Extensive History of Google Algorithm Updates

Spam Update – December 2024

Core Update – December 2024

Core Update – November 2024

Core Update – August 2024

The August 2024 Core Update from Google brought significant changes to the way websites are ranked, with a strong focus on content quality, user experience, and authority. This update emphasizes rewarding websites that demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) while reducing the visibility of those with thin, low-value content. Websites with high-quality, well-researched articles and strong technical SEO saw improvements in rankings, while sites relying on outdated SEO practices or poor user experience faced declines. The update also highlighted the importance of helpful content generated in forums and social media, mobile optimization, and multimedia content in improving rankings. Moving forward, SEO strategies must prioritize high-quality content, regular updates, and diversified media to adapt to Google’s evolving standards.

On June 27th, 2024, after more than three months since the last major update, implemented in March 2024, Google finally rolled out its latest upgrade of the algorithms used to combat spam-related techniques. The June 2024 spam update started rolling out on June 20th, and the implementation process took about seven days. In comparison with the March spam update, which took fourteen days to implement, this latest algorithm modification did not bring specific changes, and it did not interfere with the already implemented spam abuse policy.

March 2024 Google Core Update

On April 26th, 2024, Google finally revealed the completion of its long-anticipated March 2024 core algorithm update. This update has brought substantial changes in the way search engine crawlers evaluate the significance of links when calculating SERP rankings. The algorithm modification was first rolled out on March 5th and took no less than 45 days to complete. Google announced the end of the algorithm changes a week later, which once again demonstrated the communication problems the American giant has faced recently.

Google’s March 2024 Spam Update

March 2024 brought two significant changes to the way Google’s algorithms work. Starting on March 5th, Google began the process of rolling out its latest Spam update, which aimed at curbing AI spam and reducing authority abuse. Along with the Spam update, Google has also started the process of deploying a core update, which will most likely be finalized in early April. That update, which will incorporate the “Helpful Content evaluation” in the indexing metrics, is expected to have a significant effect on the SEO market and dramatically change the landscape of online searches.

2023

Product Reviews Update – February 21, 2023

Finally, Google implemented a new product reviews update, affecting many languages besides English. Now, users from all the countries speaking the targeted languages can benefit from much better results for their related inquiries. They will find that the top results will show reviews of much better quality that contain content beyond what manufacturers provide, showcase the best product features, and offer helpful insight that’ll greatly help customers.

If your website finds itself in this niche and one of the affected languages, the chances are high that it either lost many ranks or got some benefits from this update. In both cases, you need the reliable services GAMIT provides to adapt your website’s SEO based on the changes made by this update. Our professional and experienced team will help you recover lost ranks or take the opportunity to reach the top in the SERPs.

2022

Product Reviews Update – September 20, 2022

This update was quite a surprise. In the past, there were rarely any overlaps of Google updates. They prefer to see the results of one of them before they implement the second. But this time, they implemented the second product review update this year even before the core algorithm update was fully implemented.

This Google update took six days to complete and focused on adequately rewarding English reviews. The team considered that the reward system was not good enough, and they decided to introduce this Google algorithm and improve the system. So, most webmasters that encourage product reviews on their sites will be very happy with the increased ranks.

Core Update – September 12, 2022

It seems that Google focuses on different parts of the algorithm more than on the core systems. This type of Google algorithm update is only the second one of this year. Compared with the higher number of such updates in past years, it can be considered a surprise. But the work volume done by Google’s team is still massive. It can be seen in the fact that this core algorithm update comes only three days after the Helpful Content one was fully implemented.

There’s not much to say about this Google update because the effects it caused are pretty limited. It seems not to be as impactful as the previous ones. But it’s still crucial for webmasters to pay attention to the effects of this Google update on their site’s SEO results. You may also want to know that it took twelve days for the update to be fully implemented and the consequences to be apparent.

Helpful Content Update – August 25, 2022

Another one of the rarely-seen announced Google updates. Google told everyone about it one week before the implementation process started. So, many SEO experts and webmasters were prepared for it. With this update, Google has placed even more importance on the quality of the content and its usefulness to users. If you have informative or problem-solving content on your site, you can expect much better results than the content focused on getting higher ranks.

But how do you know if your content is what Google algorithm is looking for? Luckily, Google also provided a list of 15 questions you can check and see if your current content fits the requirements. You can also use these questions to create even better content in the future. A fifteen days update as this one will have a significant impact in the future even if the overall changes are pretty small in the present.

Data Center Outage – August 9, 2022

Even though this is not one of the Google algorithm updates, the impact was far-reaching. So, it should be included on this list. As checked by many reliable sites in the SEO industry, and confirmed by Google, a data outage happened because of an accident at Google’s center in Iowa, Council Bluffs. And there were two main effects caused by this:

• Massive fluctuation in SERPs’ ranks. Reliable sites like MozCast showed evident instability in ranks, and many webmasters complained because of this surprise.
• Some search results were inaccessible. There were also many complaints about some SERPs being inaccessible. It is unknown how many result pages were affected because the problem was solved quickly in less than a day.

Product Reviews Update – July 27, 2022

Finally, a new Product Reviews Update. It is the first one of this year and the fourth overall. But unlike the past ones, it was less impactful. You can consider it more like a minor correction meant to increase the rewards for reviews of high quality. This Google update was also implemented very fast. It only took six days instead of the forecasted two to three weeks.

Even though the ranking volatility of this update was pretty small, you still deduce that Google places more and more importance on its users’ opinions. So, if you have a product reviews section on your site, it may be a good idea to pay even more attention to it and try to maximize the benefits you get from it.

Algorithm Update – July 8, 2022

It’s not clear whether this was one of the Google algorithm updates. But we know July 6th and 8th caused a minor sensation in the SEO community. MozCast and other ranking tools revealed significant volatility in the ranks these days. It was similar to the changes caused by the other unnamed Google updates of last month and other known ones implemented and confirmed in the past.

So, the best bet is another update, even if it’s not confirmed. You need to pay attention to these unspecified Google updates and the changes they cause to your site’s ranks. Even if they are not confirmed, you can still learn some things from them. Or, you should at least ask your SEO provider about them.

Algorithm Update – June 23-27, 2022

From past SERP analysis, we know that summer is the period where search results change the most. But on June 27, the rank volatility was too high even for this period. Many SEO experts concluded that a minor update was implemented. But there are no official details. So, no one knows what changes were made to the Google algorithm.

All the information comes from reliable tools like MozCast that showcase the SERPs’ changes. Like with any of the other Google algorithm updates you should check the changes in your ranks. If the volatility of your positions is high, it may imply SEO errors or problems that were undetected in the past. And you may gain a better understanding of Google’s requirements.

Core Update – May 25, 2022

Finally, after more than six months, Google decided to introduce a new core algorithm update. It’s the first made this year, and all webmasters and SEO experts should prepare for it. There is no clear information about the changes made to this core algorithm update. So, it can be safely assumed that Google only improved the current ranking systems.

It took an estimated two weeks until the Google update was fully implemented, and as expected, the change focused on the content assessment methods used by the algorithm. Google continues to showcase its focus on quality and user satisfaction. So, ensure your website always follows the guidelines of Google updates and strives to satisfy all visitors.

March 2022 Product Algorithm Update – March 23, 2022

This Google update affected product review rankings. The goal of Google in implementing this update is to enable its algorithms to make the difference between high-quality reviews and the rest. Any search engine must be able to make that distinction. It will allow consumers, in this case, the Google Search users, to find better products much more accessible. As for webmasters, developing this part of their website more carefully is crucial. So, regardless of your side, this type of Google updates has undoubtedly affected you.

Page Experience Update – February 22, 2022

The Page Experience Update is part of older Google updates, and was first introduced for mobile users. Now, Google announced through Twitter that it would also implement it for desktop users. So, what does this update implies? It means that the algorithms of Google Search will pay even more attention to the experience that users have on each page of a website. To comply with this Google update, as webmasters, you need to try your best to ensure that every visitor has an easier time surfing your site and that the content available on your website maximizes the convenience of visitors.

2021

Product Review Update – December 1, 2021

This is a follow-up Google update related to the significant product review update announced and implemented in April 2021. After a period of implementation, Google has enough data to improve parts of the process behind deciding the ranks of your products. Some of the guidance with this update includes tips from multiple sellers to allow your potential clients to choose the merchant they want to buy from. Other recommendations refer to providing more than text evidence of the product’s effectiveness. Google updates recommend that you include video and audio content for this purpose. If you use these two tips, you can expect better results in the future.

Broad Core Update – November 17, 2021

Another one of the broad core updates you should regularly expect from Google. Keep in mind that a large chunk of the implemented Google updates are tiny and with almost invisible effects. There may be hundreds of such Google updates every year. But a few times a year, there will also be a big update. Some introduce new methods to determine ranks, while others improve the current algorithms. This Google update falls into the second category and aims to enhance the effectiveness of the existing algorithms. You can consider it a simple adaptation based on the new data gathered by Google.

Google Spam Update – November 3, 2021

From the 3rd to the 10th November, the search engine implemented another round of spam Google updates to their algorithms. According to their announcement, Google’s team considers this update their regular duty to improve the quality of the search results. To make sure that your website does not suffer any penalty from this Google update, you need to follow the guidelines made by Google for webmasters properly. Doing this will allow you to maximize SEO results while avoiding any losses caused by duplicate content or any other form of spam. The update’s primary goal is to find more spamming methods and penalize them. So, as long you avoid using such methods, you do not need to be afraid of such Google updates.

Google Link Spam Algorithm Update – July 26, 2021

Google implemented another algorithm update to combat spamming. This time, the targets of the Google update are the spam links. These are usually used to increase the authority of a website. The main problem is that many link-building solutions focus on the number of links without considering the quality. Keep in mind that only links made through high-quality content will have a tangible impact on your website’s ranks. And through this Google update, the links that use content of low quality will be impacted. This is another reason your SEO strategy should focus on quality content to comply with Google updates.

July 2021 Core Update – July 1, 2021

A 2 weeks Google update started at the beginning of July 2021. Google didn’t provide many details about this update. After seeing the change in search results, there are many speculations about the purpose and changes made by this update. After two significant Google updates focused on spam prevention, it is considered mainly that this update improved the past updates and their effectiveness, especially in countries like Italy, where the quality of the search results is still low. Although the spam problem still exists, some future Google updates will undoubtedly focus on it and try to eliminate or minimize it as much as possible.

Spam Update Part 2 – June 28, 2021

This is the second part of the spam Google updates that started on June 23, 2021. But considering the size of these two parts of the update, you can look at them as two separate updates. Similar to the first part, this Google update continues to fight the prevalence of spam methods. As Google started to focus on this, every webmaster needs to go as far as possible to avoid any spam in the future. Even if the effects of these methods were satisfactory in the past, with these new Google updates they would no longer be. On the contrary, you may end up with a penalization caused by such methods.

June 2021 Spam Update- June 23, 2021

This is the first part of a massive update that targets spam methods, and Google does not give many details about it. So, it isn’t easy to determine exactly what this update targets. But considering the past focus of the updates, it may concentrate on duplicate content and other forms of content spamming. It is also possible that spam links were targeted. And if we consider the size of the problems caused in search results by spam methods, we can see even more such updates in the future. You can find more details in this article.

Page Experience Update-June 15, 2021

After an extended period, the page experience update managed to arrive. As the name suggests, this update aims to improve the part of the algorithm that checks the quality of the experience provided by websites. But you should not worry too much. If your SEO strategy considers this critical goal of Google, your ranks won’t be negatively affected. And even if there may be some fluctuations, you should not worry. After the update is fully implemented, you won’t have any problems. But the importance of page experience continues to rise, and you should focus more significant parts of your SEO effort on it.

Known Victims Protection -June 10, 2021

After a long time, Google focused again on webmasters’ harmful methods to get better ranks. All these tactics and procedures were known under the umbrella of Black Hat SEO techniques. It seems that new tactics have appeared in this category over the years. And their growth may have influenced Google to focus again on these methods. As any SEO expert will continuously repeat, never use black hat methods because Google will never allow them to survive for an extended period. And this update reflects this fact. As for the victims of these methods, you can be sure that your problems will be solved in the future, and the ranks of your websites will improve.

Broad Core Algorithm Update – June 2, 2021

You should know that many broad core algorithm updates like this will not offer many details about their changes. The significant updates will always get their names or nicknames. On the other hand, the broad updates that do not focus on something in particular do not usually have a name. And this update is the same. It focuses on improving the algorithms and tries to maximize the quality of search results as much as possible. Google mentioned that not all the planned changes were made in the announcement, and the rest is scheduled for the next broad core update in July.

Product Reviews Update – April 8, 2021

The first Product Reviews update went live on April 8, 2021. With this update, Google focuses on the methods used by their algorithms to determine the ranks of products. The update’s primary goal is to increase the rewards for the products that provide in-depth research. So, compared with other such products that only have summaries and low-quality content, you will have a much better advantage if you adjust to Google guidelines and provide the high-quality content and research they are asking for. If your company focuses on selling products, you may want to improve the quantity and quality of the content used on your website’s pages. You should also see the official announcement and information provided here.

Passage Ranking – February 10, 2021

On February 10, 2021, the queries segment was finally introduced to the United States. Of course, the primary language focused on in this update is English. One of the goals of this update is to provide better information for Search’s users. Even though this segment may seem separated from the other types of results, it is not. Google mentioned in their announcement that the passages from queries would not be indexed individually regardless of the rest of the pages. The best way to understand this update is to consider the passages of the websites as an extra factor that will be considered while determining the search results.

2020

December 2020 Core Update- December 3, 2020

Finally, before 2020 ends, a new broad core update will be implemented. This is the three and, most likely, the final update made this year. Compared with the other updates made in the past, this one can be considered a late update. The period between this one and the last broad core update is considerable. So, what can you expect from this update? Like most other core updates, the changes are not focused on a single part of the algorithms, and this update covers an extensive range of factors and features. And if you continue to follow the webmaster guidelines, you do not need to worry about its effects.

May 2020 Core Update – May 4, 2020

On May 4, 2020, the second broad core update of the year was announced. Google estimated that it would take 1 or 2 weeks to make all the changes. So, you can expect some fluctuations during this period. Of course, like the other similar updates in the past, the exact changes are not transparent nor focused on anything in particular. But Google continues to adapt its algorithms to the new changes in the industry. But as long as your SEO strategy is made by an expert that fully understands the requirements and guidelines offered by Google, you won’t need to deal with any problems.

Featured Snippet Deduplication- January 22, 2020

Depending on the SEO strategy of your website, this update may have massive effects on your ranks, or it may have a minimal impact. The primary goal of this update is to eliminate duplicate results that use the snippet function. Any results that appear in a snippet position are no longer allowed to appear again in the other search results. So, you will need to consult the SEO expert in charge of your SEO strategy and make sure that he adapts the SEO efforts to match the effects of this update. Remember that this update will affect every single search listing. So, your website can’t escape if you got ranks in any snippet and regular listings.

January 2020 Core Update- January 13, 2020

To start the year properly, Google announced the first broad core update of the year. On January 13, 2020, the first significant update of this year started. Of course, it maintains the usual trend of these updates, and no unique details are mentioned. It is a standard update made to improve the current algorithm and adapt the Search to the new changes in the industry. Of course, the best thing you can do about this is to continue following the guidelines and investing as many SEO efforts as possible in your website.

2019

BERT (Worldwide) – December 9, 2019

Finally, after two months, Google decided to extend BERT to the rest of the world. So, the changes are starting to be implemented for a wide range of languages such as Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified & Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian Malay (Brunei Darussalam & Malaysia), Malayalam, Maltese, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.

BERT Update – October 25, 2019

Over the years, Google made many updates to its algorithms. But the current one, BERT, is the most significant update made in the last five years. The acronym represents the name Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. And it aims to improve the understanding of the algorithms behind the queries. It will affect the search results as well as the featured snippets. But because it is only the beginning of implementing this massive change. Only 10% of the English queries in the U.S will be affected. But the goal is clear. This update will be extended to all queries worldwide in the future. You can find all the detailed information you need here.

Broad Core Algorithm Update – September 24, 2019

Another one of the broad core algorithms updates was released on September 24, 2019. The information available about it is very similar to all other such updates. Of course, it remains vital for SEO professionals and webmasters to know about all the significant updates and form an idea about the changes. After checking the winners and losers of this update, it is clear that Google’s trend continues. Most of the changes in results can be easily attributed to the content and backlink quality of the websites. So, you need to focus on an SEO strategy that follows the goals of Google as much as possible.

Broad Core Algorithm “June 2019 Core Update” Announced – June 2, 2019

This update was pre-announced and according to searchengineland.com, the search giant’s recommendation for webmasters was to simply make their websites better. There has been a lot of debate regarding this update because some will say it focuses on content quality and value offered to the web users, while others are convinced it is all about E-A-T or the expertise, authority, and trust status associated with your website. The official conclusion of this broad update is that it focuses on a variety of factors, of which none have been specified. It’s all of the elements mentioned above, but it goes beyond them because Google is focusing on the bigger picture. Read more about this update!

Broad Core Algorithm “March 2019 Core Update” Announced – March 13, 2019

According to searchenginejournal.com, this march update, although it has been announced to be a major update, it seems to have been focusing on previous losers of traffic. We are talking about websites that were penalized in the past, of which approximately 75% have been regaining their ranking and traffic. The actual outcome is associated with a rollback of previous updates, even though it seems unlikely. The result is most likely what happens when the search algorithm is fine-tuned.

2018

Broad Core Algorithm “Medic” Update Announced – August 1, 2018

This update has been confirmed to have affected many websites that were specifically in the health and wellness field. According to mariehaynes.com, the YMYL websites are the ones that have seen the most impact, more specifically the sites mentioned above. It’s interesting to mention to the websites which have not been affected, did not see any change in their ranking or traffic, while the ones that did, lost their position and traffic in favor of smaller, niche-based websites.

Algorithm Quality Update – Mid-May 2018

Duplicate pages without enough or quality content and slow loading pages were the primary reasons why websites have seen a significant drop in traffic following this update. All the fine tuning of Google’s algorithm seems to keep on focusing on user experience.

Broad Core Algorithm Quality Update Announced – April 16, 2018

According to searchenginejournal.com, this update was confirmed by the search giant via Twitter and although SEO experts presumed it was focused on low-quality content, it was later discovered that the main factor targeted by the algorithm was content relevance. If a website has been affected, it might have not been because the content is not good enough in terms of quality, but because it must become more relevant.

A Change to the Core Algorithm – Mid-March 2018

This update focuses mostly on giving some sort of boost to the websites that have not been rewarded as they should have in matters of SERP ranking. According to monitorbacklinks.com, it’s most likely in accordance with AI-powered search results.

2017

“Maccabees” Update — December 14, 2017

According to seroundtable.com, this was an update that was rolled out around the holidays and it was confirmed by the search company to have been a list of minor changes which were meant to improve relevance.

Google Fred is Announced – Mid-March 2017

This update seemed to have impacted websites with low quality content and it has been confirmed by Google without offering any other specific information about the changes that were made. According to searchenginejournal.com, webmasters were referred to Google’s Quality Guidelines if they were to have any additional questions.

Google Doing Some Housekeeping – Early February 2017

This was an unconfirmed update, which started around the 1st of February and continued until the 6th of the same month. Changes were noticeable in many areas, but no one can say for sure which factors have affected their rankings, regardless if we are talking about a positive or negative effect. This update was big for some, which translated into 30-40% drops in traffic from one day to another.

Intrusive Interstitial Penalty (The Popup Penalty) – Jan 10, 2017

This update was designed to penalize the websites that rely on certain interstitials that affect the experience of mobile users. According to searchengineland.com, the intrusive ones are the interstitials that do not offer the same ease of access to content on mobile devices, where the screens are much smaller.

2016

Google Penguin 4.0 Announced – Friday September 23 2016

According to searchenginejournal.com, this update was a response to black hat marketing techniques that were used to manipulate search results. The result was pretty obvious – Google decided to evaluate links and sites in real-time, which makes it easier for the search giant to gain more control and eliminate the efficiency of the black hat techniques.

Google Went Crazy September – Early to Mid September 2016

With this update, nothing specific was confirmed, other than the fact that the rankings on SERPs seem to have gone up and down for no clear reason. Google did not confirm anything was actually happening and said that any noticeable changes are actually normal fluctuations that happen.

Mobile Friendly Boost Update – May 12, 2016

Although most websites are already mobile-friendly, Google has added an additional signal that according to searchengineland.com, is meant to help these sites to benefit from higher rankings in search mobile results.

Adwords Change – Feb 23, 2016

This update, according to thesempost.com, changed the position of ads that were posted on search results pages. After this update was rolled out, there were 4 ads displayed on top, 3 on the bottom of SERPS and none on the sidebar.

Ghost Update – Jan 8, 2016

Even though in the beginning, Google did not admit that any update was actually being rolled out, they later confirmed that this was actually a broad core update, which was massive, was not related to Penguin, but has definitely caused some fluctuations in rankings.

2015

Rank Brain Algo Change – Announced Oct 26 2015, Went Live Months Before

This update was related to its Rank Brain algorithm, which is Google’s move towards artificial intelligence. Although it was just confirmed right then and there, it is believed that machine learning has been a part of the search giant’s algorithm for months. There were no significant effects noticed.

Google Zombie Update – Oct 14th / Oct 15th 2015

Big fluctuations were noticed by webmasters, although Google did not make any statements regarding updates.

Google Snack Pack / Local 3 Pack – August, 2015

According to moz.com, this was not an actual change to Google’s algorithm, but rather a change in the face of local searches. If before, there was a 7 pack presented in search results, from this date on, there were only 3 shown in results. This was not tested, but directly implemented everywhere.

Panda 4.2 – July 17, 2015

According to searchenginejournal.com, this was the final change that was associated with the Panda update. The search giant mentioned that around 2-3% of all English search queries would see a difference when it comes to rankings on SERPs.

Google Quality Update – May 3, 2015

This was a quality core update that was directly related to what Google calls “quality signals”. According to searchengineland.com, it was confirmed by the company, but the actual confirmation did not come with any specifics.

Google Mobilegeddon Mobile Update – April 22, 2015

This was an important update that was designed to reward mobile websites. In other words, the sites that have proper mobile compatibility where the ones that started to see a shift up when it comes to their rankings.

Algorithm Update – February 4, 2015

No official update, only SERP movement detected.

2014

Penguin 3 – Oct 18, 2014

According to searchengineland.com, this was a long-awaited update, that only seem to have a slight effect on search results. Around 1% on US English search results.

Panda 4.1 – Sep 26, 2014

This update impacted 3-5% of search queries and it targeted low-quality content.

Google Starts De-Inexing Private Blog Networks In Mass – Sep 18, 2014

This marks the beginning of de-indexing of private/semi-private blog networks.

SSL Becomes Ranking Factor – Aug 7, 2014

According to searchengineland.com, secure websites are preferred.

Google Pigeon – July 24, 2014

A significant update in local searches. Google’s distance, as well as location ranking parameters, were improved.

No Photos on Authorship – June 28, 2014

All authorship photos from search results were dropped.

Panda 4.0 – May 19, 2014

According to searchengineland.com, this update was designed to stop low quality websites from reaching the top.

Payday Loan / High-Spam Searches Update 2.0 — May 16, 2014

This update targets spammy queries.

Algorithm Update — March 24, 2014

Presumed to be the rolling out of the Panda update, Google did not confirm it.

Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014

Websites with too many ads displayed above the fold are penalized.

Algorithm Update – January 8th, 2014

No official or confirmed update was rolled out.

2013

Authorship Change — December 19, 2013

Algorithm Update — December 17, 2013

Algorithm Update — November 14, 2013

Penguin 2.1 (#5) — October 4, 2013

Hummingbird — August 20, 2013

According to searchengineland.com, Hummingbird is a new algorithm meant to handle complex queries.

In-depth Article Update — August 6, 2013

A new type of content available on search results pages, called “in-depth articles”, according to developers.google.com

Algorithm Update — July 26, 2013

Expansion of Knowledge Graph — July 19, 2013

Panda Update (Fine Tuning) — July 18, 2013

Multi-Week Update — June 27, 2013

Panda Dance — June 11, 2013

Payday Loan / Spam Query Update — June 11, 2013

Penguin 2.0 (#4) — May 22, 2013

Update of the algorithm that affects 2.3% of English search queries.

Domain Crowding / Diversity — May 21, 2013

According to searchengineland.com, this was an update designed to increase diversity in search results.

Algorithm Update — May 9, 2013

Panda Update 25 — March 13-14, 2013

Panda Update 24 — January 22, 2013

2012

Panda #23 — December 21, 2012

According to searchengineland.com, this update affects 1.3% of search queries.

Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012

Panda #22 — November 21, 2012

Panda #21 — November 5, 2012

Page Layout Update #2 — October 9, 2012

Page layout update that according to searchengineland.com, affects websites with too many ads displayed above the fold.

Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012

August & September 65 Changes Pack — October 4, 2012

Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update — September 27, 2012

This update was designed to reduce the impact on rankings of sites that had EMD.

Panda #20 — September 27, 2012

Panda 3.9.2 (#19) — September 18, 2012

Panda 3.9.1 (#18) — August 20, 2012

7-Result SERPs — August 14, 2012

The Pirate / DMCA Penalty — August 10-13, 2012

86 Google updates in June & July — August 10, 2012

Panda 3.9 (#17) — July 24, 2012

Webmaster Tool Link Warnings — July 19, 2012

Panda 3.8 (#16) — June 25, 2012

Panda 3.7 (#15) — June 8, 2012

39 Google Updates May 2012 — June 7, 2012

Penguin 1.1 (#2) — May 25, 2012

Knowledge Graph — May 16, 2012

52 Google Updates for April 2012 — May 4, 2012

Panda 3.6 (#14) — April 27, 2012

Google Penguin — April 24, 2012

Large update that targets webspam and affects 3.1% of English search queries.

Panda 3.5 (#13) — April 19, 2012

Parked Domain Bug — April 16, 2012

50 Google Updates in March 2012 -Pack — April 3, 2012

Panda 3.4 (#12) — March 23, 2012

Panda 3.3 (#11) — February 27, 2012

February 40-Pack (2) — February 27, 2012

Venice — February 27, 2012

Localized results are displayed, based on your IP.

17 January 2012 Google Updates — February 3, 2012

Page Layout Update — January 19, 2012

Panda 3.2 (#10) — January 18, 2012

Search + Your World — January 10, 2012

30 Google Updates in January 2012 — January 5, 2012

2011

10 Google Updates in December 2011 — December 1, 2011

Panda 3.1 (#9) — November 18, 2011

10 Updates made in November 2011 — November 14, 2011

Fresher Results Update — November 3, 2011

Query Encryption — October 18, 2011

According to moz.com, this was an update that affected SEOs because it makes it harder to learn where traffic is coming from.

Panda “Flux” (Update #8) — October 5, 2011

Panda 2.5 (Update #7) — September 28, 2011

Pagination Elements — September 15, 2011

Expanded Sitelinks — August 16, 2011

Panda 2.4 (Update #6) — August 12, 2011

Panda 2.3 (#5) — July 23, 2011

Google+ — June 28, 2011

According to googleblog.blogspot.com, Google + was launched as a direct competitor of Facebook.

Panda 2.2 (Update #4) — June 21, 2011

Schema.org — June 2, 2011

Panda 2.1 (Update #3) — May 9, 2011

Panda 2.0 (Update #2) — April 11, 2011

The Google +1 Button — March 30, 2011

Panda Update (Also called Farmer) — February 23, 2011

According to moz.com, this update targeted content farms and it affected 12% of search queries.

Attribution Update — January 28, 2011

Overstock.com & JCPenny Penalty — January 2011

2010

Start Using Social Signals — December 2010

Negative Reviews — December 2010

According to googleblog.blogspot.com, bad reviews seemed to have helped a brand reach the top, but Google solved the problem by tweaking its algorithm.

Instant Visual Previews — November 2010

Google Instant — September 2010

Brand Update — August 2010

Caffeine (Rollout) — June 2010

May Day — May 2010

According to seroundtable.com, this was a precursor to Panda and its role was to work against content farms.

Google Places — April 2010

2009

Real-time Search — December 2009

Caffeine (Preview) — August 2009

According to mashable.com, this was a major change in Google’s search engine infrastructure, meant to help speed up page crawling and incorporating both ranking and indexation.

Rel-canonical Tag — February 2009

Vince — February 2009

An update that was deemed as “minor” by Google, actually was the beginning of supporting big brands, according to seobook.com.