3 GOOGLE ALGORITHM UPDATES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED SEO

Google Algorithm Updates

Search Engine Optimization is an indispensable tool that can help a business grow digitally. Google, being the most popular search engine across the globe, does have a huge impact on how SEO is being used. Understanding it’s algorithms, thus, is very important. So, before we dive deeper into the 3 Google algorithm updates that revolutionized SEO, let us understand the context a bit better.

According to Wikipedia, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a  website or a web page from search engines.

Three Google Algorithm Updates That Changed SEO

To give its users an honest online experience, Google operates with certain algorithms that are designed with a thousand parameters in mind. The ultimate aim is to give out optimal results to the users so that they can trust the search engine and keep coming back. But to do that, it takes countless updates and changes to the algorithms. Listed below are three major algorithm updates introduced by Google that have significantly affected the fundamentals and revolutionized the entire search engine optimization landscape.

1. PANDA UPDATE (2011)

To understand this update, we need to go back in time. Around 2009, Google started working on developing a new system called Caffeine. To put it mildly, the basic aim was to provide faster and efficient live results within seconds. Now, partly because of this, the engine delivered results in godspeed, but they weren’t always the best.

Further, we need to acquaint ourselves with a term called content farm. Content farms are those companies that mass produce the written content with the sole purpose to increase page views on their website and earn revenue from advertisements. While this may seem fair, the real problem lies in the fact that this content is of extremely poor quality bought at low rates.

As a reaction to this, Google introduced the Panda algorithm to protect the user from poor quality content. This update was historical. It’s effect can be gauged by the fact that it cost Demand Media (now Leaf Group), that relied on such content farms, a loss of $6.4 million dollars in a single quarter in 2012.

Panda changed the way SEO is perceived. Now a 1000 redundant words paired with questionable data and spam advertisements would bring down your blog’s ranking drastically. Original content backed up with hard facts and even stronger analysis wins in the eyes of Google’s algorithms. Former Web Spam team head at Google, Matt Cutts, has talked about how they used human-quality raters to establish what an ideal good content is like. In fact, Google also released a set of 23 questions that can be a guide to your next Panda-approved content.

2. PENGUIN UPDATE (2012)

The Panda update was revolutionary but it wasn’t enough. Developers still managed to find ways that landed their questionable content on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). One such way is Black Hat Link Building which helps win traffic through organic search, even though the method isn’t exactly organic but rather a spam system.

To combat these manipulative black hat techniques, Penguin was introduced in April, 2012. Firstly, it fights unnatural links. Any link that is present in an unrelated space making irrelevant claims is considered unnatural by Google. For example, if a local supermarket company fills a law firm website with its links, it will be considered unnatural as they are not related. Secondly, Penguin also notices if you are using too many keywords unnecessarily with no relevance to the content whatsoever. Understand that Penguin is an indispensable part of the ranking algorithm along with being site-wide, meaning a single mistake on one page can result your entire website to go down in ranks.

To protect yourself from the “wrath” of Penguin, try and relocate any backlinks that you may have created in the past and get rid of them. With these Google algorithm updates, one needs to understand the importance of keywords and use them wisely, and they can do wonders.

3. PIGEON (2014)

The next of the Google algorithm updates took place in 2014 and since it did not have an official name, Search Engine Land named it as Pigeon because “it was fairly significant.”

Pigeon algorithm has a lot to do with how the search engines perform locally. This update optimizes the engine to show you the results that are geographically closer to you. For example, if you search for “coffee shop”, you will automatically get a list of coffee shops that are nearest to your device’s location.

When first introduced, this Google algorithm update received both positive and negative feedback. For some shops, their ranks went up drastically while for others, it was the opposite. Local businesses enjoyed the benefit of being on top by being “local” before Pigeon but now directories like TripAdvisor too have a chance to spike up on the same SERP. Besides, 7 years down the line Pigeon has done quite a wonderful job by constantly working on distance measurement tools.

To make good use of this update, ensure that you are registered on the directories relevant to your business. Another way is to list yourself at Google My Business and regularly upload photographs, share details and even try to get honest reviews.

Editor’s Note:

Did you know the power of valuable content? In just six months since the launch of From The Experts’ Mouth, more than two dozen articles published on our website have appeared as Featured Snippets on Google and other search engines. You can read more about these and other Success Stories of the FTEM platform. We aim to continue to provide more valuable content that will help our readers in their endeavour to become a better version of themselves, in line with our approach.

About The Author

Bhavya Mehta is the founder of Beecaso, a content writing agency. She is an avid reader and a passionate writer. She uses both her hobbies to build a career in the field of digital marketing.

She graduated as a Bachelor in Business Administration with a specialization in marketing. She then began carving her way into the digital field before a failed attempt to get into an MBA school. After working with a couple of companies, she discovered her niche and now works as a freelance content writer with the vision to help local businesses expand.