The Ultimate Timeline of Google Algorithm Updates (+ Recommendations)

Google is a fickle beast. The search engine is imperative to the success of your web content, but no onetrulyknows how the Google algorithm works (except for the elusive Google search-quality team, of course).

Google的搜索引擎也在不断变化。Google并没有成为number one search enginein the world without prioritizing its user experience. It achieved this leading position by continually updating its algorithm to meet its user’s needs and delivering the best possible results (not to mention engaging users withnew daily doodles on the Google homepage).

如果您的内容无法跟上这些Google算法更新，则可能会在搜索引擎结果页面（SERP）以及潜在的访问者，潜在客户和客户上丢失宝贵的空间。

在本指南中,我们网上e covered everything you need to know about the Google algorithm, its nine most recent updates, and how your company and content can follow suit.

While the exact number isn't certain, SEOs believe there arecertain ranking signalsthat Google considers when displaying results. These include factors like keyword usage, domain history, site usability, and more.

This is why, as businesses and marketers, we must optimize ouron-page SEO,off-page SEO， 和technical SEO为了使我们的页面更​​容易排名，因此消费者可以找到我们的内容。

你可知道over 3.5 billion Google searches are made every day? The search engine is by far the most popular among its competitors, which means the vast majority of your audience (and potential audience) is actively searching Google for information your website or blog can deliver.

How can you ensure your content ranks high enough on the SERPs to get your audience’s attention? By adhering to the Google algorithm and its updates.

Since its conception twenty years ago,Google已经对其搜索引擎的工作方式进行了数千次更新，包括in this timeline。实际上，该团队几乎每天都会对其算法进行少量更新。

Google还每年发布几次核心更新 - 您可以阅读有关Google's recommendations on those here。

In this post, I’ve detailed nine of the biggest and most impactfulGoogle算法更新按年代顺序。

1. Google Panda (2011)

Release date: February 23, 2011

Google released the Panda Update to combat thin, duplicate, or plagiarized content, keyword stuffing, content farms, websites with high ratios of ad-to-content, and other quality issues. It was also released to reward unique, high-quality content.

Google Panda gives every web page an internal quality score that attempts to mimic human qualification, i.e. how a human might respond to and rank a piece of content. This score is then factored into how each website ranks on the SERPs.

Panda was originally introduced as a filter for search engine results, but inJanuary 2016, it was added to thecore algorithm。

How to adjust for the Google Panda Update:

• Use a site crawler likeBotify或者尖叫的青蛙to identify thin (e.g. low word-count or duplicative) content on your website and blog. If you find any, consider combining and/or archiving those pages.
• Ecommerce sites are especially vulnerable to duplicative content — in these cases, use canonical URLs to indicate to Google which version of each page should be prioritized in the SERPs.
• Rewrite and update content to reflect better grammar, syntax, and language. Keep content formatting consistent.
• 删除或重新工作任何低质量或表现不佳的内容。（您可以根据流量低和/或低转化率识别此内容。）
• 专注于创建真正独特的内容，为您的访客和客户提供独特的价值。Google provides 20+ questions帮助您确定质量和价值。

2. Google Penguin (2012)

Release date: April 24, 2012

Google Penguin更新已发布以战斗black-hat link building techniques, such as spammy links, link directories, and keyword-stuffed anchor text. Google calls them “black hat webspam” anddefines them as“techniques that don’t benefit users, where the intent is to look for shortcuts or loopholes that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked.”

企鹅更新前,link volume — regardless of quality — was a heavy influence on how pages ranked on the SERPs. Penguin attempts to better understand how websites were earning their links and ensure that only high-quality, trustworthy, and relevant links were rewarding the sites they led to.

Google Penguin only affects inbound links — the links leadingtoa site, not away from it. Penguin monitors for black-hat link building techniques and over-optimized anchor link text. This is when too many inbound links for one website contain the same anchor text, which can alert Google that the links aren’t natural or earned.

Penguin was also added to the core algorithm in late 2016.

如何调整Google企鹅更新：

• Follow白帽链接构建技术建立高质量的相关反向链接。
• 不要参加Private Blog Network (PBN) link schemes, which often lead to site penalties.
• If you hire an agency or freelancer for link-building, make sure you ask how they’re building links.No money should be exchangedbetween the agency and the person or organization linking to your site.

3. Google Hummingbird (2013)

Release date: August 20, 2013

Google released theHummingbird Updateto provide a more conversational, human search experience. Google wanted to better understand the context of what people were searching for — versus the specific terms within their search query.

TheKnowledge Graph在前一年被介绍，但蜂鸟在此功能上得到了改善。此更新还带来了Google Authorship，这是discontinued in 2014。

Hummingbird uses natural language processing that includes semantic indexing, synonyms, and other features to interpret queries and produce results. It weeds out keyword-stuffed, low-quality content to create a more personalized, accurate search process and show SERP results that matched searcher intent.

How to adjust for the Google Hummingbird Update

• Focus on conceptual content, not simply keyword-driven content.Expand your keyword researchto include different phrasing, commonly asked questions, and similar terms.
• Use tools like回答性to expand on context when doing keyword research.
• Conduct competitive analysis by searching your keywords on a new Google SERP and see what related content and SERP features (like Knowledge Graphs orfeatured snippets) pop up.

4. Google Pigeon（2014）

Release date: July 24, 2014 (in the US) and December 22, 2014 (in the UK, Canada, and Australia)

Google released thePigeon Update通过核心算法更好地校准本地算法。此更新的目的是奖励具有强大有机存在的本地企业，并具有更好的SERP知名度。它还可以通过传统的Web搜索排名信号影响准确的本地结果来回答用户搜索查询。

Pigeon treats local search the same as traditional organic search, just with local cues. It considers searcher location when displaying SERP results, and allows searchers to treat Google Search and谷歌地图the same. For example, you can search “best accountant near me” in both engines, and the results should be similar.

How to adjust for the Google Pigeon Update

• Leverage on-page SEO and off-page SEO tactics to ensure Google recognizes your business’s location and other local ranking factors.
• Create content and media that associates your business with a specific location, such as a neighborhood, town, or city. This will helpimprove your local SEO。
• Register withGoogle My Business管理您的业务信息在Google SERP上的出现。在其他重要目录上创建和管理配置文件苹果地图,Facebook,事实,Foursquare,Superpages， 和喊叫。
• 确保your location information is consistent across all your web properties, i.e. your website, social media, Yelp listings, etc.

5. Google Mobilegeddon (2015)

Release date: April 22, 2015

Google Mobile Update（绰号为“ Mobilegeddon”）正式将移动友好性纳入排名信号。该更新优先考虑移动SERP上的移动友好网站，以及不友好的移动网站被惩罚或完全从SERP中删除。

Mobilegeddon was yet another effort by Google to continue providing the best possible search experience for its users. “When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps,”Google announcedin 2015.

Mobilegeddon penalizes websites that aren’t mobile-responsive and rewards those that are. It only affects search rankings on mobile devices (globally, and in all languages). However, sinceGoogle moved to mobile-first indexing, the mobile-friendliness of your site now impacts how you rank foreveryquery.

How to adjust for the Google Mobilegeddon Update

• Confirm your website is mobile-optimized! (Here’s ablog post on how to do this）
• UseGoogle’s Mobile-Friendly Test toolto see how your website performs. This tool will show you how your site looks on a mobile device and alert you to any loading or processing problems.

6. Google RankBrain (2015)

Release date: October 26, 2015

Google Rankbrain更新是Hummingbird的一部分。Rankbrain是Google算法的机器学习动力组件，它可以更好地了解搜索者意图并提供最准确，最相关的SERP结果。

Many SEO strategists believe it serves to measure how searchers interact with search results and then ranks the results accordingly. (This could explain why your SERP looks different when you search for the same thing multiple times.)

It has also been theorized that theRankbrainalgorithm identifies relevance features for the websites that rank for a given query, establishing query-specific ranking factors and signals.

Googlehas calledRankbrain是第三重要的排名信号。

如何调整Google Rankbrain更新

• 参考recovery steps recommended for the Hummingbird Update。

7. Google Snippet Length Increase (2017)

Release date: November 30, 2017

Google’s Snippet Length Increase Update increased the Googlemeta descriptionlength from 155 to 300, almost doubling the word count. The goal of this update was to provide more useful descriptions of web pages and help searchers better understand how a result might be relevant to their query.

在大约六个月的时间里，据报道，元描述长度在160-300个字符之间（取决于搜索和结果内容），但截至2018年5月13日，Google将大多数片段的长度倒退到最初所在的位置。

How to adjust for the Google Snippet Length Increase Update

• Given that Google rolled back their meta descriptions to their original length of ~150, we don’t recommend changing your snippets at this time.
• Keep your descriptions under 150 characters to ensure the full snippet shows up on SERPs.

8. Google Mobile-First Indexing (2018)

Release date: March 26, 2018

The Mobile-First Indexing Update was another nod from Google to those websites that are using a mobile-friendly website.

Here’s how Google explains: “[Historically,] our crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have typically used the desktop version of a page's content, which may cause issues for mobile searchers when that version is vastly different from the mobile version. Mobile-first indexing means that we'll use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they're looking for.”

在产生搜索结果时，Google将继续从单个数据索引中提取。此更新意味着他们将使用网站内容的移动版本来填充更多此索引。同样，此更新主要影响了网站的索引方式，而不是如何排名，但这并不是说这会影响排名的排名。

“Having mobile-friendly content is still helpful for those looking at ways to perform better in mobile search results,”Google says。“[But] we may show content to users that’s not mobile-friendly or that is slow loading if our many other signals determine it is the most relevant content to show.”

How to adjust for the Google Mobile-First Indexing Update

• As always, ensure your website is mobile-friendly. (If you have放大器和非AMP页面, Google will prefer to index the mobile version of the non-AMP page.)
• 如果您对移动网站（M-DOT网站）有单独的URL，请确认您的手机页面反映了与桌面网站相同的内容。（Google更喜欢索引您的移动URL。）
• 确保structured dataand metadata are used on both your desktop and mobile versions.
• Read throughGoogle’s best practicesfor how to prepare for mobile-first indexing.

9. Google Medic Update (2018)

Release date: August 1, 2018

Google Medic Update是2018年的第三次，广泛的，核心的算法更新。它对健康和保健行业的网站产生的不成比例的影响是其昵称的方式。但是，它并没有针对那些行业。它对所有其他行业的网站也产生了很大的影响。

通常，SEO专家认为，Medic Update是另一个针对“质量”问题的更新，例如薄，重复的内容，缓慢的负载时间，不准确的标题标签和不良的用户体验。

Unlike the other updates on this list, the Medic Update didn’t target a specific type of web content or release a new part of the core algorithm. However, Google发布官方声明about it: “There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.”

How to adjust for the Google Medic Update

• 确保您的片段SEO和technical SEOare intact and that there are no underlying issues.
• Continue to produce helpful content that provides unique value to your visitors.
• Follow white-hat link building techniques.

10. Google BERT Natural Language Processing Update (2019)

Release date: October 25, 2019

TheGoogle BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) updatewas an effort by Google to better understand the language in which people search. It's similar to RankBrain and serves as an additional effort to understand searches; it didn't replace it.

BERT was a significant search algorithm update. Asreported by Google: "With the latest advancements from our research team in the science of language understanding ... we’re making a significant improvement to how we understand queries, representing the biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search."

In short, BERT helps Google users find useful and accurate information. The update allows Google to capture more of the nuance and context in queries and not lean so heavily on the use of prepositions or phrasing to clarify questions. (Check out somelive examples of BERT here）

BERT was also applied to featured snippets in over two dozen countries and languages.

How to adjust for the Google BERT Update

• 专注于编写高质量，清晰的内容并避免为机器编写（作为伯特）是Google努力的努力notbe a machine.
• 参考recovery steps recommended for the Hummingbird Update。

Grow Better with Google Updates

As a business owner and marketer, these Google updates may seem repetitive, detailed, and alotof work. You’re not wrong. When I first reviewed these and considered the changes I needed to make to my website, I’ll admit I was a little overwhelmed.

But it’s important to remember that Google wants to create a fantastic search experience for its users … including you and me. These algorithm updates are designed to prune out the lazy, low-quality, and illegal content that’s not only filling up our search queries but also competing with our own business and marketing content.

In short, these algorithms aregoodthings! It’s up to you to use them to your advantage.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.