Search engines of Google have been constantly evolving since time immemorial and have had a very long history of huge algorithm updates, changes in the search indexes, and refreshes in the system. Here is an overview of eight major Google algorithm updates and how to adjust your website accordingly.
How Often Does Google Update Its Search Algorithm’s?
Google search continues to change, and it changed only in 2022 with Google rolling out more than 4500 changes to Search, which includes ranking systems, user interfaces, and many more. That’s an average of about 13 times a day, though the real number might be even higher for those who are part of a lot of experiments. More interestingly, the company also reported running:
• Over 13000 live traffic experiments
• More than 894000 search quality tests
• Over 148000 side-by-side experiments in 2022 alone.
Of course, many of these adjustments have been minor, but algorithm changes, in most cases, really do seem to have that bit more serious of an effect on rankings, traffic, and revenue for the better or worse.
7 Major Google Algorithm’s Updates:
1. Panda
• Release Date: February 24, 2011
• Risks: Duplicate content, plagiarized material, thin content, user-generated spam, keyword stuffing.
Overview: Panda assigns a “quality score” to websites, against which it ranks them. Initially, the impact of Panda was moderate; however, by January 2016, it became part of the core algorithm of Google, and refresh rates were increased significantly. For that reason, Panda penalties and recoveries are now very fast.
How to Adjust: Run regular site audits that identify areas of duplicate content, thin pages, keyword stuffing, and similar issues. You can use SEO PowerSuite’s Website Auditor or any other tools to that end.
2. Penguin
• Release Date: April 24, 2012
• Risks: Spammy or Irrelevant links, over-optimized anchor text.
Overview: Penguin is an algorithm update against ranking sites with unnatural links. It has really nailed the coffin for low-quality link building; that is, the buying of links from link farms and PBNs.
How to Adjust: Keep eyeing the growth graph of your backlink profile; do not ignore regular audits with SEO SpyGlass or other tools. Look out for unusual spikes in link acquisition since this may be a negative SEO attack.
3. Hummingbird
• Release Date: August 22, 2013
• Risks: Keyword Stuffing, poor content quality.
Overview: Hummingbird was designed to enable Google to understand search queries better and come up with relevant results that fit the purpose a user is intended to perform instead of just the specific query wording. That naturally goes on to harness language processing along with latent semantic indexing and synonyms.
How to Adjust: Expand the keyword research to concepts, not just keywords. Track related searches, synonyms, and co-occurring terms using tools like the Keyword Research module of Rank Tracker.
4. Mobile
•Release Date: April 21, 2015
• Risks: No mobile version, poor mobile usability.
Overview: The Mobile update, followed by the following updates in 2018 and 2020, refocused the direction from desktop to mobile optimization. Google now ranks websites according to the speed and user-friendliness of their mobile versions.
How to Adjust: Carry out mobile search optimization, considering the speed and usability of a website. Tools like Google’s mobile-friendly and page speed tests are organically integrated into WebSite Auditor to help you detect issues.
5. RankBrain
• Release Date: October 26, 2015
• Risks: Irrelevant content, thin content, bad user experience.
Overview: A part of the Hummingbird algorithm, RankBrain uses machine learning to know what a search query means and then returns some relevant results. It comes at number three in the list of most important ranking factors by Google.
How to Adjust: Improve the relevance and comprehensiveness on your pages by creating competitive gap analysis. Tools such as the TF-IDF feature in WebSite Auditor will allow you to find and incorporate missing terms or concepts from top competitors.
6. Medic
• Release Date: May 4, 2018
• Risks: YMYL (Your Money Your Life) site has low authority; weak E-A-T signals.
Overview: Essentially targeted in the Medic update were medical and other YMYL websites that seemed to include signals of E-A-T from Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines.
How to Adjust: There isn’t any proven recovery strategy, but you can set up your website for long-term success by investing in quality link building. This researches and replicates successful backlink strategies on your competitors. Tools like SEO SpyGlass are at your disposal in doing this.
7. BERT
Release Date: October 22, 2019
Risks: Poor content, a lack of focus, less context.
Overview: BERT {Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers} empowers natural language processing to understand search queries better and the interpretation of text basing on the context of words within search queries and content.
How To Adjust: Quality and meaningful content. Less fluff and filler. Researching entities to add context and relevance to your content.
Conclusion
It’s a tough task to learn how to deal with the changes in Google algorithm, but one has to update himself and be flexible; for then, he can ensure that the website will keep functioning. With every algorithm update, be it towards content quality, backlink profiles, or mobile usability, proactive optimization is called for. Running regular website audits and ensuring relevant, high-quality content is delivered, always staying ahead of best practices, is a good way to assuage these risks. Embracing such changes as a means for bettering your website will safeguard your search visibility and enhance the general user experience toward sustained success in the digital space.