google-algorithm

Google Algorithm Updates Over the Last 5 Years (2019-2024)

Table Of Contents

Google is a well-known name in search engines worldwide. It acquired approximately 92% of the global search engine market. It is estimated that more than 99,000 search queries are made every second, which means 8.5 billion searches per day. 

Google updates its algorithm every year to maintain its authenticity, which helps to reshape the SEO world. These updates also assist in boosting the user experience and ranking reliable content that satisfies users’ queries.

Over the past five years, the SEO landscape has reshaped, compelling marketers to adapt their strategies continuously. Each update aims to enhance user experience by prioritizing quality content, relevance, and website credibility.

Let’s take a closer look at these changes and their significance.

How Frequently Does Google Algorithm Update?

Google updates its search algorithms frequently. These SEO Google updates can occur hundreds of times each year. Some updates are minor and go unnoticed, while others are major and can greatly affect search rankings. On average, Google implements around 500 to 600 changes annually, which breaks down to roughly one update per day.

The most popular updates include: 

  • Panda
  • Penguin
  • Hummingbird Updates
  • RankBrain
  • Pigeon Update
  • BERT

These Google algorithm update SEO were groundbreakers in how Google ranks websites. Generally, Google’s main aim is to improve the quality of search results by focusing on website content relevance and reducing spammy practices. 

To improve users’ experience, Google always conducts evaluations and experiments. These are reviewed by search analysts and legal experts, who then decide if the change is ready for approval. In 2022, they ran over 800,000 experiments that resulted in more than 4,000 improvements to Search. Google evaluates in multiple ways.

History Of The Google Latest Algorithm Update 

2024 Google Algorithm Update

15 August: Core Update

After the September 2023 helpful content update, which hurt many small and independent publishers, Google latest algorithm update listened to feedback and made changes. They updated their help page with more detailed advice for those seeing changes after the update. 

Some websites affected by it have started to see some improvement, but many haven’t fully recovered yet. The update’s rollout is expected to take about a month to complete.

31 July: No Deepfake Content rank

Google has changed its search algorithm to address the problem of non-consensual explicit content. It specifically focuses on the rise of AI-generated images and videos, known as “deepfakes.” 

This update is designed to help detect and reduce the circulation of harmful content. The ultimate goal is to offer better protection to people whose images may be altered and shared without their consent, ensuring that they have more control over their digital presence.

20 June: Spam Update

Google always works on improving its automated means of identifying and dealing with search spam. Major releases are informed to our ranking update list under the category of spam updates. 

Any website that suffers from any of these updates should read Google’s spam policies, as any violations are likely to lead to reduced ranking or delisting.

5 March: core update

These new spam policies introduced by Google aim to boost the quality of search results. Here are the key takeaways for web creators:

Core Update: This complex update involves multiple systems to identify helpful content better. Expect potential ranking fluctuations during the rollout, which may take up to a month. This update focuses on creating satisfying, people-first content to maintain your rankings.

New Spam Policies: Google is implementing three new policies to tackle practices that harm search quality:

Expired Domain Abuse: Avoid repurposing expired domains solely for manipulation; use them for valuable content instead.

Scaled Content Abuse: Generating low-quality content to manipulate search rankings will not work. Prioritize creating original, useful content.

Site Reputation Abuse: Ensure third-party content on your site is closely monitored and adds real value rather than just trying to manipulate rankings.

2023 Google algorithm updates

8 November: Core and Reviews Updates

In November, Google rolled out another core update, alongside a review update that examined review content across various categories (not just products). 

This period was marked by significant volatility, with shifts in ranking positions and a notable rise in new URLs entering the top 10 results.

4 October: Core and Spam Updates

Google released two significant updates, the core and spam updates, in October. These updates aimed to significantly curb spammy results, particularly in languages other than English, such as Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, and Chinese, and refine search rankings in all sectors.

The updates caused some variations, but the change was much smoother, and fewer sites were affected than the previous ones.

14 September: Helpful Content Update

The release of the major SEO update, which specifically targeted the SEO industry, aimed to rank web pages that genuinely benefited the users. Websites that were mainly designed to rank higher were not excluded from this volatile period either. The volatility brought about by this update was indeed significant, especially for content-based sites.

15 March: Core Update

This core update, rolled out in mid-March, brought significant volatility to rankings. SEOs reported a 74% increase in ranking fluctuations compared to the September 2022 update. It resulted in the content quality target areas of websites and their relevant search results. Hence, this update shaked up of top rankings in various sectors.

2022 Google algorithm updates

14 December: Helpful Content Update

This Google algorithm update SEO is built on the August helpful content update, with a stronger focus on rewarding content. Thus, it truly serves users and demotes unoriginal, low-quality content across various niches.

19 October: Spam Update 

Google introduced a spam update in October that aimed to combat malicious websites, spammy content, and harmful links. It focused on ensuring that search results featured trustworthy and authoritative content.

20 September: Product Reviews Update

Google rolled out another product review update to refine its approach further. The update aims to ensure that only detailed, trustworthy, and helpful product reviews rank well. In addition, it emphasizes expert analysis and real-life usage details.

12 September: Core Update

This was another broad core update for Google’s search ranking system, aiming to fine-tune it and improve content relevancy and search result accuracy.

August: Helpful Content Update

Among the biggest upgrades of the year, this one focused on information made more for search engines than for humans. It helped to expose beneficial, educational, and user-centred articles by rewarding content that provided actual value to users.

May: Core Update

Core updates are broad and affect the overall ranking system. This update aimed at improving the relevance of search results by refining how Google evaluates content quality. It particularly focused on rewarding high-quality, authoritative, and helpful content across various industries.

March: Product Reviews Update

Google introduced the first product review update of the year. This Google algorithm update for SEO focused on promoting in-depth, valuable product reviews over thin, affiliate-heavy content. It prioritized content that offered original insights, comparisons, and detailed analysis, rewarding reviews with expert knowledge.

22 February: Page Experience Update (Desktop) 

This update expanded the 2021 mobile-focused page experience update to desktop search. This update prioritized websites that offer a smooth user experience based on core web vitals such as loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.  Additionally, It also looks at mobile-friendliness and security and avoids annoying pop-ups.

2021 Google algorithm updates

1 December: Product Reviews Update

This google search ranking updates the goal to improve how Google ranks product review content. It rewarded high-quality product reviews that demonstrated expertise, depth, and accuracy. Sites that offered in-depth reviews saw a boost in rankings.

17 November: Core Update 

A broad core update in 2021 that affected rankings across various websites. Unlike past Google updates, it focuses on improving the relevance of search results by considering content quality, authority, and user experience. 

30 November: Local Search Update 

Google local SEO update targeted improving local search results. This update impacted how businesses appeared in local searches, with a focus on proximity, relevance, and prominence.

3 October: Spam Update 

This update focused on fighting spam in search results. It targeted websites using manipulative tactics to gain rankings, such as keyword stuffing and malicious SEO techniques.

1 July: Core Update

This was part of the broad core updates and further refined rankings. It focused on improving the quality of search results by analyzing and prioritizing authoritative and high-quality content.

Page Experience Update (June 2021 – August 2021)

This gradual rollout over the summer emphasized user experience metrics, particularly Core Web Vitals, including page loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Sites providing better user experiences saw improvements in rankings.

2 June: Core Update

Similar to other core updates, this one aimed to reevaluate websites’ ranking based on the latest understanding of content quality and relevance.

26 July: Link Spam Update

Focused on detecting and devaluing spammy links used to manipulate search rankings. Websites using unethical link-building practices were impacted.

8 April: Product Reviews Update 

This update was designed to promote product reviews that offer insightful analysis and original research. It rewarded content that showed genuine expertise rather than shallow reviews or those copied from manufacturers.

10  February: Passage Ranking Update

This update allowed Google to rank specific passages from a webpage, improving its ability to surface relevant information hidden within longer pieces of content. This benefitted websites with well-organized content, even if it was buried deeper in the article.

2020 Google algorithm updates

December: Core Update

Google rolled out its last core update of the year in December. This broad core update affected rankings globally across all languages. Core updates don’t target specific issues but are more focused on improving Google’s overall search system.

May: Core Update

The May 2020 Core Update was a significant algorithm update that brought major changes to website rankings. It particularly impacted YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) websites, including finance, health, and news sites. The effects were felt widely across various industries.

January: Core Update

The first core update of the year occurred in January. As a broad core update, it aimed to enhance the relevance of search results for users. This update impacted various sectors, including finance and health.

Featured Snippet Deduplication (January 2020)

In January, Google made a major change to how featured snippets work. Prior to this update, URLs appearing in featured snippets could also be listed as organic results. Post-update URLs in the featured snippet were “deduplicated,” meaning they would not appear twice on the first page.

2019 Google algorithm updates

25 October: BERT Update

The BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) update was one of the biggest algorithm changes. It aimed to improve how Google understands natural language, making search results more relevant, especially for long-tail queries and conversational searches. This update impacted about 10% of search queries.

24 September: Core Update

This important broad Google search ranking update affected search rankings across various industries. While Google didn’t specify any particular focus, it suggested that websites focus on delivering high-quality content, aligning with the usual guidance of “E-A-T” (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

3 June: Core Update

It is another important core algorithm update for SEO that caused significant shifts in rankings. Though specific details about the changes have not been released to the public, Google is still prioritizing content quality in its efforts to improve user experience. 

6 June: Diversity Update 

This update aims to give the searcher a wider range of domains to choose from. Google limited the number of times a single domain could appear in the top results (usually to two), thus allowing greater diversity among searches.

12 March: Core Update 

 Also known as the “Florida 2 Update,” this was another broad core update. It focused on rewarding high-quality content and better-addressing user intent, benefiting sites that previously suffered from earlier updates.

Site Diversity Update 

Although not an official name, this update was reported to reduce the number of results from the same domain in the top 10, making search results more diverse.

To wrap things up

If you’re an SEO professional, staying updated with Google’s algorithm changes is crucial for optimizing your website. Keeping track of every update can be overwhelming, and reading through all the information at once isn’t practical. That’s why we’ve compiled a comprehensive summary of all the major Google Algorithm Updates from the last 5 years. This way, you can quickly review key changes without the hassle of visiting multiple pages.

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