Do you know what Google Algorithm Updates are? Most people use or are at least aware of Google. In fact, the majority of people make it their primary Search Engine when it comes to their day-to-day lives. Whether it be for Google Search, Maps, Merchant, or Google Business Listings, there are multiple ways to interact with the platform. However, Google makes several significant updates & improvements to their platform throughout the year that many people are largely unaware of. Except those who work closely with websites or who manage SEO performance. Each time Google implements another algorithm update, those who monitor website performance, keyword search visibility, and behavioural metrics see the impact and have to adjust to what the update means. If you’re ready to dive into it, Harv Communications will identify some of the notable Google algorithm updates over the past few years below!
Panda Update – 2011
When Panda rolled out over 10 years ago, it basically set the stage for many of the core fundamentals used in SEO today. This update focused on what makes a website “good” or “bad” and how Google displays Search Results for one site over another. Basically, the Panda update determined whether a site was made to help people by providing good content combined with a good site experience or if the site was created simply to appear in SERPs for other reasons like advertising, clickbait, or something much worse. Google started to really focus on quality over quantity with Panda.
Penguin Update – 2012
Another big one especially when it comes to SEO purposes. The Penguin update took a hard look at what links were coming into a site and measured their quality & relevancy. An old-school SEO tactic that’s horribly outdated now (though you’ve probably received “spam” emails from this even this week!) is essentially buying backlinks in bulk to make your website appear larger and more prevalent online. People would farm links and add them by the hundreds to their sites to give the illusion the site was well-known online to help with their overall search visibility. Google said no more to this with Penguin.
Hummingbird, Pigeon, HTTPS, & Mobile – 2013-2015
Google really started to use those core updates from the years prior to focus on more niche (but very important) segments over the course of the next few years. Hummingbird focused on building the fundamentals of voice search and how it was less about specific words being said but rather what they all meant as part of a larger question. Pigeon was a big one for Local SEO. Arguably, this is where the push for those “near me” searches really started as people misunderstanding or trying to take advantage of an effort on what counts as “local” in search. HTTP vs HTTPS & Mobile updates focused on essentially a requirement that a website has a Mobile version and that the overall site is secure. Today, if your site does not answer voice search questions (even before getting to the site itself) if your overall search visibility does not clearly focus on the area(s) you service, or if the site is not responsive or not completely secure, you will have a problem being found online.
RankBrain – 2015
This update was the start of focusing on what the actual search intention was behind a query typed into Google. If Google didn’t understand what a word/phrase meant, it would analyze what it had seen in the past, compare it to words & phrases with other, similar searches, and even focus on why someone might be searching for something. In many ways, this was the turning point of “old SEO” vs what we use Google for in 2023. The combination of those previous core updates along with RankBrain is much of what we consider a standard practice today. Those in the SEO industry cannot really “optimize for RankBrain” the same way they would for things like Responsive Design or Backlink Auditing/Link-Building. Rather, this is a cumulation of ensuring each page has a defined purpose and answers questions beyond literal keywords. This was the start until BERT came into the picture in 2019.
BERT. Page Experience, & Helpful Content – 2019-2022
These updates defined a lot of what Harv Communications focuses on today when it comes to SEO. In combination with those core updates from the years prior (and a handful of updates not even mentioned in this post!), these are some of the core fundamentals of what makes one website better than another and thus how to make it more likely to appear in Organic Search. The BERT update was big. This update focused entirely on contextual clues from words to understand what they mean about why a person would be looking for them. “Restaurant Near Me” is almost a useless keyword search on its own. Google will do its best to understand why you might be looking for that and give you related results. Are you hungry and looking for something local? Where are you physically located? Are you looking for what might be the highest-rated (i.e. “best” restaurant) near your physical location and therefore are looking to read reviews from a forum or blog? Are you looking for a news article about something that happened at a business in your area? BERT, in combination with core web vital signals & diversification of search results focusing on eliminating “bad” websites and promoting “good” people-first websites, is what Google really focused on improving over the course of a few years. Though this had been building for a while.
Core & Reviews Update – 2023
Google often rolls out Core updates which do a little of this, a little of that, and usually don’t disclose what the “this or that” really is. This leaves people wondering why their keyword visibility is suddenly dropping (or sometimes rising!), why traffic to some pages or across the site has taken a nosedive (or in some cases increased in some areas!), or why it seems their own personal Google searches are giving different results or displaying in different ways. Sometimes, it takes weeks or months to even find out these updates have occurred let alone what they might mean. There was another Core update in March followed by a Reviews update in April. Details are still coming on the Reviews update, but it sounds like the emphasis is on your own reviews/opinions on products/services rather than 3rd-party reviews. This can be measured on a page-by-page basis but may also be looked at from a site-wide capacity. This may be in relation to the EEAT method of content writing which focuses on displaying personal experience & trustworthiness in your industry, but that might be reading between the lines. This post may be updated as more information becomes available!
One key takeaway from this article: Google likes to roll out big updates, often without warning, that can impact website performance & the way people search for things in general. This is just Google though. There are other Search Engines as well. While these can be influenced by Google, they also have their own updates and methods of operation.
The world of Websites & SEO is constantly changing which means there is always something new for your small business to consider online! Contact Harv Communications today to learn more about how to stay in the know & manage these updates to help improve the search visibility of your website!
