Google Algorithm Updates & Changes

 Google Search Engine every day goes on updating their algorithm for the betterment of the user experience. You will find below all the Google Algorithm updates and changes whether major algorithm update or core algorithm updates, minor updates and some non confirmed updates. Some expert says that Google changes its algorithm 500+ times a year.

Google Algorithm Updates

Google Algorithm Updates 2022

Google Algorithm Updates October 2022

19th Oct 2022 :  Spam Update

Google rolled out an Update on 19th October called as spam update and it fully completed on 21st Oct and the update was global and affects all languages. 

Google Algorithm Updates September 2022

20th Sept 2022 :  Product Review Update

Google has rolled out  several  product review update over the years and now agin on 20th Sept 2022 and it was applicable for english language only

12th Sept 2022 :  September Broad Core Update

Google rolled out their Broad Core Update in September called as September Broad Core Update and it was fully completed on 26th Sept. Usually in lot of core updates Google does not reveal much but we can have a intuition that is will always cover the user experience as Goolge is focused on proving the user the best experience

9th Sept 2022 : Helpful Content Update

Google has fully rolled out helpful content updates on 9th September 2022 and it is said to be one of the biggest updates after panda update. It is aimed to provide original & helpful content to every users and this google algorithm will make sure that the content are written by real human and not by any robotic tools. 

Some Pointers that can help you optimize for the Helpful Content Update

Every visitors should have the satisfying experience, so give them relevant content at the start of the intro paragraphs

EAT factors for that webpages are also taken into consideration

Add some research material to your content

The Page topic should be comprehensive and try to explain many things 

To get more details s how to optimize your website for helpful content, you need to refer to this Blog on Googles Helpful Content Update

6th Sept 2022 : September Updates in Microsoft Ads

1)You can now import Pinterest Ads in Microsoft Ads

2)You can even import performance max campaigns and ads in Microsoft ads

3)You can manage multimedia ads from any country

4)Microsoft cruise ads, tours and activity ads are available for everyone now

5) You can use subdomains in Microsoft as landing pages in Microsoft Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)

Google Algorithm Updates Jan 2022

17th Jan 2022 : Google Products Review Update

Google plans to  expand the Product Reviews Update and it  may use Machine Learning & can be incorporated in Core Updates and the update will be beyond the english language

11th Jan 2022 : Desktop Page Experience Update

Google has always focused on Page Experience & User Experience & want to get the Page Experience Update for desktop version also and hey will get it on desktop version very soon. The Page Experience ranking in Google Search  which is  mostly based on Core Web Vitals on Desktop will be probably rolling out in the next month.

For the desktop page experience update will include the following things

1.Largest Contentful Paint (LCP

2.Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

3.First Input Delay (FID)

4. HTTPS Security

5.Absence of intrusive interstitials

Google Algorithm Updates 2021

Google Algorithm Update Dec 2021

28^th Dec : Google announced change in the Product Entity evaluation in Google search console

A lot of error in the Product section in GSC must have been changed into warnings

Mid Dec Update : Local Search Update

Google has lowered  or lessen the effective area range for the listings

Eg Previously a listing was showing in 25 km radius and now they are showing on 15KM radius only

15^th Dec 2021 : GA4 & Google Web Console Properties can be linked

It was in the classic version & now its in G4

14^th Dec 2021 : Google Changed the Way is report Rich results in the Google Search Console

Rating schema type to be removed out of review schema

10 Dec : Google Changed Map Style in Local Results

Now you can see listings at the left & maps at the right

9th Dec : Youtube announced places mentioned in the Video

9^th Dec : Google Updates their Google News related things 

Data Anomolies in Search Console

7^th Dec : Google Launched image extension for desktop as well

6^th Dec - Top Stories Redesign

Google rolling out new top stories on desktop search and the new design will somewhat match the design of the mobile device. One recommended tip it to have AMP Version created for your website pages as it did give advantage to  Top stories on mobile devices. If AMP Plugins can be used on your CMS then it would really be helpful to you.

6^th Dec : Google Updated its Political Content

The New Political content policy will come in effect from 15^th February 2022. It will affect all the campaign were political  candidate name , photo or related information & they need to follow the policies strictly

Read the updates to political content policy

3^rd Dec : Google Ads API will support recommendation, performance max campaign & Keyword Planner

Upgrade to the Google Ads API Feature for even more features

2^nd Dec : Google Announced Shopping Integration with Prestashop

Dec 2021  - Product Review Update:

The Product Reviews that display full original information and in-depth information of the products. It should not be a thin summary but need to have helpful insights will gain advantage. It needs to be trustworthy and written by Experts.

Google said that if we provide multimedia, any visuals or audio or any other links to support the genuineness of your reviews. It also said to provide proper links to multiple sellers to give the potential users to purchases from their desired merchants that they want.

Product Reviews should show how it can be used by every user and the content should be different than that of manufacturer and the USP of the product and you can cover comparable products. You should also include the benefits and drawbacks and the up-gradation made from the previous release and explain how the product performs in its categories. You need to have expert opinion, quantitative data, expert knowledge and product comparison will help you rank well for product review If you add more multimedia to your product reviews it will definitely help to build credibility to the expertise and also reveal your authenticity

Google Algorithm Update Nov 2021

30^th Nov 2021 : Local Search Update

The Local search update was related to rankings & Google has update their local ranking signals to determine the  best results to the users. You can check the below link & improve your local rankings

This below link shows the guidelines that we need to strictly follow

: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091.

 Still relevance, distant & proximity are the main local ranking factors. This update actually corresponds to the most recent change by Google to its local Map pack or the Local 3 Pack layout, which is displayed on the right side of the screen and has a square layout instead of the rectangular layout which we used to see previously

3^rd Nov 2021  :  Spam Update:

This broad spam update is an google algorithm in relation to content spam and not link spam. You need to following all the google content guidelines. The algorithm will impact the ranking of your GMB profile in the Local Pack Only

17^th Nov 2021 : November 2021 Core Update :

Usually core update are broad updates and they don’t target one specific pointer but in overall & they meant to update how to assess your content. This Algorithm Update may be on Knowledge Graph as some researchers saw some significant changes on their Knowledge Graphs

 

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/webmaster-guidelines

 

Google Algorithm Update October 2021

2^nd Oct 2021 : Unnamed Update :

 Google did not confirm the update , but various sites saw some fluctuations in their rankings

 Google Algorithm Update August 2021

Aug 2021 :  Page Title Rewrites :

Google has introduced a new system of generating titles for web pages. Earlier the titles in SERP might change based on the query issued. This update is designed to produce more engaging & readable titles. So don’t overuse keywords in your titles tags and don’t write big titles & avoid having empty or non-descriptive title tags. Examples like like Home or Untitled, so instead write the Brand name, product & services name etc in the title tags

You can read more at this link  : https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/08/update-to-generating-page-titles

 Google Algorithm Update July 2021

28^th July 2021 : Link spam update

Google announced link spam update &  this update was declared as a broad algorithm update across multiple languages. We need to qualify al the links that are on our website. Eg: if you have a sponsored ads links then you can tag it as rel=sponsored in your code. If there is any affiliate or 3^rd party link, you need to qualify these links appropriately

1^st July 2021 : July Core Update

The July 2021 Core Update was just an extension to the June Core Update

Google Algorithm Update June 2021

June 25, 2021 : Page Experience Update

Page level experience is very much need for UX of every internet users. You can find how your website has been affected by this update or not by going to the search console. This is also somewhere related to core web vitals

More Information : https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/04/more-details-page-experience

June 2021 Core Update

This is again a major core algorithm that Google introduced in June 2021

Google Algorithm Update April 2021

April, 2021 - Product Reviews Update

 

Google Algorithm Update March 2021

12^th March 2021 : Featured Snippet Recovery Update

 

Google Algorithm Update February 2021

 19^th Feb, 2021 : Featured Snippet Drop

 

10^th Feb 2021 : Passage Indexing (US/English)

Passage indexing which is related to passage ranking was introduced by Google for mostly english/US queries.

 

Google Algorithm Updates 2020

Google Algorithm Update December 2020

3^rd Dec 2020: Dec 2020 Core Update: UX, EAT & Core Web Vitals

The UX & EAT still continues to be the core algorithm elements. You can to create high informational content with the help of experts in the subject matter. You need to create original & unique content and need to have expert bio snippet linking to the content. Also, your optimized content needs to speak to your audience.

The Core vitals is related to the following below 3 elements

FID : how quickly user interacts  100 millisec

CLS ; when you are reading, images comes in between & then content goes down

LCP : Largest contentful paint ; largest thing on website should take 2.5 secs to upload

 

 

4^th May 2020: May 2020 Core Update
 The entire search intent changed due the pandemic & Google made it easier for people to find relevant answers to their questions with the update. So you need to create content based on people can ask that Google suggestions and the content based on the question the user left on the Google my Business of your site or your competitors site or on various sites in your niche.

 

13^th January 2020: Jan 2020 core update :

Google recommends that users pay attention to E.A.T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

 

June 2019 Google Algorithm Update

 

6^th June : Site Diversity Update

In the month fo June Google annoucned a "site diversity" update and various sites which had more than two organic listings in the top 10 was not given placement for more than 2 listngs in the SERPs

 

Feb 2019 : featured snipped drop Update
 

10^th Feb 2019 : Passage Indexing Update:

 Google recently made a breakthrough in ranking and are now they can,  not only index web pages, but individual passages from the web pages. Hey can do this by better understanding the wholte relevancy of those specific passages, not just the overall page

 

May 2020 Updated: Relevant, Latest & Localized Content

Jan 2020 Update: Frequent & Fresh Content

 

Year 2019 Google Algorithm Update

 

9^th Dec 2019 : International BERT Roll-out

Google rolled out the BERT Update internationally to 70 Languages

 

Oct 22^nd 2019 : BERT Algorithm Update :

BERT which means  Bidirectional Encoder Representations form Transformers Update focused on Sentence or phrase with a sentence, NLP : Natural Language Processing. Focus on Search Queries & not webpages. The BERT update also affected the featured snippet position rankings. About 10% of search queries got affected

October 2, 2019 : Unnamed Update

24^th Sept 2019:  September 2019 Core Update  

 

July 12, 2019 : maverick Update

 

3^rd June : June 2019 Core Update

 

March : Fred Update

Fred Update: This Google’s Fred Update was brought out in March 2017 to target sites that featured sub-par and obviously-thin content for the only purpose of generating ad or affiliate revenue. Low quality blogs were affected

 

Possum Update:

 Focused on Local Business. Also try and include close variations of the same search query and diversify your keyword coverage strategy by doing a deep-dive into locally relevant search terms. Make sure that the same, consistent address is specified across all business directories and places on the web.

Oct 2015 Rankbrain Update

Rank Brain was rolled out in October 2015 and is nothing but the extension of the Hummingbird. Additionally, audit your content to check if it sounds natural and not as though it were authored by a machine. Also, include popular phrases that people would use in conversational language to be on the safer side.  

 

April 2015 : Mobile Speed Update

The Mobile Speed Google algorithm update or Mobilegeddon was introduced in April 2015.

 

Pigeon Update

Users experienced better local search results based on nearness or distance factors

 

Panda Update

The Panda Update is a major update & it is targeted on Content metrics. All the sites that were having Low quality or thin content link was affected by the algorithm. Even today if your don’t have content above the fold content area, it will affect your website negatively

 

Penguin Update

The Penguin update was also a major algorithm update and focus on links. Google started to not given preference for spammy links, overused anchor text links