Google is updating or refreshing its algorithm on a daily basis and while the majority of the changes are small, some have a significant impact on search results which can make or break a brand\u2019s visibility. Having an understanding of Google algorithm update history can help to explain shifts in ranking or organic traffic and help to inform future search engine optimization strategy. Here is a Google algorithm update timeline including the most significant updates which impacted search results over the years.<\/p>\n
October 22, 2019: BERT Update<\/strong><\/p>\n The most recent Google algorithm update supported BERT natural language processing enabling Google to understand natural language and context in search.<\/p>\n October 2, 2019: Unnamed <\/strong><\/p>\n Several days of ranking fluctuation reported but no official confirmation from Google.<\/p>\n September 24, 2019: September 2019 Core Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Core update appeared to impact websites that had been affected by previous core updates in terms of content quality, expertise, presentation, production, and competitive comparison.<\/p>\n July 12, 2019: Maverick Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Rank trackers detected a lot of flux in rankings but Google has not confirmed an update.<\/p>\n June 6, 2019: Site Diversity Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This update was intended to improve scenarios where sites had multiple organic listings.<\/p>\n June 3, 2019: June 2019 Core Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google announced this broad core algorithm update. Some believe this was a reversal of the March 2019 update, focusing on search intent, and some niches saw a lot of volatility.<\/p>\n May 23, 2019: Indexing Bugs\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google confirmed the update was to fix two indexing bugs that were preventing new content from being properly indexed.<\/p>\n April 5, 2019: Deindexing Bug\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n A bug was dropping pages from the search index but sites recovered soon after the update.<\/p>\n March 12, 2019: March 2019 Core Update <\/strong><\/p>\n Also called the \u201cFlorida 2\u201d update because it happened around the time of the popular Pubcon conference in Florida. The analysis suggested it rewarded sites with good user experience.<\/p>\n March 1, 2019: 19-result SERPs\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google displayed anomalous page-1 counts including up to 19 organic results, related to in-depth articles which then disappeared on March 6.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n August 1, 2018: Medic Core Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Broad core algorithm update with significant impact happened over a week. Appeared to impact health and wellness sector in particular.<\/p>\n July 24, 2018: Chrome Security Warnings (Full Site)\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Chrome 68 started marking all non-HTTPS sites as “not secure.”<\/p>\n July 9, 2018: Mobile Speed Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This update made page speed a ranking factor for mobile results.<\/p>\n June 14, 2018: Video Carousels\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Videos in organic results were moved into a dedicated video carousel.<\/p>\n May 13, 2018: Snippet Length Drop\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n In the Google update May 2018, Google rolled back most snippets to the shorter limit (about 150-160 characters) after a few months of testing longer display snippets with up to 300 characters.<\/p>\n March 26, 2018: Mobile-First Index Roll-out\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n After months of testing, Google announced the roll-out of the mobile-first index.<\/p>\n March 14, 2018: Zero-result SERP Test\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google tested displaying zero organic results and a \u2018show all\u2019 button. The test was stopped after a week.<\/p>\n March 8, 2018: Brackets Core Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google confirmed a core update that continued for almost two weeks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 14, 2017: Maccabees Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google search engine update 2017 confirmed several small updates had taken place.<\/p>\n November 30, 2017: Snippet Length Increase <\/strong><\/p>\n Google increased the character limit for snippets after 2 years of testing from 155 to 300.<\/p>\n October 27, 2017: Featured Snippet Drop <\/strong><\/p>\n There was a significant drop in featured snippets alongside a jump in Knowledge Panels.<\/p>\n October 17, 2017: Chrome Security Warnings (Forms) <\/strong><\/p>\n Google began warning visitors to sites with unsecured forms.<\/p>\n June 20, 2017: Google Jobs <\/strong><\/p>\n Google launched a job listings portal drawing from major providers.<\/p>\n March 8, 2017: “Fred” (Unconfirmed) <\/strong><\/p>\n There were a lot of reports of significant flux across SEO, but Google did not confirm a core update.<\/p>\n January 10, 2017: Intrusive Interstitial Penalty\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google penalized aggressive and intrusive pop-ups that affect the user experience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n October 6, 2016: Penguin 4.0, Phase 2\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google updates 2016 ended with the second phase of Penguin 4.0 reversed all previous Penguin penalties.<\/p>\n September 27, 2016: Penguin 4.0, Phase 1\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n The first phase of Penguin 4.0 was a less aggressive version of the Penguin algorithm. It devalues bad links rather than penalizing a website.<\/p>\n September 23, 2016: Penguin 4.0 Announcement\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Major Penguin update which made it part of the core algorithm.<\/p>\n May 12, 2016: Mobile-friendly 2\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This update again boosted ranking for mobile-friendly sites.<\/p>\n February 23, 2016: AdWords Shake-up\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Changes were made to AdWords rolling out 4-ad top blocks and remove right-column ads.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n October 26, 2015: RankBrain<\/strong><\/p>\n Google announced machine learning had been part of the algorithm for several months.<\/p>\n July 17, 2015: Panda 4.2 <\/strong><\/p>\n A Panda data refresh but no major update.<\/p>\n May 3, 2015: The Quality Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google confirmed that quality signals had been impacted by a core update but did not release specifics.<\/p>\n April 22, 2015: Mobile Update AKA “Mobilegeddon” <\/strong><\/p>\n In the first of Google updates 2015, Google announced that rankings would be different for mobile-friendly sites on mobile devices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 22, 2014: Pigeon Expands (UK, CA, AU)\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n A major local update that hit the US in 2014 was widened to the UK, Australia, and Canada.<\/p>\n December 10, 2014: Penguin Everflux\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google stated that they would be releasing smaller updated more frequently rather than infrequent but major updates.<\/p>\n October 21, 2014: Pirate 2.0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This update was intended to combat digital media and software piracy and targeted a small group of websites.<\/p>\n October 17, 2014: Penguin 3.0 <\/strong><\/p>\n One year after the Penguin 2.1 update, Google released a data refresh.<\/p>\n October 1, 2014: “In The News” Box\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n News links were expanded to a larger group of potential sites.<\/p>\n September 23, 2014: Panda 4.1 <\/strong><\/p>\n A significant Panda update was rolled out gradually which affected 3-5% of queries.<\/p>\n August 28, 2014: Authorship Removed\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Authorship bylines were removed from SERPs.<\/p>\n August 6, 2014: HTTPS\/SSL Update\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google confirmed they would be favoring secure sites that used encryption.<\/p>\n July 24, 2014: Pigeon\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n The Pigeon update affected the US changing how local results are handled.<\/p>\n June 28, 2014: Authorship Photo Drop <\/strong><\/p>\n Google dropped authorship photos from SERPs.<\/p>\n June 12, 2014: Payday Loan 3.0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google launched another update less than a month after the initial Payday Loan update, targeting spammy queries.<\/p>\n May 19, 2014: Panda 4.0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This major Panda update included both an algorithm update and a data refresh.<\/p>\n May 16, 2014: Payday Loan 2.0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google updated the payday loan algorithm to target spammy websites.<\/p>\n February 6, 2014: Page Layout <\/strong><\/p>\n In the first of the Google algorithm updates 2014 page layout was refreshed to penalize websites with too many adverts above the fold.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 19, 2013: Authorship Shake-up\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n The authorship mark-up was removed from 15% of queries.<\/p>\n October 4, 2013: Penguin 2.1 <\/strong><\/p>\n An update to the Penguin algorithm was reported as being a likely refresh, but some reported significant losses.<\/p>\n August 20, 2013: Hummingbird\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google confirmed that the Hummingbird update had been rolled out in the previous month and made changes to semantic search and the Knowledge Graph.<\/p>\n August 6, 2013: In-depth Articles\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018In-depth articles\u2019 added as a new type of news result which showed long, evergreen content.<\/p>\n July 19, 2013: Knowledge Graph Expansion\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Knowledge Graph queries increased by more than 50% with over 25% of searches returning a Knowledge Graph entry.<\/p>\n July 18, 2013: Panda Recovery\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n A Panda update was confirmed but details were unclear; it seemed to soften previous Panda penalties.<\/p>\n June 11, 2013: “Payday Loan” Update\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This algorithmic update targeted spammy results including adult and payday loans.<\/p>\n May 22, 2013: Penguin 2.0 <\/strong><\/p>\n A Penguin update was released which appeared to be targeted towards sites on a page by page level.<\/p>\n May 21, 2013: Domain Crowding\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This update was intended to control domain crowding and diversity deep the SERPs from page 2 and beyond.<\/p>\n May 9, 2013: “Phantom”\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n While there was no official confirmation, a lot of sites reported substantial traffic loss and volatility.<\/p>\n March 14, 2013: Panda\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This Panda update was the last before it was integrated into the core algorithm.<\/p>\n January 22, 2013: Panda <\/strong><\/p>\n Around 1.2% of queries were affected by this update.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n December 21, 2012: Panda\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n A Panda refresh affecting 1.3% of English queries.<\/p>\n December 4, 2012: Knowledge Graph Expansion <\/strong><\/p>\n Knowledge Graph functionality was added to non-English queries KG capabilities were enhanced. Languages included French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese.<\/p>\n November 21, 2012: Panda <\/strong><\/p>\n This update seemed to be data only rather than algorithmic.<\/p>\n November 5, 2012: Panda\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This update impacted around 1.1% of English queries.<\/p>\n October 9, 2012: Page Layout <\/strong><\/p>\n Google updated the page layout change which had happened in January which penalized pages with too many adverts above the fold.<\/p>\n October 5, 2012: Penguin\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n This was a small update which only impacted around 0.3% of queries”.<\/p>\n September 27, 2012: Panda <\/strong><\/p>\n A significant Panda algorithmic and data update rolled out affecting 2.4% of queries.<\/p>\n September 27, 2012: Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Changes to the way Google handled exact-match domains were announced leading to large-scale devaluation and impacting 0.6% of queries.<\/p>\n September 18, 2012: Panda 3.9.2 <\/strong><\/p>\n A data-only Panda refresh which caused moderate fluctuation in rankings.<\/p>\n August 20, 2012: Panda 3.9.1 <\/strong><\/p>\n A relatively small Panda update.<\/p>\n August 14, 2012: 7-Result SERPs\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google changed the Top 10 by limiting it to 7 results for around 18% of queries.<\/p>\n August 10, 2012: DMCA Penalty (Pirate) <\/strong><\/p>\n Now in Google update history, they confirmed they would be penalizing websites that repeatedly violated copyright.<\/p>\n July 24, 2012: Panda 3.9<\/strong><\/p>\n About 1% of queries were affected by a Panda update with fluctuation in the rankings for around a week.<\/p>\n July 19, 2012: Link Warnings\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google sent out a lot of unnatural link warnings using Google Webmaster Tools but then announced that these new warnings may not actually cause a significant problem.<\/p>\n June 8, 2012: Panda 3.7 <\/strong><\/p>\n This Panda update caused significant ranking fluctuation but for less than 1% of queries.<\/p>\n May 25, 2012: Penguin 1.1 <\/strong><\/p>\n The first data update after the Penguin algorithm update confirmed that Penguin data was like Panda in that it was being processed separately to the main search index.<\/p>\n May 16, 2012: Knowledge Graph\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n Google started to roll out Knowledge Graph which is a SERP-integrated display providing additional information which represented a step closer to semantic search.<\/p>\n April 27, 2012: Panda 3.6\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n A relatively small update to Panda was made which seemed to have little impact.<\/p>\n April 24, 2012: Penguin\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n The webspam update which later became known as Penguin was rolled out to tackle over-optimization, spammy links, and keyword stuffing. It impacted around 3.1% of English queries.<\/p>\n2018<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2017 <\/strong><\/h2>\n
2016 <\/strong><\/h2>\n
2015<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2014 <\/strong><\/h2>\n
2013 <\/strong><\/h2>\n
2012 <\/strong><\/h2>\n