Google

algorithm
updates
May 2020 Core Update  —  May 4, 2020

https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/08/core-updates.html
 January 2020 Core Update  —  January 13,
2020

• This Google search algorithm update was announced on Monday and began rolling out
Monday at 12pm ET.
• The rollout is global and impacting all Google search regions and languages.
September 2019 Core Update  —  September
24, 2019
 Site Diversity Update  —  June 6, 2019

• Google will aim to show no more than two results from the same
domain for a particular query in the top results.
• Google will generally treat sub-domains as part of the main
domain. So if you have blog.domain.com, it will be considered
part of the main www.domain.com domain and count towards
the two results. Google said “Site diversity will generally treat
subdomains as part of a root domain. IE: listings from
subdomains and the root domain will all be considered from the
same single site.”
• Google reserves the right to treat some subdomains differently,
“However, subdomains are treated as separate sites for diversity
purposes when deemed relevant to do so,” Google wrote.
 "Medic" Core Update  —  August 1, 2018

• one of the largest search engine algorithm

updates
• The update primarily affected organic rankings
for health, fitness, and medical websites.
• It’s called the Medic update because Barry
Schwartz, one of the most prolific writers in
the search industry, called it that. It doesn’t
mean this update only affected medical sites.
 "Medic" Core Update  —  August 1, 2018

• In reality: not much. Google hasn’t said

anything specific, and repeat their standard
party line:
Chrome Security Warnings (Full Site)  —  July
24, 2018
• On July 24, 2018, Chrome will mark all plain HTTP sites as “not
secure.” Google has given webmasters and publishers 
six months’ notice of this upcoming change, and it is now going
live.
• Instead of the small “i” icon for HTTP URLs, Chrome will add a
“Not secure” label of text to that. Here is what it looks like today
before users upgrade to Chrome 68. Note, most of those who
download Chrome are set for automatic browser updates and thus
will be upgraded to Chrome 68 automatically in the future.
Chrome Security Warnings (Full Site)  —  July
24, 2018
• It is strongly recommended to upgrade your
website to HTTPS URLs and be secure, even if
your site does not ask for payment
information, logins or other private
information. Depending upon the size of a site
and scope of the project, a migration from
HTTP to HTTPS can be quite an undertaking.
 Mobile Speed Update  —  July 9, 2018

• Only affects the slowest mobile sites

• Incremental improve to your site can make big
impacts in speed
• Fast sites that go faster won't see a ranking
improvement
Video Carousels  —  June 14, 2018
• In June of 2018, Google 
rolled out video carousels in the desktop SERPs
(after having them live in the mobile SERPs for
some time).
• Google moved videos from organic-like results
with thumbnails into a dedicated video carousel,
causing a shake-up in results that were previously
tracked as organic. At the same time, the number
of SERPs with videos increased significantly
 Snippet Length Drop  —  May 13, 2018

• After testing longer display snippets of up to

300+ characters for a few months, Google
rolled back most snippets to the former limit
(about 150-160 characters).
 Mobile-First Index Roll-out  —  March 26,
2018
• Google says it is about how Google crawls your site. Google
will only have one index, but how Google crawls and creates
the index will be based on a mobile-first experience going
forward.
• Google wrote: To recap, our crawling, indexing, and ranking
systems have typically used the desktop version of a page’s
content, which may cause issues for mobile searchers when
that version is vastly different from the mobile version.
Mobile-first indexing means that we’ll use the mobile version
of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our —
primarily mobile — users find what they’re looking for.
Maccabees" Update  —  December 14, 2017

• The sole purpose of the Maccabees Update is to

improve the search relevancies.
• So, website owners and webmasters should
look into the improvements to on-page as well
as off-page relevance signals.
• The importance of content will always remain
intact because high quality contents generate
quality backlinks for your website thus helping
you to attain organic ranking.
 Snippet Length Increase  —  November 30,
2017
• After testing longer search snippets for over
two years, Google increased them across a
large number of results. This led us to adopt a
new Meta Description limit -- up to 300
characters from the previous 155 (almost
doubling i.e 300+). Google confirmed an
update to how snippets are handled, but
didn't provide details.
 Google Jobs  —  June 20, 2017
• Google officially launched their jobs portal,
including a stand-alone 3-pack of job listings in
search results. These results drew data from
almost all of the major providers, including
LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and
CareerBuilder.
 RankBrain*  —  October 26, 2015
• RankBrain is a machine learning-based search engine
 algorithm, the use of which was confirmed by Google on
26 October 2015
• Google commented that RankBrain was the third most
important factor in the ranking algorithm along with links
and content
• If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with,
the machine can make a guess as to what words or
phrases might have a similar meaning and filter the result
accordingly, making it more effective at handling never-
before-seen search queries or keywords.
 Pirate 2.0  —  October 21, 2014
• Google’s Pirate Update is a filter introduced in
August 2012 designed to prevent sites with
many copyright infringement reports, as filed
through Google’s DMCA system, from ranking
well in Google’s listings.
 Pigeon  —  July 24, 2014
• Google Pigeon is the code name[1] given to one of 
Google's local search algorithm updates. This update
was released on July 24, 2014
• The update is aimed to increase the ranking of local
listing in a search.
• The changes will also affect the search results shown
in Google Maps along with the regular Google search
results.
• This update provides the results based on the user
location and the listing available in the local directory.
 Hummingbird  —  August 20, 2013
• Hummingbird is the codename given to a significant algorithm change in 
Google Search in 2013.
• Its name was derived from the speed and accuracy of the hummingbird.
• The upgrade marked the most significant change to Google search in years, with
more "human" search interactions and a much heavier focus on conversation and
meaning.
• Thus, web developers and writers were encouraged to optimize their sites with
natural writing rather than forced keywords, and make effective use of technical
web development for on-site navigation.
• Search engine optimization changed with the addition of "Hummingbird", with
web developers and writers encouraged to use natural language when writing on
their websites rather than using forced keywords. 
• They were also advised to make effective use of technical website features, such
as page linking, on-page elements including title tags, URL addresses and 
HTML tags, as well as writing high-quality, relevant content without duplication.
 Knowledge Graph  —  May 16, 2012

• In a major step toward semantic search,

Google started rolling out "Knowledge Graph",
a SERP-integrated display providing
supplemental object about certain people,
places, and things. Expect to see "knowledge
panels" appear on more and more SERPs over
time. 
 Penguin
• Google Penguin is a codename[1] for a Google algorithm update that was first
announced on April 24, 2012.
• The update was aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that
violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines[2] by using now declared black-hat SEO
 techniques involved in increasing artificially the ranking of a webpage by
manipulating the number of links pointing to the page.
• First Penguin update- Penguin  —  April 24, 2012(Penguin 1)
• Penguin 2/Penguin 1.1  —  May 25, 2012
• Penguin 3  —  October 5, 2012
• Penguin 4/Penguin 2.0  —  May 22, 2013
• Penguin 5/Penguin 2.1  —  October 4, 2013
• Penguin 6/Penguin 3.0  —  October 17, 2014
• Penguin 7/Penguin 4.0, Phase 1  —  September 27, 2016 - The first phase of
Penguin 4.0, which probably launched around September 22-23, was the rollout of
the new, "gentler" Penguin algorithm, which devalues bad links instead of
penalizing sites.
 Panda
• Google Panda is a major change to Google's search results ranking algorithm that
was first released in February 2011
• The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites",[1] in
particular "content farms",[2] and return higher-quality sites near the top of the
search results.
• Google's Panda received several updates after the original rollout in February
2011, and their effect went global in April 2011.
• Panda/Farmer  —  February 23, 2011
• Panda 2.0 (#2)  —  April 11, 2011
• Panda 2.1 (#3)  —  May 9, 2011
• Panda 2.2 (#4)  —  June 21, 2011
• Panda 2.3 (#5)  —  July 23, 2011
• Panda 2.4 (#6)  —  August 12, 2011
• Panda 2.5 (#7)  —  September 28, 2011
• Panda "Flux" (#8)  —  October 5, 2011
• Panda 3.1 (#9)  —  November 18, 2011
• Panda 3.2 (#10)  —  January 18, 2012
• Panda 3.3 (#11)  —  February 27, 2012
 Panda
• Panda 3.4 (#12)  —  March 23, 2012
• Panda 3.4 (#12)  —  March 23, 2012
• Panda 3.6 (#14)  —  April 27, 2012
• Panda 3.7 (#15)  —  June 8, 2012
• Panda 3.8 (#16)  —  June 25, 2012
• Panda 3.9 (#17)  —  July 24, 2012
• Panda 3.9.1 (#18)  —  August 20, 2012
• Panda 3.9.2 (#19)  —  September 18, 2012
• Panda #20  —  September 27, 2012
• Panda #22  —  November 21, 2012
• Panda #22  —  November 21, 2012
• Panda #24  —  January 22, 2013
• Panda #25  —  March 14, 2013
• Panda Recovery  —  July 18, 2013
• Panda 4.0 (#26)  —  May 19, 2014
• Panda 4.1 (#27)  —  September 23, 2014
• Panda 4.2 (#28)  —  July 17, 2015
THANK YOU