Did you observe a drop in traffic over your website? Does your website’s ranking slip down?
If yes, then it’s high time to check the google algorithm updates.
Every year more than 2 trillion searches take place on google search engines, and the smallest change of algorithm can create a significant impact on a website. Google changes its algorithms thousands of times in a year, and at times these updates are so minor that they go unnoticed, but sometimes these updates adversely affect the SERPs of the website. Therefore, it is really essential to keep track of Google algorithm updates happening every day and amend the changes in content development, creating backlinks, and developing on-page as well as off-page SEO.
What is the Google algorithm?
Google algorithms retrieve the data from its search directory to show the most relevant results for a query. The google search engine uses various ranking systems and algorithms to show the webpages that are ranked best due to their relevance and SERPs.
The following section will guide you about the significant updates of google algorithms, penalties, and solutions.
Google Algorithms Updates List
The main aim of google algorithm updates is to offer the best user experience, and that is why Google regularly modifies the process to scrutinise links, rankings, and the content to maintain the quality and relevance of the results for a query.
In today’s date, Google has outlined 200 factors that can affect the ranking of a website, but still, nobody can predict how the future algorithm update will be?
The list of some significant updates of the Google algorithm is as follows.
Google Panda Update
Launched in 2011, Panda algorithm focuses on poor content and spam that can not help the end-user. Under this duplicate content, thin content, and content with so many advertisements are penalised. To avoid getting penalised it is better to use site crawlers to check keywords, thin content, and duplication of content on the website.Google Penguin Algorithm Update
Launch in 2012, Penguin update checks the quality of the content by focusing on the backlinks. The excellent quality and organic backlinks help in improving the ranking while artificial backlink profiles get penalised. The regular audits of backlinks and backlink profiles save the websites from getting penalised.Google EMD Update
Every now and then Google algorithm changes to show zero tolerance for low quality. For this reason, in 2012 Google launched a new algorithm Exact Match Domain or EMD to target spam websites and low-grade content. The main intent to launch this update was to target the websites that have wrongly used the domain name to misguide the visitors and also the websites that are having low-quality content that has no value or no match with the exact words written in the domain. This update affected the SEO work and force the companies to formulate better plans to run on-page & off-page SEO activities, backlinks creation, and develop high-quality content to improve website ranking.Google Page Layout Algorithm
In 2012, Google launched Page Layout Algorithm to target websites having a thick volume of static ads that put pressure on the visitors to scroll down the entire page to read the content. This update affected 1% of the websites and forced them to design a better website for a smooth user experience. This update doesn’t affect the pop-ups/overlay advertisements.Google Hummingbird Update
Hummingbird update was launched in 2013 for interpreting the semantic search through gaining better understanding of context and the intent. To improve the ranking, it is best to develop SEOs using keywords related to the concepts and avoid using synonyms of keywords and co-occurring terms.Payday Loan Update
Payday update was launched in 2013 to deal with spammed queries related to non-reputed industries like porn, high-interest loan companies, etc. This update impacted 0.3% of the search engine queries in the USA. To recover from this update simply follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and use white hat strategies to develop content, UI/UX, and backlinks.Google Pigeon Update
Launched in 2014, Pigeon update focuses on the quality of On-page and Off-page SEOs. To avoid the adverse effect on the SERPs due to poor quality content it is best to take help of SEO services to do on-page analysis regularly and also to list off-page SEO in relevant business directories.Google Rankbrain Algorithm
Google launched the RankBrain algorithm in 2015, to understand the intent behind the search queries. It is basically the machine learning system that pre-screens the query entered in the search engine. It then tries to understand the intent behind it to show the best results. This update was launched for a simple reason that 15% of the search queries had no context or analysed before to show the results. This created dissatisfaction among the users. RankBrain considers location and previous searches made by the user to find out the most relevant content for the search query.Mobilegeddon Update
In 2015, one of the major Google algorithm updates were launched by the name of Mobilegeddon update to target non-mobile-friendly webpages. This update targets individual web pages and not the entire website. This was basically to encourage mobile-friendly websites and making it a QR for website ranking. This update made it easier for the users to browse on any websites they wish to and get information on time. This algorithm update affected search ranking on mobile phones and search results in multiple languages. It does not matter what business you do and which industry you belong to? If your web pages are not mobile-friendly then it will affect your website ranking adversely.Google Fred Update
Fred is not a single Google algorithm update. All the updates related to quality issues that are not named falls under the ‘Fred’ algorithm update. Google keeps on updating the algorithms that deals with quality issues and most of the time they go unnoticed. Therefore, all those algorithm updates that have affected a huge number of websites get the name ‘Fred’. If your website has got affected due to the ‘Fred’ update and you want to fix it, then refer to Google Webmaster Guidelines to recover your site from it.Intrusive Interstitials Update
The conversion rate of pop-up ads is 9.28% and it is really very beneficial for all kinds of businesses. Not all pop-up ads are allowed by Google and this update aims to bring down the intrusive pop-up advertisements that may adversely affect mobile user experience. This update target spam ads like pop-ups that cover webpage content and forces the users to close the ad first to continue reading. It also dismisses pop-up ads that open automatically the moment a user clicks on a webpage. It also targets splash ads that disturb the visitors when they navigate between the web pages before landing on the homepage of a website. The intrusive interstitial update does not affect banner ads, in lines, a slide-ins pop-up advertisement that gives the right information to the website visitors and also covers less than 15% of the screen size. If you don’t want your website to suffer from this update then avoid using ad modals, full-screen pop-ups, welcome mats, etc. that disrupt the user experience.How can Whisskers assist you?
Google algorithm updates affect SERPs and website traffic adversely if the website’s owner fails to notice them. Being rated among the best digital marketing agencies of India, Whisskers keep on changing the content strategies to sync with google algorithm updates. At Whisskers our team of experts keep track of Google algorithm updates to provide the best search engine optimisation services to improve the SERPs of the website using high ranking keywords while creating relevant and useful quality content. Whisskers offer various SEO services, namely technical SEO, local & international SEO, eCommerce SEO, enterprise SEO, video SEO, etc.
Our team of SEO experts performs a detailed analysis of our client’s website to understand the targeted audience, market size, and business goals. It helps in developing an SEO strategy, identifying high ranking keywords, content marketing, and gathering reviews. SEOs help in generating good traffic on a website, which enhances the conversion rate. Therefore, it is very crucial to develop SEO as per the Google algorithms to retain your existing position.