been made will help you
keep up with SEO best practices, improve
your rankings, and understand any reasons
behind performance shifts.
LETS GET STARTED

3. CAFFEINE UPDATE
(2010)
To speed up search results for users and
help publishers get their content seen
faster.
CAFFEINE INDEXING SYSTEM
To speed up the internet and meet the
demand of a rapid-growing web.
AIM
Made desktop site speed a new ranking
signal and emphasized the importance of
website performance.
IMPACT ON SEO

4. PANDA UPDATE
(2011)
Target websites that had webspam and
used manipulative link building tactics.
PENALIZE "CONTENT FARMING"
To thin, spammy, and low-quality content
and then removing it from top search
rankings.
AIM
No more keyword stuffing; content had to
be made according to the user
requirements.
IMPACT ON SEO

5. VENICE
(2012)
Had a huge impact on local SEO,
especially for smaller businesses and
brands.
MAKING SERP PERSONALIZED
To improve search results for products
and services with a closer geographical
proximity to the searcher.
AIM
Now, they could compete with bigger
businesses and brands for high volume
keywords with local intent.
IMPACT ON SEO

6. PIRATE
(2012)
Verifying any sites that have been
reported for copyright infringement in
violation of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA).
CRACKING DOWN ON PIRACY
To prevent sites with copyright
infringement reports from ranking well in
Google’s search results.
AIM
If your site is in violation of DMCA, and
Google is able to verify it, it will be
severely down-ranked in organic search
results.
IMPACT ON SEO

7. HUMMINGBIRD
(2013)
Enabled Google to better understand
what we call "search intent."
THE SERP EXPERIENCE
Search engine was able to contextualize
user queries and website information
more accurately and connect the two.
AIM
Encourages the search community to
better investigate the search intent
behind specific keywords and to try to
optimize for it.
IMPACT ON SEO

8. PIGEON
(2013)
To close the gap between Google's local
search algorithm and Google's web
algorithm in order to improve ranking
parameters based on physical proximity.
IMPROVING LOCAL SEARCH
To improve the local search, and make it
easier for the local businesses to reach
their audience.
AIM
small businesses to contextualize their
business as local in their content, follow
local SEO practices like getting local
reviews, and implement structured data
markup to be easily featured in rich
results for local searches.
IMPACT ON SEO

9. HTTPS/SSL
(2014)
Transfer your websites from HTTP to
HTTPS protocols by installing SSL
certificates on your website servers.
GOOGLE’S “HTTPS
EVERYWHERE” CAMPAIGN
To make the internet more secure and
ensure that users were accessing
trustworthy and safe websites.
AIM
HTTPS made a lightweight ranking signal
and set new user expectations for the
level of trust and security in their organic
search results.
IMPACT ON SEO

10. MOBILEGEDDON
(2015)
The proportions need to be conducive to
the screen of a mobile device
(smartphone).
"MOBILE-FRIENDLINESS" UPDATE
Mobile-friendliness became a new
ranking signal.
AIM
Web pages that offer mobile-friendly
versions of their websites are now
prioritized in search results. (only for
individual pages and not whole websites)
IMPACT ON SEO

11. RANKBRAIN
(2015)
Introduced new machine learning
artificial intelligence to help determine
the most relevant search results for a
given query.
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Helps Google process and understand
search queries.
AIM
Different ranking signals now apply to
different queries to find whatever best
serves the user’s needs in that query.
IMPACT ON SEO

12. POSSUM
(2016)
Made the physical location of the
searcher more important, as well as the
variations of local terms more sensitive
as well.
LOCAL SERP
Improved local search results.
AIM
Google improved filters based on address
and location, measures were taken to
diversify results, and spam was further
prevented from ranking well.
IMPACT ON SEO

13. INTRUSIVE
INTERSTITIALS
(2017)
They are ads that cover a large portion of
a page and make it more difficult for a
user to view the content of a page and
find the information they need.
I.I.: LARGE POP-UP ADS
To keep spam at a minimum and enhance
SEO
AIM
Due to this update, intrusive interstitials
became an SEO ranking penalty.
IMPACT ON SEO

14. MOBILE PAGE
SPEED (2018)
(to measure fast mobile speed, and get a
more accurate representation of the
mobile loading experience for real users)
-First Contentful Paint (FCP)
-DOM Content Loaded (DCL)
PAGESPEED INSIGHTS
Part of both Google's overarching "speed
up the internet" initiative and Google's
"mobile-first" initiative.
AIM
Sites with really fast mobile pages did
better in search results, while pages with
slow speeds lost rankings.
IMPACT ON SEO

15. MEDIC
(2018)
Esp for YMYL pages (Your money, your
life) that can potentially impact the
future health, happiness, or wealth of
users.
BROAD CORE ALGORITHM UPDATE
Improved the identification of expertise,
authority, and trustworthiness (EAT) in
online content.
AIM
Google punished pages it perceived to
have a no or low E-A-T and rewarded
website that had a high E-A-T.
IMPACT ON SEO

16. BERT
(2019)
NLP machine learning system to
understand what words in a sentence
mean to a human being.
BIDIRECTIONAL ENCODER
REPRESENTATIONS FROM
TRANSFORMERS
To understand search queries more
effectively and determine which content
is of higher quality, and more relevant.
AIM
Specific keywords become less important
and the natural language associated with
specific keywords becomes more
important.
IMPACT ON SEO

17. Refers to the internal process that Google uses to rank
content. It takes a number of factors into account when
determining these rankings, such as the relevance and
quality of the content against a particular search query.
HOW DOES GOOGLE'S ALGORITHM WORK?
Search engines have been continuously improving their
algorithms to give searchers the best possible results.
WHY DOES GOOGLE CHANGE THEIR ALGORITHM?
Simply focus on producing great
content, on a technically sound
website, with high-quality external
and internal links; along with this,
follow major SEO update channels.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR
GOOGLE ALGORITHM
UPDATES?
FREQUENTLY
ASKED
QUESTIONS

18. THANKS FOR
WATCHING