Columnist Jim Yu explores how Google’s numerous algorithm updates over the years have shaped search engine optimization strategies. Can this information provide a clue for what to expect in the future?<\/p>\n

Since Google was first launched in 1998, the company has\u00a0been continually refining its search algorithm to better\u00a0match users with online content.<\/p>\n

Over the years, many algorithm updates\u00a0have targeted\u00a0spammy\u00a0and\u00a0low-quality content in an effort to surface this content less frequently in search results.\u00a0Other algorithm updates have been aimed at\u00a0improving Google\u2019s \u201cunderstanding\u201d of\u00a0search queries and page content to better align search results with user intent.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that focusing on quality content\u00a0and\u00a0the user experience really is the best way to ensure your search\u00a0engine optimization (SEO) and\u00a0content marketing campaigns are\u00a0update proactive<\/em>\u00a0rather than\u00a0update reactive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Panda<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The\u00a0Panda update\u00a0was first launched in February 2011, though it\u00a0has been updated several times since then.\u00a0This update\u00a0is designed to target sites with\u00a0low-quality content and prevent them from ranking well in search engine results pages.<\/p>\n

Sites that have pages of spammy content, too many ads or excessive duplicate content, for example, often experience Panda penalties.<\/p>\n

It was recently\u00a0announced\u00a0that Panda was added to Google\u2019s core ranking algorithm, which has caused considerable buzz in the industry.<\/p>\n

Penguin<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The\u00a0Penguin update\u00a0was first released about a year after the Panda update, in April 2012. The two are often grouped together when discussing Google\u2019s big push to raise the quality of content that appears in search engine results.<\/p>\n

This update focused largely on targeting spammy links. Google looks at backlinks as a signal of a website\u2019s\u00a0authority and reputation, taking\u00a0a site or page\u2019s backlink profile into consideration when determining rankings.<\/p>\n

Back when its core algorithm was less sophisticated, people figured out that they could\u00a0effectively\u00a0game\u00a0search engine rankings simply by obtaining significant numbers of (often spammy and irrelevant) backlinks.<\/p>\n

Hummingbird<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The\u00a0Hummingbird update\u00a0followed in the summer of 2013. This update was designed to improve Google\u2019s semantic search capabilities. It was becoming increasingly common for people to use Google in a conversational way, to type their queries as though they were asking a friend.<\/p>\n

This update was designed to help Google respond by understanding intent and context.<\/p>\n

With this update, the development of content had to shift slightly again. With the emphasis on intent, Google was not simply playing a matching game where they connect the keywords in the query with the keywords in the content.<\/p>\n

Content needed now to go beyond just the keyword. It needed to demonstrate an understanding of what users are interested in and what they would like to learn.<\/p>\n

Mobile Update<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The year 2015 saw several major updates that impacted content development. The first,\u00a0Google\u2019s mobile-friendly update, occurred\u00a0in April. This update was unique because Google actually\u00a0warned website users in advance that it was coming.<\/p>\n

With this update, Google recognized that mobile was beginning to dominate much of search and online customer behavior\u00a0\u2014 in fact, just a couple months after the mobile-friendly update was announced, Google noted that\u00a0mobile searches had\u00a0officially surpassed desktop. The mobile-friendly update forced sites to become mobile-friendly or risk losing visibility to sites that were.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columnist Jim Yu explores how Google’s numerous algorithm updates over the years have shaped search engine optimization strategies. Can this information provide a clue for what to expect in the future? Since Google was first launched in 1998, the company has\u00a0been continually refining its search algorithm to better\u00a0match users with online content. Over the years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,21,28,27,20],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}