Description: The Google Algorithm changed in October 2019 with the BERT update, the latest in a long line of updates since 2000. We discuss the search algorithm updates made by Google since its inception.
Google Algorithm Updates
Underneath one of the most efficient search engines in the world is the Google Algorithm. Its prowess is not simply defined by its fundamental building blocks, but the way it keep updating in order to remain the best search engine in the world.
A Google search is amongst the most popular digital actions taken by people every day. This action is driven by the intelligence and efficiency of the Google algorithm.
One of the key reasons why the algorithm is so efficient is that it is constantly updated to improve the search experience of the user. These updates are launched at infrequent intervals of time, some of them confirmed by Google and others not confirmed but considered to be legitimate changes.
In any case, one thing is clear. Digital marketers, especially SEO executives, have to stay ahead of the game in order to not be blindsided by an algorithm change. There are many times small updates in the Google algorithm cause a website or blog to be deranked. The only real solution to stay ahead of algorithm updates is to create a website or blog that adheres to basic Google principles of engaging and informing the searcher.
In this article, we discuss the changes that have taken place in the Google algorithm updates since 2010 onwards.
Google Algorithm Updates 2019
- BERT Update (October 24, 2019)
The BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) update sought to improve Google search’s ability to better understand conversational queries and the context within which they are searched.
Before the update, Google search had a few blind-spots while understanding the context of certain types of queries. The BERT update remedies these problem and is poised to affect atleast 10% of the total search queries on Google.
- September 2019 Core Update (September 24, 2019)
The September Core Update was rolled out on a global scale, affecting search results in countries across the world.
The update saw the search ranking of some websites falling while others surging, suggesting again that Google is rewarding websites and content it previously overlooked or underestimated. As usual, fields like legal services and medicine were affected as Google revaluated their EAT scores. This is largely done to make sure people have the best access to content in areas where wrong or out-dated information could become a problem.
- Site Diversity Update (June 6, 2019)
The Site Diversity Update came about this year in June to ensure that a search result would not result in one website having more than two organic listing in the top ten results.
Before this algorithm update, there were many particular keywords where three to five of the top ten search results belonged to the same domain. To instigate greater diversity in search results, Google launched this update and capped the maximum limit of search results from a single domain down to two.
Google later clarified that some search results may continue to have more than two search results from the same domain if the content is indeed relevant.
- June 2019 Core Update (June 3, 2019)
Just at the eve of the Diversity Update, Google launched the Core update. Like most core updates, Google gave limited details on the nature of changes brought by the update.
The impact was largely felt by YMYL websites, but some other sites were affected as well. Many news websites in the UK saw their traffic fluctuate in the month of June. Since both the Diversity and Core updates were launched around the same time, digital marketers had the unenviable task of figuring out which of the two made an impact of their traffic.
- Bug Indexing (May 23, 2019)
Since there were a number of bugs stopping content from being indexed properly by search engines, Google started indexing bugs from May 23. The move saw a surge in SERPs for many websites previously affected by such bugs. While the surge in traffic was never directly tied to bug indexing, common wisdom in the SEO and digital marketing community suggests the same.
- Deindexing Bug (April 5, 2019)
Google confirmed in April about a bug dropping several top-ranked websites from the search results. Although the bug did cause certain disruptions, most affected websites recovered after some time.
- March 2019 Core Update (March 12, 2019)
The third core update launched by Google since it began its journey back in 1997, the March update didn’t come with a lot of details from the company. As Google has stated often, this core update was again aimed at rewarding websites with better EAT scores for YMYL pages.
Google Algorithm Updates 2018
- Medic Core Update (August 1, 2018)
As the name suggests, the Medic Core Update in 2018 largely affected medical websites. Websites with low EAT scores were deranked and those with updated and new content with optimal EAT scores were rewarded with higher search rankings. Many websites in the YMYL verticals were affected by the update.
The Medic update again reaffirmed the need for digital marketers to create quality content with high authority.
- Chrome Security Warning (July 24, 2018)
This particular Chrome update was largely driven by the need for websites to have secure HTTPS forms. This update ensured most websites had to get a secure HTTP form and secure its website in order to better protect user data. In case a website didn’t have a secure form, it was labelled as ‘not secure’.
- Mobile Speed Update (July 9, 2018)
Answering calls to reward mobile websites with fast load time, Google launched the Mobile Speed update making page speed optimization a key factor for mobile search rankings.
This algorithm update largely affected very slow mobile websites. The update didn’t lead to massive fall in traffic for most mobile websites.
- Video Carousels (June 14, 2018)
While video carousels on search results may seem common now, they were anything but before June 14, 2018. With video carousels appearing organically, users were able to access relevant videos related to a search query. Furthermore, content with embedded video content also soared in SERPs.
- Lowering Snippet Length (May 13, 2018)
Google lowered the character limit of its popular featured snippets back to 150-160 characters after experimenting with longer snippets for a while.
- Unnamed Core Update (April 17, 2018)
An unnamed core update in the Google algorithm was instituted in April 2018. Google confirmed the roll out of the update and explicitly stated that it was rewarding previously underrated content and not targeting any set of websites specifically.
- Mobile-First Index Rollout (March 26, 2018)
The mobile-first index rollout confirmed what marketers had been predicting all along. Google’s push towards mobile-friendly operations is typified by mobile indexing rollout.
In this algorithm update, Google began indexing the mobile-version of a website’s content instead of its desktop version as it used to earlier. This was aimed to further improve the experience of mobile users. While websites that follow Google Webmasters guidelines were the first ones to have mobile versions of their website content to be indexed first, other websites were brought into the fold after the complete rollout.
- Zero-Result SERP Test (March 14, 2018)
In March 2018, Google began the zero results experiment. This was reserved largely for search queries with definitive answers such as time, conversions, and so on.
In essence, if somebody queried “What is the time in Delhi?’, Google returned the exact time at that point of time and did not display any other organic search result. In order to see organic listings, Google added a ‘Show all Results’ tab.
This experiment was stopped after a week.
- Brackets Core Update (March 8, 2018)
Like most its core updates, Google did not divulge many finer details about its Brackets update. There were large fluctuations in SERPs around the time the update was being rolled out. Many websites saw great long-term gain after the release of the update., while others saw a decline in traffic. Websites with low EAT scores suffered the most, suggesting again that only websites with good content can last for a long-term.
Google Algorithm Updates 2017
- Snippet Length Increase (November 30, 2017)
The decision to increase snippet length to over 300 characters came with this algorithm change back in November 2017. As mentioned before, the length was dropped back to 160 characters a few months later.
- Chrome Security Warnings for Forms (October 17, 2017)
While not being an actual algorithm update, this move again reaffirmed Google’s push for HTTPS forms and laid the groundwork for full-site warnings later in 2018.
- Google Jobs (June 20, 2017)
A move aimed at simplifying job search, a key demographic of search engine users, the Google Jobs addition filtered three open positions for job seekers from top websites like LinkedIn, Monster, and so on. It produced a standalone search result at the top of SERPs for those querying for jobs in a given field.
- Unnamed Update (February 6. 2017)
The unnamed updated of February 2017 shook up many old trees and remains amongst the most impactful algorithm updates in recent memory. Bloggers and website runners with spammy links were hit the hardest, as were those with thin content. Some websites saw great surges in traffic while others fell down the pecking order.
- Intrusive Interstitial Penalty (January 10, 2017)
Google warned website runners about this update five months in advance, an oddity which foreshadowed the impact of the things to come.
Before this update, many websites happily ran pop-up ads and intrusive interstitials that disrupted the experience of an average reader. All such websites faced the full fury of the penalty and were sent languishing in search rankings.
Google Algorith Updates 2016
- Penguin 4.0 Phase 1 (September 27, 2016)
Following at the heels of the official announcement of Penguin becoming a part of Google’s core search algorithm, Phase I cushioned stringent policies regarding penalizing websites with bad links, and instead devalued such websites. Naturally, websites with bad links were hit heavily by this algorithm update.
- Penguin 4.0 Announcement (September 23, 2016)
The Penguin update was made part of Google’s core search algorithm after showing impressive testing results in certain domains. The main aim of the Penguin was to capture spammy websites that were otherwise undetectable with conventional Google systems.
Just as Penguin 3.0 many old branches and penalized numerous websites, Penguin 4.0 was expected to root out spammy parts of the internet disrupting user-content experiences.
- Mobile Friendly 2 (May 12, 2016)
The Mobile Friendly 2 update sought to reward websites with mobile-friendly websites with higher mobile SERPs. As most sites were mobile-friendly at this point in time, there were largely no major gains or losses in traffic due to the update.
- AdWords Changes (February 23, 2016)
The AdWords change in February 2016 led to major changes in the CTR of organic and paid results. Amongst the major changes made was the removal of the right-ad column and its placement on the top blocks of SERPs. This significantly improved the value of search ads as they were less distinguishable from organic results than before.
Updating 2015-2010…Please check back in a few days.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, this article covered algorithm changes in Google search over the years until 2015. The updates covered in this article were all confirmed by Google, each going down as a key cog in the history of search marketing.
In all updates, one can clearly notice a pattern of Google prioritizing user experience above all else. If there is one lesson that a blogger or digital marketer can draw from the updates above, it is that quality content will always be rewarded by Google with high search rankings in the long run. Any shortcuts with the process of creating content are likely to fail.
Moving forward, digital marketers must prioritize their approach to content creation. Keeping an ear to the ground for new Google algorithm changes is also a step in the right direction. As long as website runners abide by basic Google Webmaster guidelines, no update is likely to harm the website’s prospects in anyway.
About the Author- A digital marketing trainer and marketing professional with over a decade of experience, Gaurav Heera is a well-known name in the marketing world. He heads work at DelhiCourses.in, an institute he founded back in 2008. The institute is well-known for its popular digital marketing course in Delhi.
