Google Algorithm Update & History of Updates – 2024 Edition

If you run an SEO campaign, it’s essential you keep on top of all the latest Google search updates. If you don’t react to the latest Google search algorithm changes, your business could quickly fall behind the competition. Not only that, but learning about Google’s major updates helps you implement the best SEO practices and land on the first page of search results.

While keeping up-to-date with recent tweaks is important, receiving an education on previous SEO algorithm changes helps you to best strategise your online marketing plan. By looking at the history of Google updates and understanding just how far Google algorithms have come, you give yourself an even greater chance of success.

With that in mind, below is the ultimate guide to Google penalties and Google SERP history. If you are armed with this knowledge, you have a greater understanding of what Google seeks from websites in terms of content and structure.

Starting with the 2024 Google updates we’ve experienced so far before moving on to the Google updates 2023 brought us, we will work our way backwards to the first Google update the year 2000 saw, taking you through the entire Google algorithm update history and explaining what happened and why.

Keep reading to the very bottom to learn the entire Google algorithm update history.

Google Updates in 2024

So far, 2024 has seen 4 updates that have shaken up the SERPs in a big way.

Google December 2024 Core Update

The Google December 2024 core update rolled out on December 11th. It further refined search algorithms to improve content relevance and quality. Following November’s update, it targeted different core systems, which again caused ranking fluctuations. However, Google didn’t specify anything special creators needed to do in response to the update. The overall goal remained the same: satisfying, quality content made for people, not rankings.

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Google November 2024 Core Update

The November 2024 Google Core Update was announced on November 11 and was estimated to take around 2 weeks to roll out. It highlighted Google’s ongoing commitment to making its search results as useful as possible for users. It cracked down further on websites that publish only SEO-driven content and sought to reward those with quality, user-first content.

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Google August 2024 Core Update

Google announced its August Core Update on August 15, 2024, and it was completed on September 3, 2024, after 19 days. It marked a commitment to improving search results for users by cracking down on SEO-driven content with little user relevance and further promoting quality user-first content. This update also took on board feedback the search engine giant received from its September 2023 helpful content update, which meant many smaller, independent websites had a drop in rankings.

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Google March 2024 Core Update

This core update started rolling out on March 5, 2024, and it took a huge 45 days to complete. One of the biggest updates in years, it aimed to improve user experience and crack down on unoriginal, low-quality content that has only been created with manipulating search results in mind. Instead, by refining its core ranking system, the update means that Google now puts original, helpful content that satisfies user intent first. Affecting all types of content across all regions that the search engine operates in, the update means that those who produce content that is human first and useful will be rewarded when it comes to search rankings. This change to Google spam policies has already had a big impact, with the amount of unoriginal content appearing in results being down a massive 45%, which can only be a good thing for enhancing user experience.

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Google March 2024 Spam Update

March 5 was a big day for rolling out Google updates, with the search engine’s spam update starting on the same day. This one didn’t take quite so long to complete – just 14 days –

finishing on March 20, 2024. Google spam policies, like its previous link spam updates, have been around for a long time to make sure that poor quality, spammy content and links do not appear in search results. Google accepts AI-generated content that provides real value to the user. However, it’s thought that this update targets such content that is mass-produced on a big scale with the sole goal of climbing the SERPs in mind.

The update focused on 3 main areas:

· Expired domain abuse

· Scaled content abuse

· Site reputation abuse

To avoid falling foul of this update with negative search ranking movement, making content improvements that ensure the user is put first is the way to go.

Read more: Google’s Huge Shake-Up: Understanding the March 2024 Core Update 

Google Updates in 2023

2023 was a busy year for Google updates, with 9 in total. Get the lowdown below.

November 2023 Reviews Update

The Google November 2023 reviews update started on November 8, 2023, and took 29 days to complete. As the name suggests, this update concentrated on all review content in various languages. It doesn’t matter if the content is a review of a product, service, restaurant, music concert, holiday, movie, or anything else; this update sought to promote content that really delved into the user’s perspective, providing ‘insightful analysis and original research.’ To help website owners, Google released some practical update advice on review best practices to combat any fluctuations in rankings. Obviously, the search engine wanted to see expert and high-quality reviews from this update.

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November 2023 Core Update

November 2, 2023, saw the start of the Google November 2023 core update, and just under 26 days later, it was confirmed as complete. At the time, it was the longest core update rollout and the fact that it overlapped with the November 2023 reviews update and huge shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it was seen as being pretty major. The broad core update affected all types of content in all regions and languages and promoted good webpages. With the overlapping updates, there was a lot of SERP volatility in the early stages. Ultimately, the update built on previous updates, refining how the search engine assesses content and promoting valuable content over low quality stuff.

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October 2023 Core Update

The Google October 2023 core update came just a few weeks before the November one on October 5 and took 13 days and 23 hours to finish rolling out. It was a global update that focused on emphasising top-quality content in the SERPs to demote low-quality websites and promote those that produce trustworthy and helpful content. This core update had an impact on SERP features, including featured snippets and Google Discover. Any SEO strategy post-core update needs to take into account core update best practices, making helpful content a priority and focusing on user experience.

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October 2023 Spam Update

At the same time as the October core update, on October 4, 2023, the Google October 2023 spam update started its rollout, ending 15 days later on October 20. This was a penalty update that targeted all languages and regions, including Vietnamese, Turkish, Chinese, Indonesian, and Hindi languages.

This update cracked down on 4 specific types of spam:

· Auto-generated content spam– Unoriginal content that is churned out to manipulate rankings.

· Hacked content– Content that is published on a site without the owner’s permission due to security flaws. This type of content could also install malware or malicious content on devices used to access such content.

· Cloaking– Content that intends to mislead users and manipulate rankings.

· Scraped content spam– Content that has been taken from other sites without additional insight or information. This type of spam can also cause copyright infringement issues. The search engine confirmed that scraped content penalties will occur if legal removal requests are received.

Google advised that those affected by this update reviewed the search engine’s spam policies to ensure they were compliant.

Read more: October Google Updates Complete: What Everyone Should Know 

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September 2023 Helpful Content Update

The month before saw the September 2023 Google helpful content update come into force – starting on September 14 and spanning 13 days and 11 hours. This was a big update from Google as SEO-first content was impacted. As seen in previous helpful content updates, this one really cracked down on content that was poor quality, did not bring value to the user, and was only created with the aim of getting high up the results pages. To beat this helpful content update, content needed to be genuinely beneficial for humans or face big dips in rankings. The search engine confirmed the biggest impact on online educational materials, tech, shopping, and entertainment content and described its effects as being ‘meaningful’ for those affected. To keep the search engine giant happy, website owners must make sure that their material aligns with content quality signals, making sure content is informative and valuable.

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August 2023 Core Update

August saw the second core update of the year come into effect. The Google August 2023 Broad Core update started its rollout on August 22 and took 16 days and 3 hours to complete. As always, with a core update, this one was all about improving search results to make sure that users receive helpful and relevant results in response to their searches.

Importantly, this update was not a penalty, but the global impact of the August 2023 update was felt far and wide as it affected all types of content in all languages. However, it did have an effect on rankings, as many higher-ranked sites experienced a dip. In contrast, lower-ranked ones saw a positive improvement in rankings, boosting their visibility and having a knock-on impact on traffic. Again, quality, helpful content was the focus if you expected to bounce back from this update.

Read more: The August 2023 Broad Core Update Has Finished: What To Know Now 

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April 2023 Reviews Update

The Google April 2023 Reviews Update started being rolled out on April 12 and was announced as complete on April 25. This was the second type of reviews-based update of the year. However, there was one slight difference. For this update, Google dropped the word ‘product’ from the update’s name to reflect that it now focused on reviews about pretty much everything, including services, products and other things. It affected reviews in the following languages:

· English

· German

· Spanish

· Italian

· French

· Indonesian

· Dutch

· Vietnamese

· Polish

· Portuguese

· Russian

The review focused on rewarding those who are writing high-quality reviews that demonstrate real insight, analysis and research. There was a clear impact of search results for reviews that did not meet Google’s new criteria.

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March 2023 Core Update

March 15 saw the first core update of the year with the rollout and completion of the Google March 2023 Broad Core Update. Taking 13 days to rollout, this algorithm update set out to improve the search engine’s content quality evaluation. It affected all kinds of content, all languages and all regions. As with most core updates, organic traffic fluctuations were experienced. Those who were previously lower ranked experienced an uplift, and some saw their rankings drop. To show Google that your website’s content was worthy of being ranked higher up, it must be high-quality, helpful, support E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness), and provide a strong user experience.

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February 2023 Product Reviews Update

The Google February 2023 update revolved around product reviews. The first update of the year took 2 weeks to finish – starting on February 21 and ending on March 7. As the name implies, it looked at product review content, assessing it for how helpful reviews actually are to other web users. Unlike previous product review updates that only focused on reviews in the English language, this one also impacted reviews in the following languages:

· French

· German

· Spanish

· Italian

· Indonesian

· Vietnamese

· Dutch

· Portuguese

· Polish

· Russian

For reviews to be ranked highly in the SERPs, they needed to provide helpful, in-depth details, demonstrate research, show quantitative measurements, and much more.

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Google Updates in 2022

2022 had 9 updates throughout the year, with the first update happening in March and the last 1 of the year in December.

Google Spam Update (December 14)

Google released a link spam global update in mid-December, but it wasn’t until January 12, 2023, that the update was finally complete. The update was to improve the automated systems that detect search spam and make it better to spot new types of spam. Any site that violates their updated guidelines could drop rankings or not appear at all.

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Content Continues To be Impacted By The Helpful Content Update (December 5)

At the start of December, Google released the next Helpful Content update (also completed on January 12, 2023). This sitewide signal update, which targets websites with high volumes of unhelpful content only created for search engines, was rolled out at a global level. Now this update affects all languages. The update is to make it easier for the systems to identify low-quality content on a much larger scale with additional signals to help them find content made for search engines compared to that made for people.

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Google October 2022 Spam Update

October saw and completed a global spam update affecting all languages and regions in just 2 days. The update was designed to improve spam detection techniques and how they work to target the spam side of search results and reduce the number. Google hasn’t done a spam update since November 2021, and although they announced this on a quieter scale than other updates, it was still notable.

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September Product Review Update

On September 20, Google set free their 5^th Product Reviews update, which ended on September 26. This applied to all English-language product reviews. The update is to further reward high-quality product reviews, promoting them in the search engine rankings. If anyone has seen a dip since this update, working on your product review content is recommended. Google said this update only impacted product review content, but it came out just 6 days into a core update, which was not complete.

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Core Update In September

On the 12^th, the 2^nd core update of 2022 came out less than a month after the Helpful Content update in August, taking 14 days to be fully released. While this came fast, in general, this core update had less impact than previous ones had seen, being viewed as a weaker update despite some volatility. This overlapped with the Product Reviews update, which caused a little confusion about which update affected sites. As is the case for many updates, there were many winners of the update who saw decent increases in traffic, but many, even big names, saw declines.

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August Helpful Content Update

Google unveiled its Helpful Content update to the algorithm in August of 2022. This caused a major stir for all who dealt with content and had websites, as it was a sitewide change that could affect performance and rankings. Being designed to reward content that better meets expectations meant that content that wasn’t achieving this would see a negative impact. Google wanted people to “focus first on creating satisfying content, while also utilizing SEO best practices to bring searchers additional value.” This update only targeted English-language content.

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Google 4^th Product Reviews Update (July 27)

The 4^th product reviews update in July was built around updates for English-language product reviews only and to make review-related content more helpful and useful to searchers. This update is not designed to be a penalty but rather a reward for those providing “insightful analysis and original research.” That being said, it could still affect your performance in Google Discover. Although Google would not disclose how many queries would be affected, they did make an interesting announcement about a future update for product review content – a global launch (which then happened in February 2023).

Before this update in July, there were only 3 major Google updates for the first half of 2022:

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Google Core Update (May 25)

The Google May update was rolled out on May 25 and was completed on June 7. The May Google core Algorithm update 2022 edition was to be expected and happens several times a year. Google advised people to refer to their 2019 documentation for search-ranking best practices in anticipation of the update.

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Google Algorithm update 2022 March 

Within the history of Google updates, Google often looks at updates previously released to see how they can improve them. For example, this Google March update involved Google releasing its third product reviews update. This was complete by April 11. This search engine update was quite significant as they introduced additional ranking criteria, all in an effort to be the most helpful and useful for the users.  

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SEO update February 2022 – Page Experience on Desktop  

After a few issues and a small Google SEO update (January 2022), it wasn’t until February that the first of the new Google updates came about. The February 2022 Google Algorithm update involved Google announcing that page experience would begin being rolled out on desktop. This was complete by March 3. The page experience updates mean that the latest Google Algorithm updates will consider the use of HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, and Core Web Vitals.  

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Google Updates in 2021

In terms of what Google core updates 2021 introduced, there was a total of 11, with the last December Google Core Update taking place on the 6th.  

Top Stories Redesign (December 6) 

In the News tab of Google search results, Google completely overhauled how news articles related to quires are presented with this last Google update of the year. This UI change splits the stories into two columns. The result of this is that more stories appear closer to the top of the page above the fold. This has increased the number of SERP real estate that news results have occupied and has improved click-through-rate for a lot of websites. 

This change has only occurred to desktops. With this method of searching dwindling in favour of mobile search, the impacts of this recent Google Algorithm update hasn’t been too huge.

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Product Reviews Update (December 1) 

The product reviews update was the last Google update to end the year 2021 that was considered major. The purpose of this update was to further reward pages and products that have high-quality product reviews. This was to discourage products with poor reviews appearing on SERPs and was designed to try and provide a better user experience for the user. 

This Google search engine update was a refresh of the previous product review update that took place in April and was substantial, as it took a full three weeks to implement. To ensure your rankings don’t drop due to this update, make sure that your product reviews are detailed and high-quality. 

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Google spam update 2021 (November 3) 

As Google was keen to address spam and provide a better experience for searchers, a Google spam update was released in November to complete the two already dropped in the Google June core update. This update took a week to fully roll out. To ensure sites weren’t badly affected by the link spam update 2021 bought about, Google recommended that businesses follow the best practices that can be found on their Webmaster Guidelines. 

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Titles Are Altered By Google Page Title Update (August 16) 

In an attempt to provide users with titles that matched their search intent, since this fairly recent Google update, various website owners found that their titles were being drastically changed on Google search results. This was affecting the performance of various pages. 

Google’s new update would use information like H1 tags, image tags, and anchor text to create new titles. This resulted in many titles that might not reflect the page accurately. Google recommended that websites alter their titles to make them more actionable to avoid changes. 

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July 2021 core update (July 1) 

This update was a follow-up from the June 2021 update and took 12 days to roll out completely. This Core Update Google introduced was broad in nature, and they reassured that many web pages shouldn’t see any significant changes in performance. What did happen, though, is that this update saw various changes in how Google indexes and processes webpages. 

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Google June core update 2021 

There were several major core updates Google 2021 introduced. The search engine updates include:  

The Page Experience Update Is Implemented (June 25) 

This was a very significant Google search core update for the year and is where Google introduced their new Core Web Vitals. These metrics are now used to evaluate the users’ experience on a web page and have become ranking factors. 

The Core Web Vitals include LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). 

Compared to the first Google core update 2021 has offered so far, this impacted both organic and news results. 

More information: Your Complete Guide to Web Core Vitals 

Two Spam Updates Are Released By Google (June 23, June 28) 

These two updates were introduced to reduce the number of spam pages showing up in SERPs for regular and image searches. Websites were urged to update their SSL certificates to avoid any negative effects. It was also recommended that they check any security issues and regularly clean up their links because of the Google link spam update.  

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Google Drops Its First Core Update Of The Year (June 2) 

This Google June core update to the Google Algorithm took 10 days to fully implement and updated a wide range of various things within Google. The effect of this June core update Google dropped was that many businesses saw changes to their performances on search results. With this latest Google core update, some improved their ranking, while others suffered. 

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Google Updates Its Product Reviews in its latest Google Updates (April 8) 

This result of this update meant that more in-depth and well-researched reviews are now more favoured and hold more value over shorter reviews. This has been done to help improve the quality of reviews online so that Google can provide a better user experience. 

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Google Goes Mobile First With Its Indexing Update (March 5) 

Mobile-first indexing was already the default for new websites that were created after the Google July 2019 update. However, after this mobile SERP update, all online domains will be indexed via the mobile version of their website, regardless of when it was created. This was done as Google continues to optimise its results for mobile traffic, which is now the main way people make their queries. In time to come, there are likely to be more Google mobile changes, and eventually, it may even need its own guide that goes through the Google mobile history. 

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Passage Indexing Is Rolled Out By Google For US/English Queries (February 10) 

The only Google Algorithm update February 2021 had enabled Google to use artificial intelligence to index web pages and individual paragraphs and sentences from those pages. The aim of this was to allow them to answer specific queries quickly and effectively on the SERPs.  

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Google updates 2020

As far as major Google core updates 2020 bought, there weren’t as many as last year, but those that did enter the world were quite big.  

The May 2020 Google Core Update Is Announced (May 4) 

The latest Google update 2020 gave that was of significance was this one in May. This Google core algorithm update placed more of an emphasis on diversity, with a greater focus on high-quality content rather than a website’s search authority. This gave smaller sites a better fighting chance of landing on the first page of recent Google searches. 

More information: May 2020 Google Core Update Analysis 

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Google Reveals Featured Snippet Deduplication (January 22) 

A lot of the 2020 Google updates happened in January. This latest Google Algorithm update affected Featured Snippets. Rather than a URL appearing as both a Featured Snippet and a traditional organic search result, the organic result aspect was removed from the equation. 

More information: Google’s Featured Snippet De-Duping and What It Means for Publishers 

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The January 2020 Google Core Update Is Announced (January 13) 

This latest Google Algorithm change incorporated a range of changes. Due to its broad nature, it had a notable effect on search engine results on a global scale. Some websites experienced immediate gains, while others suffered from a drop in traffic. 

More information: Google Update Core (January 2020) 

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Google Updates in 2019

International BERT (SEO latest update 2019) 

It was confirmed that BERT would be rolled out internationally at the end of 2019. This was the last 2019 Google update.  

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The “BERT” Algorithm Update Is Rolled Out (October 24) 

The SEO world and businesses found themselves facing the biggest challenge when the latest Google update 2019 came about. The BERT Google update was described by the search giants as its most import important update of the past five years. This search engine algorithm update made it easier for more complicated, conversational queries to be understood by Google. Of all the Google 2019 updates, this was said to impact around 10% of overall search queries. 

More information: Understanding the Google BERT Update 

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The Google September Core Update 2019 Is Revealed (September 24) 

The last broad Google Algorithm update 2019 saw was this one in September. While the previous two core updates in June and March respectively focused on E-A-T criteria, this one changed the script. For any websites negatively affected by this core update 2019 introduced, Google expressed these sites pay closer attention to these 4 factors: 

• Content and quality 
• Presentation and production 

• Competitive comparison 
• Expertise 

More information: September 2019 Google Search Algorithm Update: All You Need to Know 

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Google Announces Latest Google Algorithm Update 2019 (June 2) 

Unlike other Google 2019 updates that were suddenly released, Google pre-announced the Google core update in June 2019 and let online marketers know that changes were coming. The June 2019 core update highlighted how Google is placing a strong focus on search intent, and this caused volatility in the rankings for various niches. 

More information: June 2019 Core Update: Notable Google Algorithm Changes 

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March 2019 Broad Core Update Is Revealed by Google (March 13) 

Based on the analysis of website traffic following the March 2019 core update, this is independent of the Google Algorithm changes incorporated by the previous “Medic” update. In general, this Google Algorithm 2019 update placed emphasis on rewarding websites that supply a quality user experience. 

More information: Understanding the Google New Update of March 2019 

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Google Updates 2018

The “Medic” Broad Core Algorithm Is Released (August 1) 

With this core Google SERP update, no particular factors were targeted. However, the latest Google update 2018 bought did have a significant impact on many powerful websites in the health and medical niche – hence it received the “Medic” name.  

More information: How the Google Medic Update Impacted Health/Medical Sites 

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Algorithm Quality Update (May) 

During May, Google made continual tweaks to its search algorithm. Google updates its Algorithms regularly, but this update had the most impact. This Google Algo change punished websites that produced pages with thin or duplicated content. Sites with high bounce rates, bad loading times, and ad-heavy content also suffered a significant drop in their ranking authority as a result of the Google Algorithm latest update, too.  

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Announcement of April 2018 Core Algorithm Quality Update (April 16) 

The Google penalties guide received a new entry following Google’s new Algorithm update. It placed a focus on quality, where websites with high-quality and informative content were bumped ahead of the competition. On the other hand, those with thin content were penalised. 

More information: Google Confirms April 16th Algorithm Update 

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Google Algorithm updates (March) 

This latest Algorithm update from Google happened during the middle of March and was done to simply reward websites that were incorporating SEO the right way. 

More information: Google Confirms Algorithm Ranking Shift 

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2017 Updates

The Google “Maccabees” Update (December 14) 

The last of the Google updates 2017 saw was dubbed the “Maccabees” update. This Algorithm change received no formal announcement from Google – only confirmation of various minor updates that took place around the same time occurred. The Maccabees update was controversial in the Google Algorithm history, as numerous e-commerce platforms and notable digital marketer’s sites took a hit to their rankings during the busy Christmas season. If the Google Maccabees update were to have occurred at any other time, this controversy might not have happened.  

More information: Google Confirms December Algorithm Updates 

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Google Fred Algorithm Is Unveiled (March) 

The Google Fred update had one main aim: to penalise low-value content websites that only focused on revenue rather than the user experience. As a guide to Google penalties and how much damage they can cause, Google Fred caused certain sites to reportedly suffer a 90% drop in traffic. 

More information: Did Google Fred Hit Low-Value Content Sites? 

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Multiple Google Algorithm updates 2017 (February) 

During the early part of February, Google released two major updates in the space of a week. As these updates were unnamed and had no official announcements, experts pondered just how the Google Algorithm updates for SEO changed the rules. Some believe it helped the algorithm with being able to better discount spam and links. 

More information: Google New Algorithm Change May Have Improved the Discounting of Spam and Links 

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The Popup Penalty Is Implemented (January 10) 

At the start of 2017, Google rolled out its intrusive interstitial penalty – known more commonly as the popup penalty. This was done to punish websites that utilised intrusive popups. 

More information: Google’s Intrusive Interstitial Penalty Comes Into Effect 

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Google Updates in 2016

The Release of Google Penguin 4.0 (September 23) 

As the last Google update 2016 bought to the table, Google Penguin 4.0 was released and, naturally, included a number of important updates. First of all, it made Penguin a component of the core Google Algorithm, and so it started updating in real-time. Secondly, the latest Google updates for SEO 2016 ensured rankings were more page-specific rather than impacting an entire domain. 

More Information: Official Announcement of Penguin 4.0 

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Google Changes the Game (September) 

At the very start of September, many SEO-related tools spotlighted high fluctuations in SERP results. This was particularly the case for local search. Sadly, experts struggled to find substantial data to understand what exactly Google changed. The Google search updates 2016 experienced didn’t stop. Due to the Google Algorithm update (September 2016), results began to change again. 

More information: Are Large Google Search Changes Happening? 

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A Boost for Mobile-Friendly Websites (May 12) 

This update was done to further support websites that placed an emphasis on mobile users. If a site had a mobile-friendly design, the update gave them a slight rankings boost within mobile search results. 

More information: Google’s Approach to Making the Web More Mobile-Friendly 

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A Change to AdWords (February 23) 

Along with sidebar ads being removed from search results, Google also added a fourth ad to the traditional top block. 

More information: How Google AdWords Is Switching Things Up 

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The “Ghost” Update (January 8) 

In early January, many SEO-related tools noted changes and SERP fluctuations. There was no official report about these changes, which caused most marketing experts to believe this could be the release of the latest Penguin update. Google, however, quickly denied this and revealed later on that it was an update to the core algorithm. Despite this “ghost” update, reports suggest it caused no significant losses. 

More information: Google Reveals Core Update Did Take Place 

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Google updates 2015

The “RankBrain” Algorithm Change (October 26) 

In late October, Google announced the “RankBrain” change to its Algorithm. The latest Google Algorithm update 2015 bought about included introducing a new type of technology to the search scene. They added Artificial Intelligence learning to further refine its search process. While announced in October, it actually went live a number of months beforehand. “RankBrain” also caused no noteworthy variations to the ranking factors. 

More information: Google Turning to AI Machines for Web Search 

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Google Zombie Update (October 14/15) 

The Zombie update wasn’t one of the official 2015 Google Algorithm updates, but many webmasters noted significant search fluctuations around the middle of October. 

More information: Google Zombie Update? 

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Google Introduces the Snack Pack (August) 

While this is not classed as one of the Google Algorithm updates 2015 introduced, the “Snack Pack” was a significant update in the world of local SEO. Instead of sticking with the standard 7-pack, Google decided to reduce this down to a 3-pack. In recent Google history, this was the biggest Google local search update since the launch of their local Algorithm, Pigeon. 

More information: Google’s Snack Pack Shake-Up 

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Panda 4.2 Is Announced (July 17) 

On July 17, Google announced the latest update to Panda – yet little happened on the day. This is because Google said the Panda 4.2 changes would take months to come into effect. The last Panda update to take place was in 2014 – the Google Panda 4.0 update and 4.1 both took place. If you want to understand a bit more about the significance of these Google Panda updates, it is recommended that you read a brief history of Google’s Panda Algorithm. The Google Panda history is fascinating to read.  

Check out the recommended blog for a more detailed guide that answers “What is Google Panda?”.  

More information: What Is Known About Panda 4.2 

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A Quality Update by Google (May 3) 

This update, known as the “Phantom 2”, wasn’t initially announced by Google. The change was only confirmed after it had come into effect, although online marketers already realised something had happened. As for what the change incorporated, Google didn’t go into details and simply revealed it was an update to “quality signals.” 

More information: The Google Quality Update 

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Google “Mobilegeddon” Update (April 22) 

Google changed its search Algorithm to affect how results were ranked on mobile devices. While it placed a particular preference on mobile-friendly websites, it demoted those who were not properly optimised for devices. 

As the “Mobilegeddon” moniker it received in some circles alludes to, many were expecting this update to massively shake up the SEO world. However, the impact caused was less than anticipated overall. As it is such an important change, you must learn as much as you can about it. Fortunately, there is a great Google mobile Algorithm guide you can check out.  

More information: What Is Mobilegeddon and How Does it Change Mobile Search? 

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The Unnamed Google Update (February 4) 

The first Google Algorithm update of 2015 was a relatively minor one. In fact, it didn’t even receive any official announcement from Google. Nevertheless, SERP tracking tools noted a significant amount of movement to search results. When asked about it, Google simply stated they were doing tweaks, and no specific update was required. 

More information: News of an Update to Google’s Search Algorithm 

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Before 2015

The updates for Google didn’t begin in 2015, but they are the most relevant to you now and important to know. However, for those keen to learn more about the full update history, check out our list of Google updates that have occurred in the last two decades.  

2014 Google Updates 

A lot of Google algorithms are named after animals, and in 2014, Google released all of these:  

• Panda – This was updated in May to become the Panda 4.0 update. In September, the 4.1 update was released.  
• Pigeon – This update was introduced in July and was named Pigeon 1.0. Many consider this the biggest update of the year, with its aim to help users find relevant and accurate local search results.  
• Penguin – The 3.0 update to Penguin was a refresh to help boost search engine rankings.  

They also released the Pirate 2.0 update in October to fight digital media privacy and the Pay Day Loan 2.0 in May to target spammy queries.  

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2013 Google Updates 

2013 had a lot of unnamed updates, but the ones that were announced included:  

• Penguin 2.1 – October 4. This involved a date update and didn’t affect anything majorly.  
• Hummingbird – August 20. This core algorithm update is said to power changes to semantic search as well as the Knowledge graph.  
• In-depth articles – August 6. Google added “in-depth articles” to their news results to reward those dedicated to long-form and evergreen content.  
• Domain Crowding – May 21. This update was in an effort to control domain crowding in the SERPs.  

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2012 Google Updates 

This was the year of the Panda. It got updated 14 times during 2012, taking it up to Panda #23 by December. Other significant updates included:  

• Page Layout – October 9 
• Exact Match Domain – September 27 

• Penguin – May 25  

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2011 Google Updates 

Of all the Google updates 2011 had, the Panda update was the most significant. This was released in February of 2011. This update was all about combatting thin, duplicate, or plagiarised content. They also wanted to use this update to tackle keyword stuffing, content farms, and websites with high volumes of ads.  

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2010-2005 Google Updates  

Between 2010 and 2005, a number of changes took place. The Google 2010 updates include the launch of Google Places in April, the Caffeine rollout in June, the launch of Google Instant and Instant Previews. The Google 2009 updates included Rel-canonical Tag and Real-time Search, while 2008 only saw Dewey and Google Suggest released.  

Likewise, 2007 and 2006 only had 2 updates each – these were Universal Search and Buffy, and Supplemental Update and False Alarm, respectively.  

2005 saw the crackdown of low-quality links with the Jagger update. This was rolled out between September and November. October saw the biggest impact.  

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2004 Google Updates 

Three Google 2004 updates happened this year and included Austin in January, which targeted deceptive on-page tactics. They also released Brandy in February, which involved massive index expansions.  

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2003 Google Updates 

2001 Google updates didn’t happen, and only one happened in 2002, which was named Boston. It wasn’t until 2003 that the updates started to increase. Updates included :  

• Boston  
• Cassandra  
• Dominic  

• Esmeralda  
• Fritz  
• Supplemental Index  
• Florida  

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2000 Google Updates  

Google in 2000 looked and worked very differently from what we know now. The first and only update to occur during 2000 was to the Google Toolbar. They launched their browser toolbar on December 1.  

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A Summary of Google updates history

As for what Google updates 2022 will continue to bring, we can’t wait to find out. Make sure to stay updated by checking back here – we always keep on top of the changes, and so can you with this guide. This way, when someone asks, “when did Google change its search algorithm?” you can confidently answer.