Here are the most substantial Google updates that change
SEO strategies forever.
Google’s algorithms are a complicated network that is employed to fetch data from its search inventory and immediately gives the best results for a certain query that is searched for on the search bar.
The search engine employs a hodgepodge of algorithms and several ranking factors to provide web pages ranked with relevancy on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
In its earlier years, Google only rolled out a few updates to its algorithms each year; but now, Google rolls out thousands of modifications every year.
The majority of the Google algorithm updates are too minor to notice. Nevertheless, it happens every once in a while that Google brings up a change so central and fundamental, that it changes the way of doing SEO.
Today, in this article, we will be figuring out eight of the most substantial search algorithms. We will peek into why these updates were initiated, how they function, and what changes we have to bring to our SEO techniques to work within the guidelines.
So, let’s dive in and explore.
8 Major Google Algorithms Updates:
Panda
Inception
February 24th, 2011
Problems
Copies, plagiarized, or thin content; user-generated spam and keyword stuffing.
How it Works
The Panda update was likely triggered if your traffic is down and your rankings are down in Google’s SERPs. Once a site displays low quality content or spammy techniques, it’s dropped down from Google’s SERPs. Panda gets revamped from time to time to look for updated blackhat techniques. As these updates take place, the website’s rankings may fluctuate depending on what the algorithm picks up. This algorithm assigns a so-called “quality score” to websites. This score is a Google ranking factor.
How to Adjust
In order to avoid drastic fluctuations in your traffic and rankings, one of the best proactive measures you can take is to perform regular technical audits; specifically ones that scan for
copied content, thin content, and/or keyword stuffing. We use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs and leverage it’s technical auditing features, as well as SEO PowerSuite’s Website Auditor.
Using WebSite Auditor’s new Content Editor module, you can also forgo a conceivable liability and build pages without the threat of unexpected or spontaneous keyword stuffing. The Content Editor assesses the web pages of your competitors and delivers SEO suggestions based on the content that’s already working in Google search. Additionally, you can also edit and check your content for plagiarism across other sites being indexed by Google.
Penguin
Inception
April 24, 2012
Problems
Spammy or unrelated links; links with over-optimized anchor text.
How it works
Google Penguins algorithm lowers a site’s rankings when it’s triggered by spammy backlinks or unnatural link velocity. This update put a fullstop to low-effort link formation, such as buying links from certain link farms or PBNs (Private Blog Networks).
How to adjust
To stay protected from the Google Penguin algorithm, check your link profile’s expansion and conduct periodic audits with a backlink checker such as SEO SpyGlass or Moz. You can find your link’s profile growth in the tool’s summary dashboard. There, you can learn about the value of your link and discover new, more legitimate link building opportunities. Further, you can also look out for any unusual links popping appearing. It is not uncommon for your competitors to implement a Blackhat SEO campaign against you and build thousands of low quality backlinks to your site.
Hummingbird
Inception
August 22, 2013
Problems
Keyword stuffing; low-quality content.
How it Works
The Hummingbird algorithm assists Google by understanding a users searcher’s intent. While keywords continue to be significant, the Hummingbird algorithm makes it feasible for a web page to rank for a question even if it doesn’t carry the certain words the searcher entered into Google’s search bar. This is accomplished with the assistance of real lingo processing that depends on LSI (Latent Semantic Index), co-occurring phrases, and synonyms.
How to adjust
Broaden your keyword research and concentrate on the notions behind the keywords. Also, evaluate the relevant searches, synonyms, and co-occurring phrases carefully. Great resources for things like this include: Google Related Searches, Google Related Questions, and Google Autocomplete suggestions. You can also discover all of them integrated into Rank Tracker’s Keyword Research module.
Mobile
Inception
April 21, 2015
Problems
Absence of a mobile version of the web page; poor mobile usability.
How it works
This update has changed Google’s preference of crawling a mobile version of a website to validate it’s quality and performance. Currently, Google indexes all websites on the basis of how quick and user-friendly the mobile versions are. This is irregardless of where the majority of your users come from.
How to adjust
The best way to stay inside Google’s guidelines is to optimize your web pages for mobile inquiries and focus on the momentum and usability of the site. Google’s mobile-friendly and page speed tests will assist you to recognize which facets of your page require attention.
RankBrain
Inception
October 26, 2015
Problems
Absence of query-specific relevance; superficial content; poor UX (User Experience).
How it works
RankBrain is a facet of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm. It is a ML (Machine Learning) system that assists Google to comprehend the importance and relevance of user inquiries and serves the best-matching results for those inquiries.
The consensus is that RankBrain is responsible for customizing a user’s Google SERPs. Google goes beyond a person’s search question and looks for context and relevance, as well as things like synonyms, keywords, and private search history.
How to adjust
You can optimize your web pages for relevancy and comprehensiveness with the assistance of active examination. With the WebSite Auditor‘s TF-IDF tool, you can find whole lists of related phrases and terms used by your top-ranking competitors. You need to discover a way to put in these phrases within your content and you will notice your search rankings boost dramatically.
Medic
Inception
May 4, 2018
Problems
Lack of authority on YMYL websites; weak E-A-T signals.
How it works
The Google Medic update appeared to affect medical websites and other sites that have to do with potentially life-altering decisions. Google Agents (bot’s) have indicated that the update executed some of the E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) cues from the Quality Rater Guidelines article.
How to Adjust
To this day, there is no substantiated recovery technique for the Medic update. Some SEOs suggest expert writers to authorize credibility to your website while others profess the antidote is in creating entities for your domain. However, by sticking to the facts, we conclude that you can increase your website’s value by developing your backlink profile.
Bert
Inception
October 22, 2019
Problems
Poorly written content; lack of focus; lack of context.
How it works
The update of Bert uses raw language processing technology to better comprehend search questions, infer the context, recognize entities and the connections between those entities.
Panda, Hummingbird, and RankBrain updates rely on keywords, and the BERT update is the completion of this process. BERT enables Google to infer much more nuance in both questions and SERPs and helps deliver the best possible answers to a user’s search intent.
How to adjust
Maybe we can consider ourselves fortunate that we’re finally at the point where Google rewards good content. We’re at a point where significant copy is crucial.
It’s in your best interest to minimize the fluff words and focus on an excellent and outstanding style of writing. It is also in your best interest to do entity analysis when building a copy; by including related entities, it assists in building context around your topic.
Core Updates
Inception
2017-present
How it works
A look back to 2017, Google began to focus on larger updates like Google Core Updates. Previously, there was very little transparency about what those updates actually meant and what they’re intentions were. SEOs would frequently track post-update indexing changes and attempt to reverse engineer Google’s algorithms. Google core updates are just modifications on previous Google revamps and packets of minor updates that are linked and tied together.
How to adjust
As the consequences of Google core updates are frequently unknown, one thing you can do is to trace the SERP results for the keywords that you are targeting. Once the update rolls out, you can survey which of your competitors have shifted up or down and look for patterns and contributing conditions. To begin tracking your SERP history, you can launch Rank Tracker.
All you need to do is Target Keywords > Rank Tracking > SERP Analysis, and click Record SERP data.
The tool will begin tracking the top SERP positions for each of your targeted keywords.
Conclusion
Hope you received a better understanding of some of Google’s Algorithms from this post. We have written down the adjustment methods to let you get an edge over your competitors and to better leverage Google Algorithm updates. You can apply them and improve your website’s rankings. Remember that it’s better to be PROactive as opposed to REactive.
