Google Algorithm Update History
History of Main Google Algorithm Updates from 2000 To Present
Google is a system that is constantly working to improve and optimize its mechanisms. Millions of pages of information are processed every minute. This all happens instantly. For well-coordinated and large-scale work, it is necessary to constantly update Google’s search algorithms so users are provided with the best results.
Here is a list of major (confirmed or not) Google updates since launch. Having studied the history of the formation of the giant, we have the opportunity to answer the main question: How do I get to the top?
Google Timeline
2020 updates
January 13, 2020 – January 2020 Core Update
Confirmed update
Google rolled out a new core update. Significant fluctuations were noticed but the output had already stabilized by January 19. It was a big update, but it was still smaller than the Medic.
January 22, 2020 – Featured Snippet De-duping
Confirmed update
Now Google has stopped duplicating featured results in SERPs and Featured Snippet. This greatly changed the rules of the game. Getting into the selected fragment, the site lost its position in the search results.
March 11, 2020 – COVID-19 Pandemic
Unconfirmed update
The WHO pandemic statement on March 11 seemed like a turning point. On the day of the announcement, Google greatly changed the queries related to Covid and soon a special local search was launched, based on the pandemic situation in the region.
May 4, 2020 – May 2020 Core Update
Confirmed update
There was another update of the main algorithm, which quickly became known as May the Fourth since it was launched on the day of StarWars.
August 10, 2020 – Google Glitch
Confirmed update
Google confirmed that it was a glitch in their indexing systems. There were significant fluctuations but soon everything recovered.
September 16, 2020 – Unnamed Update
Unconfirmed update
A significant fluctuation that lasted for several days was noticed. There was no official statement.
2019 updates
March 12, 2019 – March 2019 Core Update
Confirmed update
Google has stated that this is the third major algorithm update since launch. No details about the update have been received.
April 5, 2019 – Deindexing Bug
Confirmed update
Google stated that it was indeed an indexing error that occurred over the weekend of April 5th. Some of the sites sank, but most of them soon completely regained their positions.
May 23, 2019 – Deindexing Bug
Confirmed update
Indexing had failed again but was quickly fixed.
June 4, 2019 – June 2019 Core Update
Confirmed update
Danny Sullivan of Google has named the core algorithm update (for the first time). It was announced that the deployment will begin on the 3rd and last for some time.
September 16, 2019 – September 2019 Review Rich Results Update
Confirmed update
Google no longer allows for what it calls “self-service” to display in search results. This means that sites can no longer use schema markup to place reviews displayed on their own website among the SERPs. Google also pointed out that the name property should be specified in structured data. You must give a name to the product in question.
September 24, 2019 – September 2019 Core Update
Confirmed update
The next update of the main core is not like the previous ones and is not so large-scale. The sites that have been pessimistic by earlier ups have felt most of the update. Subject to corrections, they began to regain their positions.
October 22, 2019 – BERT update
Confirmed update
The launch of BERT meant a new level of learning for Google. Now the search algorithm has begun to understand speech and content, better responding to user searches.
December 9, 2019 – BERT International Deployment
Confirmed update
Google has confirmed that BERT will be rolled out globally, in 70 languages. The end of the process is not specified.
2018 updates
January 18, 2018 – Page Speed to Become Mobile Ranking Factor
Confirmed update
Loading speed is becoming a ranking factor on mobile devices and desktops. Slow pages may decrease in rankings but webmasters have time to prepare until the summer of 2018 when pessimization will be officially introduced.
March 8, 2018 – “Brackets” Core Update
Confirmed update
The unfolding seemed to take several weeks. Google confirmed the update to the core algorithm but did not give a name. The comic title was coined by Glenn Gabe.
March 26, 2018 – Mobile-First Index implementation
Confirmed update
Google has finally announced the launch of the mobile index. It has been tested for several years.
April 17, 2018 – Unnamed Core Update
Confirmed update
There was significant hesitation in response to which Google announced the rollout of a core kernel update, but no details were given.
June 14, 2018 – Video Carousels
Confirmed update
Google has moved video from mainstream search results to a video carousel. This shook up organic results significantly.
July 9, 2018 – Mobile Speed Update
Confirmed update
Google did not cheat and launched an update to download speed as a ranking factor on mobile devices. The search engine assured that the update affected sites with a very low speed.
August 1, 2018 – “Medic” Core Update
Confirmed update
Google has confirmed a massive kernel update. It was noted that the update affected medical sites and sites that are associated with YMYL. This laid the principles of E-A-T as the basis for a new search engine strategy.
October 15, 2018 – Unnamed Update
Unconfirmed update
Fluctuation was recorded, but there was no official confirmation from Google.
November 29, 2018 – Unnamed Update
Unconfirmed update
Fluctuation was recorded, but there was no official confirmation from Google. It looked like a training session prior to major updates.
2017 updates
January 10, 2017 – Intrusive Interstitial Penalty
Confirmed update
There started penalties for intrusive interstitial ads that got in the way of the user. This was announced during the summer of 2016.
February 6, 2017 – Unnamed Update
Confirmed update
Significant gouging of mobile search results was noticed during the week. Desktops were also seen in the impact of the update, but there were no official statements.
March 8, 2017 – Fred
Unconfirmed update
It looked like a major update, Gary Illis even jokingly named it, but later stressed that it was not an official statement. There was a theory that the update was about the link quality.
June 20, 2017 – Google Jobs
Confirmed update
Google has now launched a job portal. Results are based on data from nearly every major vendor including LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and CareerBuilder.
September 28, 2017 – Unnamed Update
Unconfirmed update
On September 25-28, all trackers recorded significant fluctuations in issuance. However, there was no official confirmation.
October 17, 2017 – Chrome Security Alerts
Confirmed update
This was not a full upgrade but it made the HTTPS factor much stronger. With the release of the new Chrome 62, Google began to inform users about unsecured sites using the browser.
October 27, 2017 – Featured Snippet Drop
Unconfirmed update
From the 27th to the 31st, there was a significant drop in the number of selected fragments in the search. During this period, the ability of Knowledge Panels also expanded.
October 27, 2017 – Google ccTLDs No Longer Give Access to International Search Results
Confirmed update
Google has changed its attitude towards country code top-level domains such as google.co.uk, google.ca, google.co, etc. These domains will not participate in the international ranking but will receive priority in local issues.
November 15, 2017 – Unnamed Update
Unconfirmed update
There was considerable fluctuation, especially on mobile search results. But no confirmation came.
November 30, 2017 – Increase snippet length
Confirmed update
Presumably the snippet length has been increased to 300 characters after over 2 years of testing. Google confirmed the snippet’s updates but didn’t provide details.
December 14, 2017 – Maccabee update
Unconfirmed update
Barry Schwartz called the recorded fluctuations Maccabee. Google did not confirm or deny this assumption. The only thing that followed is the statement about the implementation of some updates.
2016 updates
January 8 – Core Quality Rank
Unconfirmed update
Significant fluctuations in search results were noticed. Google finally confirmed that this was an update to the main algorithm. Also at a press conference on January 12, John Mueller confirmed that Panda has become part of Google’s core algorithm.
February 23, 2016 – AdWords Update
Confirmed update
Google has significantly changed the location of the AdWords block in the search results. While this change was for paid ads, it did have an impact on the CTR of competitive commercial searches.
May 10, 2016 – Untitled Update
Unconfirmed update
The trackers noticed a fluctuation in the results for a week but Google did not confirm. The impression was that previously deployed updates were canceled.
May 12, 2016 – Mobile-friendly 2
Confirmed update
A year after the first rollout, Google updated the ranking factor to give more priority to adapted sites in mobile search results.
23 August 2016 – Mobile Interstitials Penalty
Unconfirmed update
Google announced that from January 1, 2017, it will begin to pessimize sites with intrusive interstitial ads.
September 1, 2016 – Possum update
Unconfirmed update
There were significant fluctuations in local delivery. Many argued that the update was aimed at reducing duplicate and spam results on local lists.
September 5, 2016 – Core Search Algorithm Update
Unconfirmed update
There was a significant fluctuation in the results, which prompted the idea of updating the main Google algorithm. Conversations were now centered around changes to local search. There was a theory that there were actually 2 algorithms: one for local and the other for general search.
September 23, 2016 – Penguin 4.0 Update
Confirmed update
The Penguin 4.0 update was announced after two years of silence. This was a major update. From this point on, the Penguin became part of the main algorithm.
September 27, 2016 – Penguin 4.0 Phase 1
Confirmed update
Google stopped punishing bad links but started to devalue them. This marked the beginning of the era of the “softer” Penguin.
October 6, 2016 – Penguin 4.0 Phase 2
Unconfirmed update
This is considered to be the completion date for the Penguin major update rollout.
December 14 – Unnamed Update
Unconfirmed update
There was considerable fluctuation in extradition but no official announcement was made.
2015 updates
February 5, 2015 – Untitled Update
Unconfirmed update
Google has not officially confirmed this update but significant fluctuations in the results have still been noticed.
April 22, 2015 – Mobilegeddon mobile update
Confirmed update
Google has officially made mobile usability a ranking factor in mobile SERPs. This has greatly impacted search results around the world. It was announced that the update will roll out gradually from April 21st.
May 3, 2015 – Google Core Quality Update
Confirmed update
This was an update to the quality of the main algorithm which significantly changed the search results.
June 18, 2015 – Panda 4.2
Confirmed update
This update definitely affected sites happy that issues were fixed by Google in 2014. Panda was dedicated to fighting spam links and content farms. Sites with low quality content could also be affected. However, no strong fluctuation was noticed.
October 5, 2015 – Hacked Sites Algorithm
Unconfirmed update
This update regards hacked spam sites. This algorithm was supposed to remove compromised sites from the index. It is estimated that this update affected 5% of queries worldwide.
December 10, 2015 – RankBrain
Confirmed update
Google announced the launch of a machine learning system (presumably launched in the spring of 2015). Google’s RankBrain has led to an increase in Google’s dedicated search results. This led to a significant increase in the number of search results containing related searches.
December 17, 2015 – HTTPS update
Confirmed update
Now sites with secure https protocol are given priority in ranking because user safety is a priority.
2014 updates
February 6, 2014 – Top Heavy 3
Confirmed update
The Top Heavy algorithm was aimed at combating advertising on the top page of the resource, over spam, and relevance.
May 16, 2014 – PayDay Load 2.0
Confirmed update
A series of updates followed before it was impossible to know for sure if the algorithm of action has changed. The update affected spam requests.
May 19, 2014 – Panda 4.0
Confirmed update
Most major search algorithm update affecting 7.5% of searches. Panda punishes poor quality content and parser sites while boosting sites with great content in search results, providing Google users with better quality results.
June 12, 2014- PayDay Load 3.0
Confirmed update
This update was like the previous update (PayDay Load 2.0). There was a theory that the first was aimed at certain sites and the second was aimed at spam requests.
July 24, 2014 – Pigeon (Google Local Algorithm Update)
Confirmed update
Google has updated its local search ranking rules to improve and update the information. When receiving geo-dependent queries, Google provides the most informative local search results for the user.
August 6, 2014 – Advantage of HTTPS/SSL Websites
Confirmed update
Sites with SSL certificates are prioritized in issuance. Online stores and other sites that deal with user personal data and online payments have begun a massive migration to HTTPS as one of the top-ranking factors for YMYL sites.
September 23, 2014 – Panda 4.1
Confirmed update
According to the statement, the update was significant and affected 3-5% of searches. This was another example of slow deployment, making it difficult to estimate a precise scale.
October 17, 2014 – Penguin 3.0
Confirmed update
The search engine does not welcome webspam. Pierre Phar, a Google analyst, announced that they launched the deployment. Many sites dropped in the SERP. Many of the resources that sank after the last update of Penguin 2 have regained their positions.
October 21, 2014 – Pirate 2.0
Confirmed update
A little over two years later, Google released a DMCA supplement aimed at protecting software and protecting against digital media piracy.
December 10, 2014 – Penguin Everflux
Confirmed update
Google Officials Says Penguin Is Moving To Continuous Updates
December 22, 2014 – Pigeon Expands
Confirmed update
The local search update has affected English speaking regions such as the UK, Canada, and Australia. All Google’s actions are aimed at improving and updating local search.
2013 updates
January 22/March 14, 2013 – Panda 24/25
Confirmed update
The 24th and 25th algorithm updates affected 1 to 1.2% of Google searches. Matt Cutts announced that Update 25 will be the last until Panda is integrated into the main algorithm.
May 9, 2013 – Phantom
Unconfirmed update
This update was never confirmed but there were a lot of rumors on the webmaster forums about large fluctuations in traffic between May 7-14.
May 22, 2013 – Penguin 2.0
Confirmed update
Upgrade influenced requests in various languages, including 2.3% of English requests. Thanks to the new technology, “Penguin” has become better at finding webspam. It was rumored that the update affected scanning beyond the second level of the resource.
June 11, 2013 – Payday Loan and Google Dance
Unconfirmed update
Payday Loan targeted niches with notorious results full of spam. Google Dance is not an update, but rather a reminder that Google Panda is updated every couple of months. It takes about 10 days to deploy and therefore the fluctuations are not so significant.
June 28 – Multi-Week Update
Confirmed update
Matt Cutts later said on his Twitter account that there was a significant change in the SERP over several weeks. The nature has remained unknown but the rendition has changed a lot.
July 19, 2013 – Knowledge Graph Expansion
Unconfirmed update
KG’s influence began to affect more than 50% of searches. This influenced more than a quarter of all searches.
August 20, 2013 – Hummingbird
Confirmed update
The search has been “humanized”. Hummingbird, released around August 2021, is a new search algorithm developed by Google with a focus on semantic search. Google will give more relevant results by forming the results without relying on keywords, and finding synonyms for the search. Google announced the launch date on September 26th.
October 4, 2013 – Penguin 2.1
Confirmed update
Google reacts to suspicious sites and spam anchor lists. This update was aimed at changing the data and also continued to fight low-quality links.
December 18, 2013 – Authorship Rich Snippet Update
Unconfirmed update
Authorship and extended snippet results fell more than 15%, peaking on December 19.
2012 updates
January 5, 2012 – January 30
Confirmed update
This update pack was more about quality and improvement. Landing page relevance in image search, site link authorityб and overall algorithm improvement for better results.
January 18, 2012 – Panda (ref 3.2)
Confirmed update
Google has confirmed an update to Panda’s web spam algorithm but there have been no significant changes. There was an assumption that this is not a change in the algorithm but an update of data on the sites affected by Panda.
January 19, 2012 – Page Layout Algorithm
Confirmed update
Also known as “Baby Panda” or “Top Heavy”. The algorithm analyzes the usefulness of the site content on the first screen. Sites with heavy ads on the first screen began to rank lower.
February 3, 2012 – February 17
Confirmed update
There is provided a list of 17 items of new changes such as spelling and text quality. A major announcement was Panda’s tighter integration into the main search index.
February 27, 2012 – Panda (ref-3.4)
Confirmed update
Another Panda’s upgrade. Google updated the database, making the algorithm more responsive and more sensitive to changes in the web.
February 27, 2012 – Venice
Confirmed update
Google began to take into account the regionality of users to form natural results. Users located in different regions began to receive different results in Their search results.
February 27, 2012 – February 40
Confirmed update
A list of 40 changes from Google improved snippets for video feeds, several image search improvements, and relevance updates.
March 23, 2012 – Panda (ref-3.4)
Confirmed update
This update, the main goal of which is to lower the position of a site with a low content level, affected 1.6% of searches. The principle of indexing remained the same.
April 3, 2012 – March 50
Confirmed update
There was another batch of 50 updates. This also included improved relevance of image search, improved approach to character indexing, better understanding of local searches, launching extended site links in mobile search, etc.
April 19, 2012 – Panda (ref-3.5)
Confirmed update
Overall, this was a fairly common update with minimal impact on searches. There was a tendency to increase the ranking of large sites and brands.
April 24, 2012 – Penguin
Confirmed update
A new algorithm was launched, affecting 3.1% of searches, aimed at combating search spam, capable of taking into account both external and internal factors. Most of the sites that use spam methods have been downgraded or removed from Google search. This update was named “Penguin”.
April 27, 2012 – Panda (ref-3.6)
Confirmed update
The update, released less than a week after Panda 3.5, was minor and imperceptible.
May 4, 2012 – April 52 updates
Confirmed update
This package featured all of the April updates including the Penguin update and other link ranking changes, including indexing, spelling, sports scores, and more.
May 16, 2012 – Knowledge Graph
Confirmed update
The knowledge graph was launched for the first time, which laid the foundation for a modern SERP look. An algorithm comes into force, which implies the use of a knowledge base to improve the results of issuance using semantic information retrieval from various sources.
May 25, 2012 – Penguin 1.1
Confirmed update
The Penguin update was insignificant. The data update affected only 0.1% of searches in English. For the first time, it was precisely determined that the Penguin update was being updated outside the main search algorithm.
June 7, 2012 – May 39 (Search Highlights May 39)
Confirmed update
Google has summed up its activities in May and provided 39 changes. Included were Penguin updates, links, content quality, and rankings.
June 8, 2012 – Panda (ref-3.7)
Confirmed update
The update was minor and affected less than 1% of English-language requests. This Panda update affected website owners who fell under the Panda of earlier versions.
July 19, 2012 – Link Checker
Confirmed update
Webmasters have been notified through GSC to comply with the rules for artificial backlinks. Bottom line: Track bad links, request deletion, and report abuse to Google.
July 24, 2012 – Panda (ref-3.8)
Confirmed update
This was a minor update that was almost imperceptible.
August 10, 2012 – June/July 86
Confirmed update
The two-month silence from Google resulted in 86 changes. These include caching HTML5 for mobile devices, improving the relevance of SERPs, improving the processing of “long tail” queries, and more.
August 10, 2012 – DMCA Penalty (Pirate)
Confirmed update
Google will punish websites for using content that infringes copyright.
Mid August 2012 – 7 Results
Unconfirmed update
Google started showing 7 results in the listing, instead of the usual 10. According to research, it affected 17-19% of the results.
August 20 – Panda (ref-3.9.1)
Confirmed update
Announced and relatively small updates of the Panda algorithm with database updates. The approximate change in the issue did not exceed 1%.
September 18 – Panda (ref-3.9.2)
Confirmed update
This was a minor update of data. The change in search results did not even reach 1%.
September 27, 2012 – Panda (ref-4.0) + EMD (Exact Match Domains)
Confirmed update
After this update, the search algorithm has become better. The approach to detecting “low-quality” sites changed, and the ranking algorithm for English results has changed. After the update, it became known that the SERP that was affected by the Panda for different countries had different indicators. The English language SERP changed by 7.5%. It also changed the way Google handles an exact match domain with fewer low quality matches.
October 4, 2012 – August/September 65
The belated monthly updates of the search algorithms from Google had 65 points including improvement of snippets, creation of more relevant page titles, updating of the “Knowledge Graph”, etc.
October 5 – Penguin Update 3
Confirmed update
The numbering of the Penguin was reset and this was the third update, affecting only 0.3% of requests.
November 5/November 21, 2012 – Panda (ref-21/22)
Confirmed update
Google has updated its search algorithm database. Changes have been made to between 1% and 1.1% of search queries.
December 4, 2012 – Knowledge Graph Expansion
Confirmed update
Google has added Knowledge Graph functionality to languages other than English. This update has enhanced the ability to generate searches.
December 21, 2012 – Panda 23
Confirmed update
There were no major changes with the 23rd algorithm updates. However, the update affected 1.3% of English-speaking queries and was stronger than the previous two.
2011 updates
January 2011 – Overstock.com
NOT confirmed update
The well-known site Overstock.com was punished for using black SEO. A month later, the same thing happened with JCPenny. This foreshadowed a rise in Google’s interest in links and an update to Panda.
January 28, 2011 – Attribution Update
Confirmed update
The scandalous spam cases received a response from Google.a new update. It influenced about 2% of searches.
February 23, 2011 – Farmer Panda- (Panda)
Confirmed update
This affected 12% of sites. The changes affected weak content and content farms.
This update appeared in Europe later, in April of 2011.
March 30, 2011 – Button +1
Confirmed update
Google unveiled its +1 button, which was a kind of response to the competition between Facebook and Twitter. Users are able to influence the search results of their social environment.
11 April 2011 – Panda, version 2.0
Confirmed update
The Panda has finally reached English-speaking countries along with the rest of the world. The new large-scale update has affected the whole of Europe. Any content errors are taken into account, such as style, spelling, mismatching tags, and oversaturation of keywords.
New factors are taken into account, such as blocking sites (does not matter at the level of the Chrome browser or search). In fact, Panda is a “scavenger”. The algorithm is obliged to clear the results from doorways, satellites, sites only for placing ads and links, and sites with unique content.
May 9, 2011 – Panda 2.1
Confirmed update
Panda 3.0 was not discussed much before its release. The actual update and was never announced by Google.
June 21, 2011 – Panda 2.2
Confirmed update
This new update is done separately from the main index. It was supposedly aimed at fighting cybercriminals and posting someone else’s content.
July 23, 2011 – Panda 2.3
Confirmed update
Update of Panda, as some webmasters believed, although it was not finally clear whether this was an update or a change in the ranking factor. The theory was that Google began to differentiate the quality of content differently, ultimately leading to a more relevant page.
August 12, 2011 – Panda 2.4
Confirmed update
The Panda update affected approximately 6-12% of requests. The new algorithm now works in all languages except Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Google is testing them).
August 16, 2011 – Extended links
Confirmed update
Google has launched extended links, often for brand related queries. It launched 12 links at first but soon narrowed it down to 6.
September 15, 2011 – Pagination
Confirmed update
To improve the fight against duplicate content, Google introduced two new parameters: rel=prev and rel=next for pagination pages.
September 28, 2011 – Panda 2.5
Confirmed update
This is another fuzzy Panda update. However, some sites have complained of heavy losses. The details were unclear but there was a theory that the change was aimed at broader analysis of content quality.
October 5, 2011 – Flux
Confirmed update
Matt Cutts tweeted that there could be fluctuations for a few weeks but it will only be around 2%.
October 18, 2011 – Request encryption
Confirmed update
Google said that searches will be encoded (encrypted). Webmasters faced problems when working with analytics, because some of the data in organic keywords was “not represented”. The amount of this data grew over several weeks.
November 3, 2011 – Freshness
Confirmed update
Google announced innovations that will affect approximately 35% of requests. They influence content that is sensitive to time changes, and on the frequency and relevance of publications.
November 14, 2011 – 10 updates (10-Pack of Updates)
Confirmed update
Matt Cutts showed a list of the last ten innovations in an effort to be more open. Some of the updates were small though and included extended snippets, cross-language support, updates, and other factors affecting the ranking and display of search results.
18 November 2011 – Panda (ref. 3.1)
Confirmed update
The Panda continues to weaken, but there have still been updates. The official version of Panda 3.0 has not been launched, which is why many call this version 3.1. Updates are becoming more frequent but affect less than 1% of requests.
December 2011 – December 10
Confirmed update
This is the second half of 10 updates. It affected parked domains, blog searches, photos, images, etc. Google stated that such updates will come monthly.
2010 updates
April 2010 – Google Places (update)
Confirmed update
Back in 2009, Places was launched but remained part of Google Maps. It was in 2010 that it was integrated into local search results. This opened up new opportunities for local SEO and changed the Local Business Center brand in Google places.
May 2010 – May Day update
Confirmed update
The publishers noticed a significant correlation in the search results and Matt Cutts later confirmed that the algorithm was changed. This affected long-tail searches. Many foreshadowed the imminent update of Panda.
June 2010 – Caffeine
Confirmed update
The latest release of a new web indexing, scanning and storage system.
September 2010 – Instant Google
Confirmed update
The add-on made it possible to show the results of the search results while the user was typing the request. This triggered an instant reaction from webmasters who were trying to find a pattern between input and final result. Judging from the discussions, no significant correlation was seen.
November 2010 – Instant View
Confirmed update
A magnifying glass icon has appeared in the SERP. It allowed the user to view pages of different sites on Google without clicking on the link. This clearly speaks of the search engine’s work on design, quality, and user-friendliness.
December 2010 – Social Signals
Unconfirmed update
Social signals from Twitter and Facebook are now taken into account by Bing and Google in their rankings.
December 2010 – Negative reviews
Confirmed update
Google began to consider user and company reviews when ranking after the New York Times smashed DecorMyEyes on its pages. This is a company that had negative customer reviews but still ranked highly in search engines.
2009 updates
February 1, 2009 –Tag Rel-canonical
Confirmed update
Canonical tag was launched as a joint development of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. This innovation allowed SEOs to send canonicalization signals to search bots without affecting users.
February 2009 – Vince
Unconfirmed update
According to SEOs, this update has given priority to larger brands in Google. In contrast, Google’s Matt Cutts insisted that the changes were minor.
August 2009 – Caffeine Preview
Confirmed update
Google presented a new web indexing system that allowed the search engine to crawl and store data much more efficiently, providing the user with more relevant information. Early access was granted to developers in August 2009 with a final rollout in June 2010.
Google asks users to provide feedback by including the word “Caffeine” in the feedback form.
Internal optimization increases Google’s trust in a site. Penalties for spam and technical problems are introduced. A site that takes a long time to load and contains broken links may be downgraded in the search results.
December 2009 – Real Time Search
real-time search has ceased to be a fantasy. Very fast indexing occurs, Twitter appears, and all this is combined into a common feed. It is being updated right here and now.
2008 updates
April 2008 – Dewey
Confirmed update
Strong fluctuations in March and early April. It was rumored that Google was trying to increase its influence by promoting its tools.
August 2008 – Appeared in the search dropdown menu
Confirmed update
Significant update of the Google home page. For the first time, a drop-down menu appears. Its task is to prompt the user with a search query.
2007 updates
May 2007 – World search update
Confirmed update
This cannot be considered an update in full. Google has integrated news, videos, images, and local search verticals into traditional results. This dramatically changed the format of the search results.
June 2007 – Buffy
Unconfirmed update
This correlation of the results was most likely for certain words. It has been suggested that this was just a bunch of small changes.
2006 updates
November 2006 – Snot (again)
Unconfirmed update
It seemed that this update covered the whole of 2006. Google was constantly making changes and adjusting the additional index. At the end of 2006, a statement was made that these were not sanctions applied.
December 2006 – False alarm
Unconfirmed update
Rankings in the SERP have moved a lot, even though Google employees assure that there were no changes.
2005 updates
January 2005 – Nofollow
Confirmed update
Google launched the nofollow parameter. Nofollow helps remove unwanted links, including spam comments on blogs. This is not a traditional algorithm update but still should not be underestimated. The main goal is to fight spam, the update had a big impact on links.
February 2005 – Allegra
Unconfirmed update
The Bourbon update affected 3.5% of requests. There were no unanimous conclusion on what the algorithm was aimed at. One theory is that Allegra influenced the sandbox. Others speculated that Google has begun to penalize poor quality links.
May 2005 – Bourbon
Confirmed update
There was a theory among webmasters that Bourbon affected duplicate content and non-canonical URLs (that is, there was a confrontation between www and sites without www).
2 June 2005 – XML sitemaps
Confirmed update
HTML sitemaps have been replaced with XML. Google allows webmasters to upload sitemaps through the GSC, giving the right to influence the crawling and indexing process.
28 June 2005 – Personalized Search
Confirmed update
Google launches SERP personalization. Unlike earlier attempts, the search engine began to directly use the history of searches, taking into account personal preferences. Although the effect was not significant at first, Google did not abandon the technology.
September 2005 – Gilligan
Unconfirmed update
An update that supposedly consisted of three phases. There were no major changes in the beginning, according to Google. The second stage in October was more visible to optimizers. The SERP is still updated daily but the toolbar PR every quarter. For this reason, many began to call the update nothing more than a false one.
October 2005 – Places and Maps (Google Local/Maps)
Confirmed update
The innovation has affected regional SEO. All information from the maps are linked in the LBC.
December 2005 – Big Daddy
Confirmed update
The Big Daddy update was an infrastructure change aimed at addressing URL canonicalization and redirection issues.
It was a gradual unfolding that began in December 2005 and ended in March 2006.
2004 updates
January 2004 – Austin
Unconfirmed update
An addition to the famous Florida is coming out.Google continues to fight against spam promotion methods. Invisible text and the overspam of keywords both on the page and separately in meta tags are included.
In 2004, there was a theory that Google adopted the “Hilltop” algorithm, as a result, webmasters began to take page relevance more seriously.
14 February 2004 – Brandy
Confirmed update
The algorithm was distinguished by a large number of changes. Brandy brought the expansion of the Google Index, along with an emphasis on anchor text relevance, quality of inbound links defining an online environment and Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). Google is starting to distinguish between synonyms and keyword analysis tactics have changed.
2003 updates
1 February 2003 – Boston (Boston)
Confirmed update
Boston is the first algorithm to receive an official name from Google. This algorithm was launched to analyze the backlink data in more detail. This significantly changed the search results. The original idea of Google was to update the algorithm monthly. As the changes began to occur often, the idea of a monthly periodicity was dropped.
April 2003 – Cassandra
Unconfirmed update
Google and links have been inseparable from the start. The search engine tries to influence the quality of the links. Cassandra focuses on link quality issues, co-domain bulk links, hidden text, and hidden links. It was also the first time that Google allowed banned sites to submit a revision request, which many were waiting for. Webmaster World has been actively discussing changes in keyword weights, banned sites, site age, and redirects.
May 2003 – Dominic
Unconfirmed update
The first Google bots were spotted – Freshbot and Deepcrawler. The exact nature of this algorithm has remained a mystery. Many webmasters reported crashes. The only clear change was that Google is starting to crawl, count, and measure backlinks differently.
The discussion on Webmaster World was so intense that the moderators had to split the discussion into two branches.
June 2003 – Esmeralda
Unconfirmed update
Esmeralda was the last monthly algorithm update, after which the process was more continuous. “Google Dance” has been replaced by “Everflux”. Probably heralded major infrastructure changes at Google. From this moment, an indicator of changes that are already expected is launched.
1 July 2003 – Fritz
Confirmed update
Fritz is completing the monthly Google Dance update and is moving entirely to Everflux. The search engine launches daily crawling and updating of the index percentage to improve and update search results.
September 2003 – Snot (known as Supplemental Index)
Unconfirmed update
Google starts indexing more documents by creating an “additional” index. The danger of getting into it was actively discussed before the reintegration of the index.
1 November 2003 – Florida
Confirmed update
Like Hurricane Florida, the new update was massive and aggressive. Many SEOs felt that the old, spam SEO techniques of the 90s are not only ineffective but can also lead to sanctions and lower positions of the resource.
Many large sites are losing ground. Promotion becomes much more difficult (but also more interesting).
2002 updates
September 2002 – Google Dance Began
Unconfirmed update
THis is the first fixed Google update.
Up to this point, the search engine has been doing monthly Google Dance and PageRank updates. Google Dance supposedly included a significant change in relevance rankings and an increase in the importance of anchor text quality. This update was not officially announced, but many webmasters have noticed large-scale correlations in search results.
This algorithm update generated a lot of discussion on the WebMaster World forum.
The commentator was wrong at that time. Google will change the rules of the game more than once and all SEO specialists will simply have to continue this race to victory.
2000 updates
December 11, 2000 – Google Toolbar
Confirmed update
Google launched TBPR (Toolbar PageRank) to find information faster and easier. The free browser extension allows you to search Google from any webpage and search on any website using Google’s advanced search engine. This moment can be considered the birth of SEO.
The race for top positions has begun.
1998 updates
September 4, 1998
Google Inc. was founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The first algorithm was launched back in March 1998. The search engine was launched and Page Rank was invented. Its algorithm was based on the transfer of link weight between pages and the basic rule that initially all pages have a certain weight. The more resources link to a page, the higher the PR and, accordingly, the higher the place in the search results.
Two basic rules of the new system:
- The more links leading to the page, the higher the PR, and the higher the place in the SERP.
- The higher the Page Rank of a linking page, the more link weight it can transfer.