a visual history of google algorithm changes
TRANSCRIPT
SOURCE: http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
LEARN MORE:http://bit.ly/seo-myths-14
J A N U A R Y
F EBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE JULY
AUGUST
SE
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OVEMBER
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Big brands get a boost in search results.
FEBRUARYVINCE
Twitter feeds, Google News, & new content are integrated into real-time feed.
DECEMBERREAL-TIME SEARCH
LBC rebranded “Places,” is integrated more closely with local search results.
APRILGOOGLE PLACES
Crackdown on low-quality pages ranking for long-tail keyword searches.
MAYMAY DAY
Launch of new web indexing system, resulting in 50% fresher index.
JUNECAFFEINE
Crackdown on thin content, content farms, sites with high ad-to-content ratio.
FEBRUARYPANDA
Greater emphasis put on recent content in search results.
NOVEMBERFRESHNESS UPDATE
Google+ data & user profiles included in search results.
JANUARYSEARCH + YOUR WORLD More localized
results appear for broad queries.
FEBRUARYVENICE
Crackdown on link schemes, keyword-stuffing, other black hat tactics.
APRILPENGUIN
Relevant facts & images included alongside traditional results.
MAYKNOWLEDGE GRAPH
Crackdown on low-quality sites that have search terms in their domain names.
SEPTEMBEREXACT MATCH DOMAIN
New type of result, dedicated to more evergreen, long-form content.
AUGUSTIN-DEPTHARTICLES Google recognizes
full-question searches, emphasizes high-quality content.
AUGUSTHUMMINGBIRD
More emphasis on quality backlinks.
FEBRUARYBOSTON
Crackdown on linking from co-owned domains, hidden text & links.
APRILCASSANDRA
Improvements to the counting & reporting of backlinks.
MAYDOMINIC
Improvements to the index infrastructure.
JUNE/JULY ESMERELDA& FRITZ Crackdown on
keyword-stuffing & other black hat SEO tactics.
NOVEMBERFLORIDA
Crackdown on “invisible” text, meta tag-stuffing.
JANUARYAUSTIN
Crackdown on suspicious-looking links.
FEBRUARYALLEGRA
Improvements to how duplicate content & non-canonical URLs are treated.
MAY BOURBON
Results take user’s search history into account.
JUNEPERSONALIZED SEARCH Crackdown on
reciprocal links, link farms, paid links.
OCTOBERJAGGER
Map data is integrated with Local Business Center (LBC) data.
OCTOBERGOOGLE LOCAL
Updates to URL canonicalization, redirects, & other technical issues.
DECEMBERBIG DADDY
Changes to the supplemental index & filtered pages.
NOVEMBERSUPPLEMENTALUPDATE
Integration of traditional results with News, Video, Images, Local, etc.
MAY UNIVERSAL SEARCH Update to single-
word search results & other small changes.
JUNE BUFFY
Unspecified update to the search index.
APRILDEWEY
Index expansion, rollout of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI).
FEBRUARYBRANDY
A VISUAL HISTORY OF GOOGLE ALGORITHM CHANGESA VISUAL HISTORY OF GOOGLE ALGORITHM CHANGESOver the years, Google has made thousands of changes to the way it finds and prioritizes information on the web. While most of these changes have been small, there have also been several major changes, which have significantly impacted how marketers think about SEO. Below is a snapshot of when (and why) Google rolled out its most notable algorithm changes.
Note: We’ve also included some important, non-algorithm changes that have had a big impact on search.
2003 2004
2005 2006
2007 2008 2009
2010
2012 2013
2011
Rolled out in 2011, the Panda update affected 11.8% of queries and was specifically targeted at article directories (a.k.a. "content farms"). As a result, sites including wisegeek.com, suite101.com, and ezinearticles.com saw huge drops in their search results rankings.
The Penguin update (2012) affected an estimated 3.1% of English searches. Gaming sites and porn sites were among the biggest search ranking losers.
THE BIG ONESPANDA & PENGUIN