Major Google Algorithm Updates
Almost every day, Google introduces changes to its ranking algorithm. Some are tiny tweaks; others seriously shake up the SERPs. This cheat sheet will help you make sense of the most important algo changes and penalties rolled out in the recent years, with a brief overview and SEO advice on each. 1. Panda Launch date: February 24, 2011 Hazards: Duplicate, plagiarized or thin content; user-generated spam; keyword stuffing How it works: Panda assigns a so-called “quality score” to web pages ; this score is then used as a ranking factor. Initially, Panda was a filter rather than part of Google’s ranking algo, but in January 2016, it was officially incorporated into the core algorithm. Panda rollouts have become more frequent, so both penalties and recoveries now happen faster. 2. Penguin Launch date: April 24, 2012 Hazards: Spammy or irrelevant links; links with over-optimized anchor text How it works: Google Penguin’s objective is to down-rank sites whose links...