Google algorithms
|
YEAR |
MONTH |
ALGORITHMS |
DESCRIPTION |
|
2003
|
FEBRUARY |
BOSTAN |
More emphasis on quality backlinks. |
|
APRIL |
CASSANDRA |
Crackdown on linking from co-owned domains, hidden text & links. |
|
|
MAY |
DOMINIC |
Improvements to the counting & reporting of backlinks. |
|
|
JUNE/JULY |
ESMERELDA & FRITZ |
Improvements to the indexing infrastructure.
|
|
|
NOVEMBER |
FLORIDA |
Crackdown on keyword-stuffing & other black hat SEO tactics. |
|
|
2004 |
JANUARY |
AUSTIN |
Crackdown on “invisible” text meta tag-stuffing. |
|
FEBRUARY |
BRANDY |
Index explanation, the rollout of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). |
|
|
2005
|
FEBRUARY |
ALLEGRA |
Crackdown on suspicious-looking links. |
|
MAY |
BOURBON |
Improvements to how duplicate content & non-canonical URLs are treated. |
|
|
JUNE |
PERSONALIZED SEARCH |
Results take a user’s search history into account. |
|
|
OCTOBER |
JAGGER |
Crackdown on reciprocal links, links farms, paid links. |
|
|
OCTOBER |
GOOGLE LOCAL |
Map data is integrated with the Local Business Center (LBC) data. |
|
|
DECEMBER |
BIG DADDY |
Updated to URL canonicalization, redirects, & other technical issues. |
|
|
2006 |
NOVEMBER |
SUPPLEMENTAL UPDATE |
Changes to the supplemental index & filtered pages. |
|
2007
|
MAY |
UNIVERSAL SEARCH |
Integration of traditional results with News, Videos, Images, Local, etc. |
|
JUNE |
BUFFY |
Updated to single-word search results & other small changes. |
|
|
2008 |
APRIL |
DEWEY |
Unspecified updated to the search index. |
|
2009
|
FEBRUARY |
VINCE |
Big brands get a boost in the search index. |
|
DECEMBER |
REAL-TIME SEARCH |
Twitter feeds, Google News, & new content is integrated into the real-time feed. |
|
|
2010
|
APRIL |
GOOGLE PLACES |
LBC rebranded “Places,” is integrated more closely with local search results. |
|
MAY |
MAYDAY |
Crackdown on low-quality pages ranking for long-tail keyword searches. |
|
|
JUNE |
CAFFEINE |
Launch of the new web indexing system, resulting in a 50% fresher index. |
|
|
2011
|
FEBRUARY |
PANDA |
Crackdown on thin content, content farms, sites with high ad-to-content ratios. |
|
NOVEMBER |
FRESHNESS UPDATED |
The greater emphasis put on recent content in search results. |
|
|
2012
|
JANUARY |
SEARCH+YOUR WORLD |
Google+ data & user profiles included in search results. |
|
FEBRUARY |
VENICE |
More localized results appear for board queries. |
|
|
APRIL |
PENGUIN |
Crackdown on link schemes, keyword-stuffing, other black hat tactics |
|
|
MAY |
KNOWLEDGE GRAPH |
Relevant facts & images included alongside traditional results. |
|
|
SEPTEMBER |
EXACT MATCH DOMAIN |
Crackdown on low-quality sites that have search terms in their domain names. |
|
|
2013
|
AUGUST |
IN-DEPTH ARTICLES |
A new type of results, dedicated to more evergreen, long-form content. |
|
AUGUST |
HUMMINGBIRD |
Google recognizes full question searches, emphasizes high-quality content. |
|
|
2014
2014 |
JULY
|
PIGEON |
Change to how Google manages local search; closer ties established between Google’s local and core algorithms. |
|
AUGUST |
HTTPS/SSL UPDATE |
Google starts giving preference to secure websites. Adding encryption to your site = a boost in rankings. |
|
|
AUGUST |
AUTHORSHIP REMOVED |
Authorship bylines disappear from Google’s result pages. |
|
|
2015 |
APRIL |
MOBILE-FRIENDLY |
Mobile-friendliness becomes a stronger ranking factor for mobile searchers. |
