Google Search Algorithm Updates always were, are, and, we suppose, will be something that strikes some fear into the hearts of webmasters who care about their site rankings. Google plays hardball, webmasters play whack-a-mole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is this so when these updates presumably aim to provide the best user experience and results to searchers and to reward websites for high quality content?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everybody who is engaged in the SEO field knows that Google operates and applies more than 200 ranking factors<\/strong><\/a> before letting your website get the highest positions on the SERP. However, before improving each of those 200 ranking factors you are better off to first learn which of them impact a website negatively or<\/a> positively<\/a> and then start your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is difficult to consider even half of Google\u2019s ranking factors when you conduct a website\u2019s optimization, and some webmasters don\u2019t even want to do this. Instead they go for black-hat SEO in order to get quick results. Their quick high positions eventually get lost and end with a Google Penalty which in a simple word means trouble. Google is too smart, so don\u2019t try to cheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Google Penalty <\/strong>is represented by a negative impact on your rankings which comes to you after Google conducts a manual review or algorithm update. This means that you did something to your website that was against Google\u2019s webmaster guidelines<\/a> and your website was mentioned in a spam report. If you see that your rankings and traffic suddenly became lower in a matter of several days, especially after a new algorithm update, this usually means that a Google Penalty was applied according to new rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can check whether your website was punished in Google Search Console<\/a>. However, this shows you only manual review results<\/i>. A penalty as a result of the latest algorithm update can be confirmed only via website ranking and traffic analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two types of Google Penalty: partial matches<\/strong> and site wide matches<\/strong>. The first type of penalty is applied when there are several artificial links or those of low quality which point to specific pages of your website and you are losing valuable organic traffic. The second type takes place when the backlink profile of your entire website needs significant and instant auditing and cleaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A rank decrease may refer to all the pages of your website, a specific keyword, or a specific page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Google Algorithm Update <\/strong>covers a bunch of changes for Google\u2019s ranking algorithm, including improvements in the existing algorithm or a set of new rules on how to analyze the quality of websites and then rank them in the SERPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since Google launched in 1998, a lot of algorithm updates have happened. Of course, more often people pay attention only to the major ones, e.g. Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and Pigeon. However, there are actually more of them which have had a significant impact on the current SERPs view and which have been a total pain in the neck for many webmasters: Release date: April 28 \u2013 May 3, 2010 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This update aimed at<\/strong> rewarding websites with high quality long tail content<\/i>. The peculiarity of the update is that Google now paid more attention to the quality of the presented content. It got you to higher positions on the SERPs regarding specific long tail keywords despite a poor backlink profile. Its main goal was relevancy<\/i> of the content presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The greatest losses came to websites in a niche where they were selling goods generically. Focusing mostly on short tail keywords they went through significant traffic and rankings drops regarding long tail keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy:<\/strong> fill your website with enough long tail keywords. This may come in the form of articles, extended reviews, long descriptions, a characteristics overview, guidance, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WebCEO\u2019s Keywords Research Tool<\/a> will help you to work on keywords and create unique and winning combinations for your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Release date: February 23, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This update aims at<\/strong> rewarding websites with high quality content and punishing low quality websites. Panda looks for everything you did in order to get a higher position on a SERP without quality in your pocket. This could have been:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy: <\/strong>content improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Work on the content of your website. Rewrite your material in order to make it of high quality, put keywords only in places where their presence is necessary and use only those keywords which are relevant to your niche and specifically to the page you are trying to improve. It will not be a bad decision if you remove all the pages with low quality content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Forget about advertisements for a second. Go to websites that are trustworthy and popular and learn their advertisement profile: how many ads they have, whether they are disturbing, and their relevancy to a website\u2019s niche. Then come back to your place and think about the same points regarding your website. Optimize things properly and create an ideal place for visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. No black-hat SEO. Honest and \u201cclean\u201d, well done content will bring you success and traffic, therefore heightening your authority. Searchers will come to your place and stay there for a long time. Google needs nothing more. Release date: September, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Google Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update focused on websites with domain names that exactly repeated a searchers\u2019 query and then got their websites to the top pretty much based on that alone.<\/p>\n\n\n Remedy: <\/strong>unfortunately, no advice will help here, because you either have such domain name or you don\u2019t. It\u2019s no longer a guaranty at all that you will score for a keyword just because your domain name is an exact match. Release date: April 24, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Penguin was released to punish websites that try to improve their positions by getting links from low quality websites and by stuffing pages and anchor links with an enormous amount of keywords. Such schemes are easily recognizable even for a user. Google only needs to check websites from which those links came and then present you a penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody likes bad quality websites, because they, by default, mean that: a user will not find any good material there and can\u2019t trust them, so it is better not to visit them at all. Accordingly, being linked to from such a website will reflect on you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy: <\/strong>forget about black-hat SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Don\u2019t try to build fast, easy, or paid spammy backlinks, because those more often will bring you harm instead of success. Take your time and try to get links from websites which have already reached some popularity and high domain authority. WebCEO\u2019s My Backlinks Tool<\/a> will help you to learn your backlink profile from A to Z, including link texts, linking domains and the tool will show you toxic pages that link to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use white hat link building techniques<\/a> like high quality guest blogging, link round-ups, the skyscraper technique, etc, which will be a win for both sides. By taking these steps, webmasters will gain a decent backlink profile which will be appreciated by Google, and build up domain authority for their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WebCEO\u2019s Content Submission Tool<\/a> will help you to find the best places where your content can be your best advertisement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Avoid keyword stuffing in any form and place. Keywords are not flowers which you can put anywhere and enjoy them. Their main mission is to help you to find a reader, but not to attract Google\u2019s attention. Find the best variants, build some relevant long tail or short tail keywords which are successful for your niche, find some synonymic alternatives and put them into your text so users and Google will not be annoyed. Google recognizes synonyms and can reward you even more for using them. Release date: August 20, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Because semantic search is so complicated, the Google Hummingbird update went farther than any other updates. It tried to understand a searcher\u2019s way of thinking at the moment they wanted to find something on Google. This approach extended the borders of information which should be presented. For instance, Google would not just show the definition of \u201cpizza\u201d on its local SERPs, but information which concerns that word: recipes, history, the nearest pizza places, the most popular among them, recommendations in the form of \u201cpeople also ask\u201d, etc. Hummingbird tries to get you the most accurate results concerning your query, by analyzing what you probably need this information for<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hummingbird works with a \u201cknowledge graph\u201d which was first presented in 2012. There one can usually find relevant answers to a query, and you won\u2019t even need to enter a website! With this update, local search was vastly improved. Since Hummingbird gives you less primitive information and goes deeper into your wishes, local businesses were given a large incentive to do better with their Internet performance by improving title tags, keywords in descriptions, and conducting website updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advice: <\/strong>structure your content properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Because Hummingbird uses knowledge graphs, it has become better to write your content in a way that answers the following questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? By doing this you heighten the chances of your website being chosen as an answer for a searcher\u2019s query and you can also be selected for a Featured Snippet (technically speaking, we are suggesting that you optimize your Open Graph code and your Schema code \u2013 webmasters will know what we mean). This helps to bring more traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WebCEO\u2019s Rank Tracking Tool<\/a> will show you your results in organic search and whether your website was shown in a Featured Snippet or Knowledge Panel (the box where Knowledge Graph data is presented).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Diversify your content. Long articles with comprehensive analysis are really great and Google likes them, but for a visitor\u2019s convenience you can write paragraphs that are easy and quick to read. Moreover, these short articles can also be used by Google in a knowledge panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Your language should follow your niche. You can write in a simple, interesting, and engaging way, but don\u2019t forget that you must create content related to a definite niche. Don\u2019t make your article too easy; use up-to-date terms, statistics, diagrams, and so on. Remember that all those terms are your keywords, and Hummingbird can consider your information more relevant to somebody\u2019s query than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Set a Schema markup. This markup determines whether your page will be featured in a Snippet. The data presented in your Schema markup can help visitors judge what your site represents: ratings, quantity of reviews and skillful descriptions. If you are an owner of a local business you can present more data concerning your working hours, menu, and phone numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Release date: July 24, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pigeon brought a lot of changes to local SEO after its release:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advice: <\/strong>become visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Make your business visible on all local business directories<\/a>: Facebook, LinkedIn, Bing, Yelp, and many others. Local ranking factors have become more and more important: reviews, citations, links, social media engagement, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Use local search terms as your keywords. Write them down in a snippet of your own content, in title tags, and in the descriptions of your place in the local directories. Of course, don\u2019t forget to mention them in your text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Time to think about your website optimization. As Pigeon takes into account a website\u2019s organic SERP results, you should take care of your website performance: high quality content, backlink profile, domain authority, mobile-friendliness, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. If you have a local brick and mortar business, go to the major travelling websites, e.g. TripAdvisor in order to gain some popularity, backlinks, and good reviews. Release date: April 21, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mobile devices are everywhere nowadays. Users have traded their desktops for smartphones and prefer to chill out with them 24\/7. Google sees trends and follows them. Trying to provide users with the best performance even on mobile devices, Google released its Mobile Friendly Update which had an impact only on those websites which aren\u2019t optimized for smartphones. It has been a great motivator for webmasters to make their sites convenient for any type of device. Going into detail: with this update your search rankings on desktops are not lowered at all. As this update concerns only mobile devices, accordingly only your mobile rankings<\/a> suffer from it if you haven\u2019t optimized your website yet. However, it won\u2019t necessarily affect the whole website. If some of your website\u2019s pages are mobile-friendly, then they will not be \u201ctouched\u201d by Google. Google has even provided a test<\/a> for website owners which can help to check whether a website is mobile-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advice: <\/strong>make your website mobile-friendly. Use AMP<\/a> for this purpose, a framework that provides for the fast and smooth loading of your website on mobile devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WebCEO\u2019s Landing Page SEO Tool<\/a> will give you detailed information concerning your website\u2019s mobile optimization, so you can discover any issues and see instructions on how to solve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Google Mobile-First Indexing<\/strong> which was enabled on July 1, 2019, a website’s mobile-friendliness obtains even more value. Google has begun to crawl and index websites primarily from the mobile version point of view. If you run a website that Google hasn’t seen yet and it is not mobile-friendly yet, be ready to experience problems with your indexing and rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Release date: September 1, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Possum was a greater version of Pigeon in which developers addressed the disadvantages of the latter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. As Google still considers organic results while giving searchers the best local matches, it is important to constantly keep track of the general website\u2019s performance: backlink profile, domain authority, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Because of the keyword variation problem, you should do comprehensive research on the keywords you are ranked for. Maybe, there is a necessity to change them into new ones or add other variants. Release date: March 7-8, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The codename \u201cFred\u201d is not official and was proposed by Gary Illyes on Twitter as being something that is unknown. The target of this update was to punish websites that use black-hat SEO and too many advertisements for aggressive monetization. \u201cFred\u201d fights against websites:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy: <\/strong>website\u2019s quality reevaluating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Your website should belong to a specific niche and fulfill a user\u2019s needs with relevant content, which is rich and well written, without keyword stuffing and without any signs of thin or duplicate content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. There should be no game playing with title tags, metadata, keywords, and schema code. Any attempts to use black-hat SEO must be stopped immediately. Google doesn\u2019t like them and you should not either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Be shy when time for advertisements on your website comes. An excessive amount of it will always disturb users and they will leave your site instantly, heightening your bounce rate, which Google automatically doesn\u2019t like. Remember that a lot of people nowadays use Ad Blockers, so the chances to get something from those advertisements may become minimal. Release date: August 1, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cMedic\u201d update presumably punishes websites which can negatively influence people\u2019s well-being. This includes: health, financial security, safety of a user, and so on. To be specific, this update affects websites which:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy: <\/strong>raise trust among users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Work on your landing pages and content<\/strong> \u2013 make it of high quality and erase all features which Google doesn\u2019t like: low quality, thin, duplicate content, keyword stuffing, and everything else that Panda hunts for. Take the freshest information from trustworthy and official sources, attaching statistics, tables, diagrams, etc. With this you will show users and Google that you haven\u2019t pulled your data out of thin air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. E.A.T. concept<\/strong> \u2013 expertise, authoritativeness, trust. Write in detail on your About page who you are, why you can be useful, and why people should trust you \u2013 prove that you are a specialist who has, for example, the necessary background and education to be an expert in a chosen niche. If you recommend some information that goes against the words of most scientists, then give your users more proof that what you say may be right (Copernicus was right after all). Trust rises with good reviews about your website, so ask people\/your customers\/visitors\/subscribers to leave a comment concerning their attitude to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Create an author bio which will present you as a specialist.<\/strong> This variant should be used if your About page gives information concerning the services you provide on your website. In your bio you can write about yourself as an expert in a specific sphere and why people can trust you. Maybe, you have a Bachelor\u2019s, Master\u2019s, or Doctoral Degree, completed some courses or internship, and so on. Google presumably also wants to trust you, so give it such an opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google never stops developing and updating. And each time website owners encounter more and more new rules and limits, which they should obey in order to stay visible on the SERPs. 2019 follows this trend as well. The June Google Core Update made a lot of changes. Many YMYL websites<\/a> were impacted and fell in the rankings. These are \u201cYour Money or Your Life\u201d sites that presume to sell you things that effect your health and financial situation. Meanwhile educational and informational resources gained more authority. Learn more about the June 2019 Google Core Update<\/a> in order to protect your website from decreasing rankings and pick up new rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Release date: September 24, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the June 2019 Core Update\u2019s successor, the September Core Update focused on websites that in any way might damage people\u2019s well-being. Websites containing information regarding health, money, travel and medical stuff were the target of this update. Some publishing websites like The Daily Mail<\/a> did better after this update after having fallen with the June update. Google says that any kind of information that might have any influence on people\u2019s lives should be harmless. It\u2019s still too early to describe everything this update might have brought, however, some points already cry for your attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy:\n<\/strong>revise your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. E.A.T. concept<\/strong> is still necessary to follow: show your visitors\nthat you don\u2019t get information out of thin air. Disclose your qualifications\nand prove your credibility so that neither Google nor users would hesitate to\ncome to your website and later apply knowledge you provide them with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Monitor your backlinks<\/strong>, both coming to and from you: the sources\nyou use while creating your content might influence people\u2019s trust in you as a\nprofessional and as a writer. Unproven and suspicious websites you are linking\nto will make people trust you less, because they will not be sure whether they\ncan handle the data or not unless you provide them with recognized specialists\u2019\nopinions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Freshness<\/strong> is an always winning feature: update your content with fresh and relevant information<\/strong>. If you use any statistics in your texts, make sure the figures are recent and a hundred percent true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Release date: October 21,\n2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The BERT algorithm (Bidirectional\nEncoder Representations from Transformers) is not a simple update to the existing\nalgorithm. It is the introduction of a new system that will help understand\nusers\u2019 natural language and provide them with more accurate results for their\nqueries. We can call BERT Hummingbird’s successor at some point because both\nthese updates are focused on the understanding of search intent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n BERT goes deeper in a searcher\u2019s\nquery analysis, catching the context of it. It considers the whole word groups,\nprepositions that surround the sense-leading word of a query and other language\nunits. BERT will analyze the linguistics to understand what a person really\nwants and will deliver the most accurate results. This update will also\ninfluence featured snippets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Google has provided examples of how the BERT algorithm works<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remedy<\/strong>: there are no particular instructions on how to write content or optimize your website for this update. BERT was created to understand people\u2019s way of thinking while creating a query from a linguistic point of view. The advice is to write for people in a natural way:<\/strong> no machine-generated content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>What Is a Google Penalty and Why Is It Dangerous for Your Website?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"google-search-console-security-and-manual-actions\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dsh.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/span>What Stands Behind Google Algorithm Updates<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google May Day Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/The-WebCEO-Keyword-Research-Tool-1200x714.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Panda Update<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"GOOGLE-EXACT-MATCH-DOMAIN-(EMD)-UPDATE-example-1\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/GOOGLE-EXACT-MATCH-DOMAIN-EMD-UPDATE-example-1.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n![\"GOOGLE-EXACT-MATCH-DOMAIN-(EMD)-UPDATE-example-2\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/GOOGLE-EXACT-MATCH-DOMAIN-EMD-UPDATE-example-2.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Penguin Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/The-WebCEO-My-Backlinks-Tool-1200x671.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/The-WebCEO-Content-Submission-Tool-1200x671.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Hummingbird Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"featured-snippet-and-knowledge-graph\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/featured-snippet-and-knowledge-graph.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"webceo-featued-snippet\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webceo-featued-snippet.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"google-hummingbird-update-local-search\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/google-hummingbird-update-local-search.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Pigeon Update<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Mobile-Friendly Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/The-WebCEO-Site-Health-Tool-1200x881.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Possum Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"google-possum-update-local-search-results\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/google-possum-update-local-search-results.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n
![\"google-possum-update-local-search-results-2\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/google-possum-update-local-search-results-2.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Fred Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google Medic Update<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/span>Google September 2019 Core Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Google BERT Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"google-explains-how-the-bert-algorithm-works\"](\"https:\/\/site.wstatic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/google-explains-how-the-bert-algorithm-works.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Google November 2019 Local Search Update<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n