Google constantly updates its algorithm to ensure that the results it serves are both of high quality and relevant to what users are searching for. Having a basic understanding of these algorithm updates can help improve your site’s search engine optimization (SEO), and can provide valuable insights into the types of changes you might need to make to maintain or improve your site’s rankings. In this article, we’ll look at some of the major algorithm updates that Google has rolled out over the past few years, and explain how they can impact your website.
Panda
In 2011, Google released an update called Panda, which was designed to penalize sites that used thin, low quality content in an attempt to rank higher in the search engines. This update had a big impact on the way that people went about optimizing their sites, and has forced many businesses to reevaluate their SEO strategies. Although the original Panda update was quite impactful, there have been numerous updates to the algorithm released since then that have had similar effects.
Penguin
Released in 2012, Penguin was another major update with the intention of penalizing sites that were violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This update primarily focused on link schemes such as buying links or getting them via link networks, as well as keyword stuffing and other forms of website spamming. If you’ve been engaging in these kind of tactics in an attempt to improve your search engine ranking, you’ll want to find ways to remove these links from your site or redirect them to a clean URL, to avoid being penalized by Penguin.
Hummingbird
Released in 2013, the Hummingbird update represented one of the most major changes to the Google algorithm in recent memory. This particular update put a much greater emphasis on the context and meaning of search queries, which in turn meant that the specific keywords and phrases you used would no longer be as important as they were in the past. Instead, Google would now try to present searchers with content that is useful for their particular search regardless of the specific keyword used.
Mobile Update
In 2015, Google rolled out an update that would begin to give preference to sites that are optimized for mobile, in order to better cater to the increasing number of people who are using mobile devices to access the internet. The Mobile Update, also known as “Mobilegeddon”, penalized sites that were not correctly optimized for mobile, which made it essential for businesses to update their sites in order to avoid being penalized in the search results. Because mobile optimization has become an evermore important factor for SEO, many businesses have since invested more time and resources into optimizing for mobile.
RankBrain
Released in 2015, the RankBrain update is essentially a machine learning system that Google uses to help determine the most relevant search results based on user search queries. The brain works by processing large amounts of data in order to understand the context and meaning of a term that a user has entered, and then provides more accurate results. The most important thing to take away from this update is that it’s now more important than ever to ensure that your content is both of high quality and relevant to the searchers’ queries.
Conclusion
In order to continuously rank higher in the search engines, it’s important to understand and stay up-to-date with Google’s algorithm updates. By keeping an eye on what these updates are and monitoring the implications, you can be better prepared to make the necessary adjustments in order to maintain or improve your site’s rankings. While it may take some time and effort, it’s well worth it in the long run in order to improve your site’s SEO and continue to drive traffic.