Learning Google's Algorithm

Google's search algorithm is updated several times a year. Most of these changes are just minor adjustments. However, "basic" updates may be announced long before they are released, so that webmasters can prepare and optimize them. The easiest way to set up and use Google algorithm updates is to review Google's search engine optimization documentation.


In general, if you can optimize your website from scratch to create high-quality content and provide a great experience for your users and bots, you shouldn't have to worry too much about this thoroughness. Below is the update history for various Google algorithms. This may be useful information for you.



What is Google's Algorithm?

Google's algorithms run on complex systems that can provide the best answers to search queries. Each Google algorithm uses a set of rules to aggregate data into its index. When you calculate which pages are the best answers to your search query, search engines use ranking signals to organize those pages hierarchically based on their relevance in the SERPs.


Below is a list of Google's algorithm updates over the past decade and a brief summary of what each update means to webmasters and users.

Learning Google's Algorithm




1. Caffeine index update (2010)

In June 2010, Google launched a new caffeine indexing system. The new indexing system is designed to speed up user search results and allow websites to display content faster.


This algorithm change is a collaborative effort to speed up the Internet and meet rapidly growing network demands. Although the caffeine index update does not include a new ranking element. However, this update will allow Google to index more content across the web and improve the user experience.


2. Penguin Update (2012)

The goal of updating the Penguins algorithm is to target your website with operational link building strategies. Google calls it an "Internet Spam Algorithm Update". Thanks to this update, the algorithm can identify whether a link to a particular page is legit or spam. Penguins Update is a way to fight black hat SEO technology. Building a website using these operational links will reduce organic traffic and rankings. After penguin, if you don't follow Google's webmaster guidelines, you will incur a ranking penalty.


3. Venice (2012)

This update to the algorithm improves search results for products and services that are geographically closer to the searcher. They can expect to find results in their city. This is very helpful for local businesses to attract tourists.


4. Pirates (2012)

This algorithm update was introduced to prevent sites that report piracy from ranking highly in Google search results. They check websites that have been flagged as piracy for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If your site violates the DMCA and Google can confirm it, your ranking in organic search results will drop dramatically.


5. Hummingbird (2013)

Hummingbird has had a huge impact on the search engine experience. With this update, Google will be able to better understand your search intent. Make it easy for users to find the most relevant pages to answer their questions. Encourage SEO experts to better understand the search intent behind certain keywords and optimize them.


6. Pigeon (2013)

This update focuses on improving local search. Pigeon aims to close the gap between Google's local search algorithm and Google's network algorithm and improve ranking metrics based on physical accessibility.pijat panggilan bintaro Local businesses are feeling the big impact. Make it easy for small businesses to reach a local audience. It also has comment and rating functions, which is very convenient for researchers.


7. HTTPS/SSL (2014)

The HTTPS/SSL update is part of Google's "HTTPS Everywhere" campaign. Make the internet safer. Make sure your users visit trusted websites and are not affected by the search results.


8. Mobilegeddon (2015)

This "mobile friendly" update was released in April 2015. It is the first major update to Google's "Mobile First" plan. Certain visual requirements must be met for a page to be considered mobile friendly. This will be a new ranking signal. Web pages that provide a mobile version of a website are prioritized in search results. This only applies to a single page, not the entire website.


9. Brain Ranking (2015)

The Rank Brain update introduces new machine learning artificial intelligence to help determine the most relevant search results. The annotation model allows the model to apply any combination of elements such as location and word count to define intent and provide the most relevant results.


10. Possum (2016)

This update improves local search results. Businesses that are outside the actual city limits of a given location are difficult to classify. This update fixes the problem. Make the researcher's physical location more important. This is a major local SEO update. Google will improve filters based on address and location.


11. Annoying Intermediate Update (2017)

In 2017, Google updated its algorithm to reduce so-called annoying interstitial ads. In the form of a large pop-up window, like an ad that covers most of the page. Google explains that the purpose of the update is to minimize spam and improve SEO. As a result of this update, annoying interstitial ads will be an SEO ranking penalty.



12. Mobile Page Speed ​​Update (2018)

With this update, mobile page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile search results. Sites with very fast mobile pages will improve performance in search results. And slow pages lose their rankings.


13. Doctor (2018)

Medical updates raise awareness of online content expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT). There are several factors that affect EAT. This is a problem if your website has few reviews or backlinks, little content, few updates, or a complete company or content author profile. The page may not appear in search results.



14. BERT Update (2019)

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers) algorithm is a machine learning system for natural language processing. Help search engines understand the meaning of words in human sentences. This allows Google to understand search queries and determine which content is higher quality and more relevant.



15. Featured Clips (2020)

If the page gets the attention snippet for a particular query and ranks second, the URL will be removed from this list. Google has decided to include the featured snippet as one of the 10 links shown on the SERP page.



16. Passage Classification (2021)

Updates to section rankings allow Google to rank certain sections of your page in search results. Google can now take a piece of content and rank it independently of the rest of the page. Some on-page SEO formats, such as titles, are more valuable.


17. Product Reviews (2021)

This update further rewards pages with reviews based on in-depth research and analysis. Previously, reviews with concise, rational, and abstract-based content easily ranked at the top of Google Search.



18. Page Experience Update (2021)

This update adds three new and important network core elements. Largest content images, the first time you type them, and cumulative layout shift to page experience ranking factors. This previously included mobile-friendliness, security, safe browsing, and outrageous interstitial ads. These three new page experience signals measure website loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability to fully measure user experience.