SEO Tip of The Week:
Google Algorithm Updates Cheat Sheet
1. Panda First launched: Feb 24, 2011
Goal: De-rank sites with low-quality content
Panda hazards
• Duplicate content
• Plagiarism
• Thin content
• User-generated spam
• Keyword stuffing
• Poor user experience
2. Penguin First launched: April 24, 2012
Goal: De-rank sites with spammy, manipulative link profiles
Google Penguin aims to identify and down-rank sites with unnatural link profiles, deemed to be spamming the search results by using manipulative link tactics.
When a new Penguin update is released, sites that have taken action to remove the harmful links (such as through the Google Disavow tool) can regain rankings.
New sites, and sites not previously caught, can in turn get trapped by Penguin.
Penguin hazards Penguin is looking for sites with one or several of the following types of links in their profile:
• Links coming from poor quality, "spammy" sites
• Links coming from sites created purely for SEO link building (PBNs)
• Links coming from topically irrelevant sites
• Paid links
• Links with overly optimized anchor text
3. Hummingbird First launched: August 22, 2013
Goal: Produce more relevant search results by better understanding the meaning behind queries Google Hummingbird is a major algorithm change that has to do with interpreting search queries,
(particularly longer, conversational searches) and providing search results that match searcher intent, rather than individual keywords within the query. While keywords within the query continue to be important,
Hummingbird adds more strength to the meaning behind the query as a whole. The use of keyword synonyms has also been optimized with Hummingbird; instead of listing results with the exact keyword match,
Google shows more theme- related results in the SERPs that do not necessarily have the keywords from the query in their content. Hummingbird hazards Hummingbird gives a ranking advantage to pages that provide valuable, original content, putting an end to old-school on-page tactics that bring no value to the user.
The following features can get pages down-ranked in SERPs due to Hummingbird.
• Exact-match keyword targetings
• Keyword stuffing
• Poor user experience
4. Pigeon First launched: July 24, 2014 (US)
Nature: Ranking algorithm change for local search Goal: Provide high quality, relevant local search results at the top of SERPs
Google Pigeon (currently affecting searches in English only) dramatically altered the results Google returns for queries in which the searcher's location plays a part.
According to Google, Pigeon created closer ties between the local algorithm and core algorithm, meaning that the same SEO factors are now being used to rank local and non-local Google results.
This update also uses location and distance as a key factor in ranking the results. Pigeon led to a significant (at least 50%) decline in the number of queries local packs are returned for,
gave a ranking boost to local directory sites, and connected Google Web search and Google Map search in a more cohesive way.
Pigeon hazards The following factors may become ranking disadvantages for local businesses after Pigeon:
• Poorly optimized pages
• Lack of quality backlinks
• Improper setup of a Google My Business page
• NAP inconsistency
• Lack of a citation in local directories (if relevant)
5. Mobile Friendly Update First launched: April 21, 2015
Nature: Ranking algorithm change for mobile search Goal: Display mobile-friendly pages at the top of mobile SERPs
Google's Mobile Update (aka Mobilegeddon) is meant to give a ranking boost to pages optimized for mobile devices in mobile search, and subsequently,
down-rank pages that are not mobile friendly. Desktop searches have not been affected by the update. Mobile friendliness is a page-level factor,
meaning that one page of your site can be deemed mobile friendly and up-ranked, while the rest might fail the test.
Mobile-friendly hazards When evaluating a page's mobile friendliness, Google looks at the following factors:
• Overall mobile friendliness
• Viewport configuration
• Illegible content
• Plugin use
6. RankBrain First launched: October 26, 2015 (possibly earlier)
Goal: Deliver better search results based on relevance & machine learning
RankBrain is a machine learning system that helps Google better decipher the meaning behind queries, and serve best-matching search results in response to those queries.
While there is a query processing component in RankBrain, there also is a ranking component to it (when RankBrain was first announced, Google called it the third most important ranking factor).
Presumably, RankBrain can somehow summarize what a page is about, evaluate the relevancy of search results, and teach itself to get even better at it with time.
The common understanding is that RankBrain, in part, relies on the traditional SEO factors (links, on-page optimization, etc.), but also looks at other factors that are query-specific.
Then, it identifies the relevance features on the pages in the index, and arranges the results respectively in SERPs.