April 2023 Reviews Update - 12/04/2023

Google released the new April 2023 reviews update on the 12th of April 2023. This is an update building on the original 6 product review updates that had been released previously. This will go beyond product reviews and will look to evaluate all types of reviews with topics focusing on areas related to services and businesses, products, destinations, and media (games, movies, tv shows etc.). 

This update will impact the following languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and Polish. 

Google shared 14 best practices for what it will consider high-quality reviews:

• Evaluate from a user’s perspective.
• Demonstrate that you are an expert or knowledgeable about the review topic.
• Provide images, video, audio, or other material from your personal experience to support your review.
• Share (if available) quantitative measurements when assessing performance.
• Explain how the subject item/topic sets itself apart from its competitors.
• Cover any comparable pieces and go through which might be best in various use cases. 
• Thoroughly discuss the pros and cons. 
• Describe any changes that have been made since a previous model/iteration and why the user might benefit from the latest model. 
• Focus on the most important decision-making factors
• Describe how a product has been designed and the effect this will have for users (beyond what has been stated by the manufacturer).
• Include links to other useful resources to help users make a decision.
• Consider linking to multiple sellers to give users more choices.
• When recommending something as the best choice, use first-hand information as to why you consider this the best. 
• Ensure there is enough useful content in your ranked lists for them to stand on their own, even if you choose to write separate in-depth single reviews.

+SELand

February 2023 Product Reviews Update - 21/02/2023

The sixth iteration of the product reviews update has been released on the 21st of February 2023. Named the February 2023 product reviews update, Google has said this will take about two weeks to roll out. Google Search Central has also stated that this update will now also apply to the following global languages; Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish (as well as English). 

Each one of these updates seeks to provide Google Search users with higher-quality results regarding those related product reviews. To benefit from these updates, websites should aim to regularly update any content related to products and make sure these are as descriptive and useful to users as possible. 

+SELand

December 2022 Spam Update - 14/12/2022

Google has rolled out the December 2022 link spam update which will take two weeks to roll out. This update is global and aims to leverage SpamBrain which was referenced back in 2018. 

SpamBrain aims to remove or punish spam sites as much as possible. Google states that the site algorithm learns by comparing your website to other 'spammy' websites. The more high-quality the content is on your website, the less likely that it will be detected as spam, so this means sites should aim to keep clear of manipulative keywords, cloaking techniques or hidden text as these have been perceived as techniques used by spam websites. 

+SELand

December 2022 Google Helpful Content Update - 05/12/2022

On the 5th of December 2022, another helpful content update started rolling out. This aimed to improve on the original update that was announced back in August. 

Google wants to reward pages that provide useful information and have been created with people in mind rather than those created with the intention to rank well. 

For those wanting to rank well, you will need to make sure that you update your long-form content in line with Google's recommendations. 

+SEJournal

October 2022 Spam Update - 19/10/2022

Google released the first spam update of 2022 on the 19th of October 2022, the last one being reported in November 2021. This took less than 48 hours to fully roll out and the update is a global one, affecting all languages not just English language sites. 

+SELand

+SERoundtable

Google Helpful Content Update - 25/08/2022

Google started rolling out a new update called the Helpful Content Update on the 25th of August 2022. This was completed 15 days on September 9th. 

This update intends to target websites with a large amount of unhelpful content. This is content that has been primarily created to rank on search engines rather than satisfactorily informing human readers. 

This is a site-wide algorithm update that intends to downgrade any sites that have a high amount of SEO content while promoting more helpful content. It is not like other algorithm updates which will be applied on a page-by-page basis. While the update is not niche-specific, Google mentioned that the content that will be impacted most will be: online educational materials, arts and entertainment, shopping and tech-related content as these spaces have traditionally had a high proportion of SEO content. 

This will initially launch for English language searches globally but may expand to other languages in the future. 

+SELand

+SEJournal

Google Page Experience Update - 15/06/2021

Google announced that it was slowly rolling out the page experience update on the 15th of June 2021. Which will continue to roll out until the end of August 2021. Google also mentioned that Top Stores will also stop using AMP and will use this new signal by the 17th of June 2021. 

As this rollout will be slow, there should not be drastic changes. The update is mainly focused on highlighting pages that offer great user experiences, so for most sites, massive changes should not be seen. 

By end of August, all the core web vital metrics such as LCP, FID, and CLS should have been included in the update. 

+SELand

Google BERT Update - 23/10/2019

Google have announced what they called the most important update in five years. 

Google released the BERT algorithm update, which attempts to understand queries the way that humans understand them. The BERT update impacts 10% of search queries.This update is similar in nature to RankBrain. This is a deep learning algorithm related to natural language processing, it helps Google to understand what words in a sentence mean. Effectively, this is about understanding more longer tail, more natural language queries. 

+SEJournal

Halloween Update - 25/10/2018

Some forum chatter going on about a possible update, plus several of the SERP tracking tools have picked-up above normal flux. Not confirmed by Google. Could possibly be targeted at specific niches.
+Search Engine Roundtable
+Search Engine Roundtable - further update 6th Nov

Google Birthday Update - 26/09/2018

Towards the end of the month Barry Schwartz was able to confirm with Danny Sullivan of Google that there had indeed been a more minor update that started impacting on the 26th September. However, the wording 'small' is in relation to the number of websites impacted, and not the level of impact (which has been big) for those hit by it.
+Search Engine Roundtable
+Search Engine Roundtable
+Rank Ranger - in-depth analysis

Speed Update - 09/07/2018

After 6 months of build-up, Google has released its "Speed Update". This is an aknowledged and "named" Google update. Up to this point, website speed has been a ranking factor for desktop search, but not mobile search. This update brings website speed as a ranking factor to mobile search. As with the desktop version, this will only affect the slowest loading websites in terms of a ranking signal (and only for some queries). Essentially, if you're giving users a poor experience on mobile due to your website loading slowly, you can reasonably expect you mobile Google rankings to drop.

REMEMBER: toggle "Mobile" above your Panguin chart and click "Go", to only look at your Google organic mobile traffic.

ACTION: If you're worried about your website's speed and you'd like some help, then drop us a line. We can audit your website's speed, tell you what needs to be done and implement it for you (if you don't have internal dev resource).

+Google Announcement
+Search Engine Land Announcement
+Search Engine Land FAQs

Celebrity Update - 15/12/2017

Google has released an update that seems to have had the effect of impacting celebrity websites. One possible reason for the consistent drop is that prior to the 15th, celebrity sites have been treated differently to other websites by Google's algorithm. The fact is, many celebrity websites are not good from an SEO/content best practice point of view. A case in point is that Katy Perry's site has stayed at the top of the SERPs for her 'brand' term and is markedly better from an SEO/content point of view than many others.
+G-Squared Interactive
+G-Squared Interactive - December Analysis

Maccabees Update(s) - 12/12/2017

Google has confirmed it's released several updates at around this time. These have been grouped (for now) under the title 'Maccabees' as the chages associated with this update are the most widespread.

The first major symptom seems to be that websites using doorway pages have been hit hard. In other words, websites with a large number of landing pages targeting large arrays of keyword permutations. If you're a business with a set of services that you deliver to different locations, and you have an array of very similar (to each other) pages on your website that target each service for each location, then Google (it would seem) has you in its cross-hairs.

Symptom two is more akin to Fred and the core quality updates that police low value and ad-heavy, or affiliate-heavy websites. All that aside, there does seem to be some collateral damage with this update, with good websites being unfairly hit. Possibly some algo tweaking required from Google here!

+Search Engine Roundtable
+Search Engine Roundtable - Analysis
+Search Engine Land
+G-Squared Interactive - December Analysis
+Google - what is a doorway page?
+Wikipedia - who were the Maccabees?

Project Owl - 25/04/2017

Project Owl created by Google was a three pronged attack focusing on problematic content and fake news.  'Project Owl' Google aimed to improve results by focusing on authoritative content and obtaining feedback regarding Featured Snippets answers and suggested searches. Google are aware that they have a search quality problem. It has been plagued since November with concerns about offensive search suggestions, unsettling answers and fake news which have been appearing at the top of the SERPs. Project Owl was created in an attempt to address these important issues. Google have stated however that this issue affects 0.25% of all search queries. The algorithmic search quality changes are approximately 10% implemented and are likely to reach 100% in the following days. However, despite these changes, Google are aware that they cannot eliminate the problem entirely.

+Search Engine Land
+Search Engine Roundtable
+The Telegraph

Japanese Content Quality Update - 03/02/2017

This morning, a significant algorithm update hit Google Japan which focused on low quality websites. The update resulted in certain websites moving down the results in the SERPs. 
+Japanese Google Webmaster Blog
+Search Engine Roundtable

Hacked Spam - 05/10/2015

From the Google blog:

Google have been recently implementing a number of algorithmic changes to address hacked spam in the search results. A high number of legitimate websites are targeted by spammers and are used to engage in abusive behaviour. Typically this includes promotion of traffic to low quality websites, downloads of malware, porn and the marketing of counterfeit goods or illegal pharmaceutical drugs to name a few. 

Websites that do not put in place suitable best practices in terms of security can leave their websites being vulnerable to hackers. This can include government websites, universities, small business and company websites, restaurants, conferences and hobby organizations. Cyber criminals and spammers intentionally seek out these types of websites and inject web pages with malicious content to gain rankings and traffic in search engines. 

Consequently, Google are aggressively targeting hacked spam in order to safeguard webmasters and users. 

It is estimated that the algorithmic changes will affect approximately 5% of queries depending on the language. 

As a result, if your website exists in any hacked spam keyword niches but your site is a legitimate one, you could benefit form the SERPs 'de-cluttering' which will be favourable for your site. This will leave you in a much stronger position. 

+Google Blog

Rankbrain - 30/04/2015

26 October, 2015 - announcement date
A major announcement was made by Google who revealed that machine learning had been part of the algorithm for a number of months and it contributed to the third most influential ranking factor. It is believed that the actual launch occured at some stage in Spring 2015, which is why the update displays a different time to when the update was actually announced officially.
+Bloomberg
+Search Engine Land

HTTPS / SSL Update - 06/08/2014

Following many months of speculation, Google announced that they would give preference to secure websites. They added that encryption would provide a light boost to rankings. It was also stressed that this would start out small but it may increase if the change delivered positive results. 
+Google
+Search Engine Land

Mugshot Update - 03/10/2013

Arrest information and photographs from US government websites were picked up by Mugshot sites. This data was then used to create landing pages which will rank effectively in the search engine results pages. When an individual then searches for their own name and sees the result, it is likely that they will pay to have it removed. Websites charge anywhere between $30 and $400 to remove the page and there are multiple sites that they need to pay to have their information removed. More often than not, arrests did not lead to a trial or a guilty charge but the web pages don't provide this level of detail. Google has however, taken proactive steps to stop these mugshot websites from ranking so highly in the SERPs.
+Search Engine Land

Multi-Week Update - 27/06/2013

A reply was tweeted by Matt Cutts from Google that suggested a multi week algorithm update that would take place between 12 June and the week after 4 July. The specifics of the update remained unclear but there were significant changes in rankings during that period which peaked on 27 June (as reported by MozCast data). It seemed that Google had been carrying out some tests in relation to proposed changes, but these were later rolled back.
+Moz
+Search Engine Roundtable

Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update - 28/09/2012

Google made an announcement that they were changing the way Exact Match Domains (EMDs) were going to be handled. This resulted in a large scale devaluation which reduced the presence of Exact Match Domains by more than 10%. Official word was that approximately 0.6% of search queries were affected.
+Moz
+Search Engine Land

Parked Domain Bug - 16/04/2012

A series of shuffles in ranking were reported by webmasters and Google confirmed that there had been a data error. This error resulted in some domains being mistakenly classed as 'parked domains' and consequently they were devaluated. This was not an intentional change to the algorithm.
+Search Engine Land
+Search Engine Roundtable

Search+ Your World - 10/01/2012

A significant shift in personalisation was announced by Google. This update aggressively moved Google+ social information and user profiles into the SERPs. There was also an addition of a new, toggle button to switch off personalisation.
+Google
+Search Engine Land

Freshness Update - 03/11/2011

An announcement from Google stated that an algorithm change had taken place which favoured freshness and this would affect up to 35% of search queries. This was up to 3 times the impact of Panda 1.0. The update affected time sensitive search queries but placed great emphasis on content that was up to date.
+Google
+Search Engine Land

Attribution Update - 28/01/2011

Following a series of high profile spam cases, Google responded with an update to remedy content attribution and prevent scrapers. It was reported by Matt Cutts that approximately 2% of search queries were affected.
+Matt Cutts

Negative Reviews - 03/12/2010

An expose in the New York Times described how DecorMyEyes, an ecommerce based website had managed to rank based on negative reviews. This resulted in Google adjusting the algorithm to prevent websites using similar tactics from ranking well in the SERPs.
+Google
+The New York Times

Social Signals - 01/12/2010

It was confirmed by both Google and Bing that social signals were used to determine ranking and this included data from Facebook and Twitter. Confirmed by Matt Cutts, this was a relatively new development, but it was something that had been expected for a long time by SEO specialists.
+Search Engine Land
+Search Engine Land

May Day - 01/05/2010

Webmasters identified a substantial drop in their long tail traffic toward the end of April and into May. It was later confirmed by Matt Cutts that May Day was an algorithm change which affected long tail. Websites that featured lots of thin content were hit particularly hard and this was even more so with the Panda update.
+Search Engine Land
+Search Engine Roundtable

Real-Time Search - 15/12/2009

A number of real time feeds were integrated into the SERPs from websites such as Twitter and Google News. Sources continued to expand over time and included more 'real time' social media feeds.
+Search Engine Land

Vince - 15/02/2009

A number of SEOs reported that a significant update was released that favoured high profile brands. This update, Vince was deemed to be a minor one by Matt Cutts, but many SEOs felt that the effects would be profound with lasting implications.
+SEO Book
+Search Engine Land

Dewey - 25/04/2008

Toward the end of March and into early April, a significant shuffle took place but specific details about any update were unclear. Some suspected that it was something to do with Google pushing its own internal properties including Google Books, but there wasn't substantial evidence to support this theory.
+Search Engine Roundtable

Buffy - 15/07/2007

To honour the departure of Vanessa Fox from Google, this update was dubbed Buffy. Although no one quite understood what actually happened, but Matt Cutts confirmed that Buffy was a series of minor changes.
+Matt Cutts
+Search Engine Roundtable

Supplemental Update - 15/11/2006

It appeared that Google had made changes to the way in which filtered pages were managed and the supplemental index throughout 2006. Although it felt like it was a penalty, it was claimed late in the year that it was not.
+Search Engine Roundtable

Big Daddy - 15/12/2005

Similar to the more recent Caffeine update, Big Daddy was more of an infrastructure update which concluded at the end of March 2006. Big Daddy completely changed the way in wihch URL canonicalisation and 301/302 redirects were handled by Google, as well as addressing a range of other technical issues.
+Matt Cutts
+Moz

Jagger - 15/10/2005

A number of updates were released to target low quality linking issues such as reciprocal links, paid links and link farms. The Jagger update was implemented in three stages between September and November 2005, with the greatest impact being felt in October.
+Search Engine Roundtable
+Webmaster World

Gilligan - 15/09/2005

Gilligan was also referred to as a false update where webmasters saw ongoing changes. Google claimed that there hadn't been any major algorithm updates. In a blog post, Matt Cutts outlined that Google had updated the index of daily data but the Toolbar PR and other metrics had only been updated once in three months.
+Search Engine Watch
+Matt Cutts

Personalized Search - 15/06/2005

Personalised search that was rolled out in 2005 aimed to tap into user search history to adjust the search results automatically. This update was unlike any previous attempt at personalisation. Initially the impact was small, but Google went on to use search history for a number of applications.
+Search Engine Watch
+Google

Bourbon - 15/05/2005

A number of changes were being rolled out in relation to search quality. Although no one was quite sure about what the change was exactly, Webmaster World members speculated that Bourbon had changed the way in which non-canonical www. vs. non-www. URLs and duplicate content were processed.
+John Battelle's Search Blog
+Search Engine Roundtable

Allegra - 15/02/2005

Ranking changes were witnessed by webmasters, with some suggesting that the update Allegra had affected the Sandbox while others believed that it was the LSI that was impacted. There was also speculation as to whether suspicious links were being penalised.
+Search Engine Watch

Brandy - 15/02/2004

A series of changes were rolled out by Google which included a huge index expansion. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) served to increase the focus on the relevance of anchor text and the idea of link neighbourhoods. LSI improved the ability of Google to understand related words and phrases (synonyms) and enabled keyword analysis to progress to the next level.
+webpronews.com
+SitePoint

Austin - 15/01/2004

Any issues that were overlooked by the update 'Florida' were addressed by Austin. Google continued to tackle on page strategies that proved to be deceptive including meta tag stuffing and invisible text. There was some speculation that Google had implemented the Hilltop algorithm and began to take page relevance very seriously.
+Search Engine Journal
+Search-Marketing.info

Florida - 15/11/2003

As one of the more prominent updates, this was perhaps the one that put the SEO industry on the map. A number of websites lost their rankings following-on from this update, and business owners were furious. Florida effectively eliminated many of the SEO strategies from the 1990s including keyword stuffing, and made the SEO landscape far more interesting .
+Search Engine Watch

Supplemental Index - 15/09/2003

In an attempt to index documents without impacting on performance, Google separated some results into what was known as a supplemental index. The dangers of having results move into the supplemental index was a hotly debated SEO topic until the index was later re-integrated.
+Search Engine Watch

Fritz - 15/07/2003

Fritz brought to an end the monthly Google Dance. Rather than entirely overhauling the index on a monthly basis, Google changed this to an incremental approach. As a result, the index now changed on a daily basis.
+Matt Cutts explains algo updates and data refreshes
+Wired exclusive

Esmeralda - 15/06/2003

Esmeralda was the last of the monthly updates from Google and a more continouous process started to emerge. Everflux replaced the Google Dance and it was the Esmeralda update that signalled the start of some major infrastructure changes for Google.
+Webmaster World

Dominic - 15/05/2003

Although several changes were highlighted in May, the specifics surrounding Dominic were particularly vague. The Google Bots, 'Freshbot' and 'Deepcrawler' searched the web and a significant number of websites reported bounces. Furthermore, the way in which backlinks were counted or reported appeared to change dramatically.
+Webmaster World

Cassandra - 15/04/2003

Google implemented a series of steps to address some basic issues with the quality of links including extensive linking from co-owned domains. Cassandra also heavily penalised sites for hidden text and links contained within web pages.

+Webmaster World

Boston - 15/02/2003

The first named Google Update which was announced at SES Boston. Initially, Google aimed to roll out major updates on a monthly basis. The first few updates combined a series of algorithm changes and large index refreshes (known as the 'Google Dance'). As the updates were rolled out more frequently, the monthly schedule of updating soon disappeared.

1st Documented Update - 15/09/2002

Before the introduction of the first named update 'Boston', there was a major shuffle which took place in the Autumn of 2002. Although the details are unclear, these changes appeared to be much more than the monthly PageRank and Google Dance updates. One webmaster said of Google: "they move the toilet mid stream".
+Webmaster World
+Level343

Google Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) - 15/12/2000

The browser toolbar was released by Google as well as its Toolbar Page Rank (TBPR). This was the start of many years of arguments in the SEO community. Soon after the TBPR was released, the Google Dance began.
+Google