Top Google Algorithm Updates Every Seo Expert Should Know

By Author: Savita Pal
Total Articles: 5
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Updates aren’t a surprise by Google. It keeps dynamically updating its algorithm, search index changes and continues to bring minor modifications in the SEO rule book now and then. According to experts, Google brings around 2500 odd modifications in its search algorithm every year. Sometimes these are beneficial for the SEO vision, while at other times, they are a roadblock. Being an SEO expert, you need to know about these changes and tactics to maintain a high rank of your website using various SEO strategies. Let’s look at some major Google algorithm updates in the SEO landscape that an SEO expert should know!

Google Panda

Google Panda update rolled out in 2011. It evaluates websites based on their content quality. The better the content quality, the higher its rank. Panda does not favour content with fewer words, giving half information. While you create content, make it with the temperament of providing to-the-point answers to user queries. Avoid making low-quality content, which means avoid grammatical errors, distracting images, non-relevant content that gives a negative experience to users, ...
... information from an untrustworthy source, content-reusing…, etc in your content. These are a big no-no with Google Panda. Focus on quality, remove offensive content and include things that deserve applause.

Google Penguin

Unlike Panda, Penguin hits sites for their link profiles. Back linking is one of the most powerful tools used in search engine optimization techniques. If you use the backlinks on your website that are- contextually related to the linked pages, mark you as a trustworthy source and come from multiple domains, Google ranks it positively. However, if you spam your search results by buying links, unnecessary stuffing of keywords, using low-quality links, or obtaining them through a link network designed to boost Google rankings, your site will be penalized. Remove bad links, and you will escape the penguin scrutiny.

Google Hummingbird Update

The Hummingbird update helped Google interpret the user’s search queries in a better way and helped provide results that matched their intent (as opposed to individual terms). This update allows a page to rank for a quarry even if it does not contain the exact words entered in the search bar. It was one of the major search engine updates that brought a substantial shift in search habits. NLP (Natural Language Processing) AI technology, which allows computers to understand a text in the same way as a human, is used in this update. It relies on co-occurring terms, semantic indexing and synonyms.

Mobile (Mobilegeddon)

To enhance the user experience of those using the internet on mobile phones, Google released a new update in 2015 that focussed on website optimization for cell phones. It did not affect the searches made on desktops and laptops. It applied to individual pages, and not to the entire website. This update was a massive shift in the SEO service, with about a 21% decrease in the non-mobile-friendly URLs on the first three pages of the search results. There was a rise in the number of web pages optimized for mobiles and the quality of user experience.

Google Fred Update

Fred Update was an adjustment in Google’s search ranking algorithms. It attacked the linking accuracy across the web. The primary factors that it focussed on were quality and aggressiveness in the use of the monetization techniques that negatively impacted user experience. It is believed that Fred was created to punish websites that prioritized monetization over user experience. Sites that showed massive ads and seemed like they were created just for revenue gain rather than solving user problems were penalized too.

Core Updates

Ever since 2017, all future updates by Google were referred to as Google core updates. These were improvements on previous Google updates. For example, in December 2017, it brought significant changes that impacted mobile SERPs. In August 2018, Medic Update came to affect the pages of industries dealing with health, happiness, or wealth of users, like medical info pages etc. to improve the EAT(Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness). In October 2019, Google released BERT, a deep learning algorithm-based natural language processing update that helped Google understand words that were meant for use in everyday situations.

A good SEO needs to stay updated with search engine marketing updates so that the page ranking of his business can maintain a high position on SERPs. Google’s ranking behaviour is dynamic and demands continuous improvement, hence a continuous up-gradation in knowledge.

I am working as a digital marketer from the past 5 years.