Google Algorithm Update & History of Updates – 2023 Edition

Keeping on top of the latest updates from Google is imperative for any successful SEO campaign. If you fail in responding to changes to the Google search algorithm, your website could plummet down the search engine results pages (SERP). If you learn about the latest updates and incorporate the best SEO practices, however, there’s a real possibility to land on the first page of Google.

Staying up-to-date with the latest tweaks is important. It’s also vital you receive an education about former SEO algorithm changes. By doing this, you can best strategize your entire digital marketing plan. As a result, we have prepared an ultimate guide to Google penalties and updates. With the following information, you can gain a stronger understanding of how Google works and the type of content they expect to see from websites.

Google Updates in 2023

The timeline of the Google Algorithm search update spans 23 years (and this isn’t complete yet!). The newest update to land for Google was another product reviews update. On February 21, 2023, Google’s update was to better reflect the Product Review Update documentation to be about the system and what it does. The update also extended the total number of languages to 11:

• English
• Spanish
• German
• French
• Italian
• Vietnamese
• Indonesian
• Russia
• Dutch
• Portuguese
• Polish

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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2020 Updates

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

So what significant changes were made with this latest Google update? Well the May 2020 Google core algorithm update added extra importance on diversity, with a stronger focus on quality content as opposed to a site’s search authority. The result: smaller outlets have a greater chance of hitting the first page in relevant, recent Google searches.

More info: Google Core May 2020 Update Analysis

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Featured Snippet Deduplication is Unveiled by Google (January 22)

This Google algorithm update changed up how Featured Snippets functioned. Instead of a URL appearing as a traditional organic search result and Featured Snippet, Google removed the organic result aspect.

More info: Featured Snippet Deduplication – How This Change by Google Affects Publishers

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

2020’s latest Google algorithm update introduced a wide variety of changes. Because of its broad modifications, the update had a significant impact on search engine results. Certain websites experienced a notable drop in traffic, while others benefited from immediate visitor gains.

More info: The First Google Update Core for 2020

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2019 Updates

Google Rolls Out the “BERT” Algorithm Update (October 24)

Self-described by the search engine giant as its most significant update in five years, the Google update is known as “BERT” made it easier for them to decipher complex, conversational search queries. This search engine algorithm update reportedly impacted 10% of queries in total.

More info: What Does the Google BERT Update Mean?

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The Google Core Update for September 2019 Is Released (September 24)

September’s Google algorithm update 2019 introduced a range of changes. Despite the previous March and June core updates focusing on the E-A-T criteria, this September update flipped the script. For those that were negatively impacted by the update, Google stated the following four factors required greater focus:

• Expertize
• Content and quality
• Competitive comparison
• Presentation and production

More info: All You Need to Know About the Recent Google Search Algorithm Update

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Comprehensive Core Algorithm Update Is Announced (June 2)

The June update had a notable difference to most others: it was pre-announced by Google. This gave online marketers a heads up so they could best prepare for the upcoming changes. The upload spotlighted Google’s strong direction towards search intent, something which caused ranking volatility for numerous niches.

More info: June 2019 Core Update: The Significant Google Algorithm Changes

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Broad Google Core Update Is Released (March 13)

When analyzing site traffic following this March 2019 update, it demonstrated that any Google algorithm changes were independent of the former “Medic” update. In essence, the update added emphasis on rewarding sites which offer a high-quality user experience.

More info: Learning about the Google New Update for March

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2018 Updates

Google’s Broad Core “Medic” Algorithm Is Rolled Out (August 1)

This Google SERP update didn’t target any general factors. Yet it did have a notable impact on an assortment of websites within the health and medical sector – which explains the update’s “Medic” name.

More info: How Google’s Medic Update Has Affected Health and Medical Sites

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Algorithm Quality Update (May)

At some point in mid-May, Google commenced with continual tweaks to its search algorithm. Websites with pages that had duplicated or thin content were punished. This Google Algo update also dropped the ranking authority of sites with ad-heavy content, slow loading times, and high bounce rates.

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Google Unveils Quality Update for Core Algorithm (April 16)

Following this update, the Google penalties guide added an extra element to proceedings. That element was a larger focus on quality. Pages with detailed, high-quality content were bumped up the search rankings. Conversely, sites with thin content were penalized.

More info: Google Confirms Its April Algorithm Update

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The Core Algorithm Is Changed (March)

Taking place in the middle of March, this Google search update was done to better reward sites which productively incorporated SEO.

More info: Google Confirms a Change to its Algorithm Ranking

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2017 Updates

The “Maccabees” Update by Google (December 14)

The “Maccabees” update didn’t receive a formal announcement once it released – Google only went as far to confirm several minor updates took place during the middle of December. In the history of algorithm alterations, “Maccabees” received a hefty amount of criticism. This is because numerous prominent digital marketer’s websites and e-commerce platforms suffered a major rankings hit, all during the Christmas season.

More info: Google Confirms Updates to Algorithm

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Google Fred Is Released (March)

There was one main goal with the Google Fred update: to punish low-value content websites which concentrate on revenue, as opposed to the user experience. For those wondering about a guide to Google penalties, it was reported Google Fred led to certain sites suffering from a 90% drop in visitor traffic.

More info: How Google Fred Targeted Low-Value Content Sites

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Google Does a Spot of Housekeeping (February)

During early February, Google launched two major updates within a week. These received no official announcements and remained unnamed, so marketing experts debated how the search Google algorithm for SEO altered this time. Some felt it supported the algorithm in better discounting spam and links.

More info: How the Google New Algorithm Change Might Have Impacted SEO

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Google Incorporates the Popup Penalty (January 10)

To begin 2017, Google incorporated the intrusive interstitial penalty – aka the popup penalty. As the name suggests, this update penalized websites which made use of intrusive popups.

More info: The Intrusive Interstitial Penalty Is Here

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2016 Updates

Google Penguin 4.0 Is Released (September 23)

Numerous important updates came attached to Google Penguin 4.0. As a starting point, Penguin became an element of the core Google algorithm, which meant it began updating in real-time. In addition, the update caused search rankings to be more page-specific instead of affecting an entire website.

More info: Penguin 4.0: Official Announcement

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Google Changes It Up (September)

At the beginning of September, SERP went through high fluctuations – according to SEO tools used to measure such stats. This was especially the situation for local search results. There was one issue with the update: experts couldn’t source substantial data about what Google changed. This was further compounded when another round of updates happened in the middle of September.

More info: Are Major Google Search Changes Happening?

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Enhancing Mobile-Friendly Websites (May 12)

For website owners that have a strong focus on mobile users, this update was the one for them. If a site boasted a mobile-friendly design, it received a small rankings boost for mobile-based search results.

More info: Google’s Steps to Making Websites More Mobile-Friendly

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Refining AdWords (February 23)

As well as adding a fourth ad to AdWords’ traditional top block, this update also eliminated sidebar ads from search results.

More info: The Recent Changes to Google AdWords

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Google’s “Ghost” Update (January 8)

Around the start of January, SERP fluctuations were reported by many SEO tools. Google didn’t supply an official report about any search changes, and this led to experts speculating if it was the latest Penguin update. Google quickly denied this, and the search kingpin later noted it was simply a core algorithm update. Research suggests the “Ghost” update didn’t cause any significant losses.

More info: Google Admits They Performed a Core Update

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2015 Updates

Google Introduces “RankBrain” (October 26)

At the end of October, the “RankBrain” algorithm change was announced by Google. In essence, this update incorporated Artificial Intelligence learning into its search process. This refinement to its algorithm may have been revealed in October, but Google launched it in secret months beforehand. No significant variations were caused by “RankBrain” to ranking factors.

More info: Google Reveals AI Technology for Web Search

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The Zombie Update (October)

While not an official update from Google, webmasters spotted noteworthy search fluctuations during the middle of October.

More info: What’s the Google Zombie Update?

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The “Snack Pack” Is Introduced (August)

Even though it didn’t directly affect the search algorithm, the local search world experienced a significant change with the “Snack Pack”. Rather than remaining with the regular 7-pack, Google felt it was best to cut this down to a 3-pack. Someone needs to go back to the Pigeon local algorithm launch for a bigger local SEO change by Google.

More info: The Snack Pack Shake-Up by Google

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The Reveal of Panda 4.2 (July 17)

Google’s July 17 announcement revealed Panda would be upgraded to 4.2. Not much happened on the day of the announcement, however. The reason: any changes introduced by Panda 4.2 would take months to have any impact.

More info: What Do We Know About Panda 4.2?

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Google’s Quality Update (May 3)

Known in marketing circles as the “Phantom 2”, this update wasn’t initially confirmed by Google. It only became public knowledge once already in effect. As for the quality changes this update introduced, little happened – it was only a “quality signals” update.

More info: Google Quality Update

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The “Mobilegeddon” Update (April 22)

As the name hints at, the “Mobilegeddon” update changed Google’s search algorithm to focus more on mobile devices. Along with giving mobile-friendly websites a boost, it demoted any sites which were not optimized for all device screen sizes.

With the name “Mobilegeddon”, many felt this update was going to rock the SEO world massively. In reality, however, the impact was relatively minor than initially expecting.

More info: Starter Guide to “Mobilegeddon.”

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Unnamed Google Update (February 4)

At the beginning of February, SERP tracking tools spotted a considerable amount of change to search results. These changes were not all that important according to Google, and this may explain why this update never received an official announcement.

More information: Google Has Tweaked Their Search Algorithm Again