Important Google Algorithm Updates 

Black hat SEO is an unethical practice used to rank a webpage higher in Google search results. This practice is against the search engine guidelines. They are different types of Black hat SEO techniques.

• Keyword stuffing- The repetition or insertion of keywords in large numbers into a website.
• Blog commenting- A strategy of building links to different sites through commenting.
• Irrelevant keyword- The title and content of a webpage will possess different keywords.
• Cloaking- It is a method where the impression of the website given to search engines is different from what the website actually carries.
• Duplicate content- It is when plagiarized or copied content is presented on a website.
• Content spinning- It is the repetition of the same content on a website.
• Clickbait- It is the content that attracts the users’ attention, gradually developing curiosity in them.
• Link farming- It is a method of automatically generating links to other websites.
• Hidden texts or links- Texts that are not visible to users and invisible hyperlinks are hidden in a website.

To prevent these malpractices Google came up with different algorithm updates. Google algorithm is a set of rules which helps provide the best results to the users and to rank webpages according to their relevancy and user interaction. 

Google Panda – 2011

• Google panda was an algorithm update against content farming
• It’s the first algorithm
• Its also known as ‘Farmer update’
• Panda update filtered and removed content from spamming
• Content spamming includes plagiarism, content spinning, thin pages, keyword stuffing etc.
• In 2014 new updated version of Panda, Panda 4.0 was applied as a permanent filter.

Google Penguin – 2012

• Google Penguin was an algorithm against link spamming
• Link spamming includes paid links, link exchange, link scheming, link farming, comment spamming, links from low-quality websites, wiki spamming, guest blogging etc.
• In 2016, Penguin 4.0 version made spam detection and punishment a real-time scenario. 

Pigeon Algorithm – 2013

• The pigeon algorithm was an update which help boost local SEO
• It helped improve a web page’s local visibility and attract relevant users

In order to use the Pigeon algorithm, a web owner should -

• Register to ‘Google My Business, to list websites locally
• Add contact details and other necessary details
• Submit the website to local directories
• Embed placemark (location with Google map)
• Improve social media interactions through social media platforms.

  

Hummingbird Algorithm – 2013

• This algorithm provides semantic and deep information about a search query on a real-time basis
• User reviews and feedbacks are examples of hummingbird algorithm.

RankBrain Algorithm – 2016

• This is a modified version of the Hummingbird algorithm.
• ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) was added in this update to provide quality search results.
• It helped provide better search results based on past searches like suggestions by Google.

 Google Mobilegeddon – 2015

• It is also known as the ‘mobile friendly update’.
• Its purpose was to boost mobile-friendly websites in search results.

There were different criteria for websites to be mobile-friendly-

1. Users must be able to read content without tapping or zooming
2. Horizontal scrolling was not allowed
3. Appropriate space should be provided between tap targets.
4. Non-playable content should be removed.

   

• From 2016 websites were ranked only if they were mobile-friendly
• In 2017 to support mobile-friendly websites, a new project AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages was introduced. This project stored mobile-friendly website data for quick retrieval and delivery to users.

Park Domain Update – 2012

• Domain parking meant that web owners create and register a particular domain without converting it into a website.
•  Park domain update filtered these reserved domains and restrained indexing these web pages.
• these reserved domains hardly had any content.

EMD – 2012

• Exact Match Domain
• This update removed the websites with the exact same content and with no improvements in content or other features.

Pirate Algorithm – 2012

• This update removed and punished websites that contained pirated contents.
• DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998) can be filed to remove and punish websites that contained copied content.

 

BERT Update

• BERT- Bidirectional Encoded Representation from Transformers
• This update was introduced by Google to understand and process natural languages, ie. different slang.

 

Possum Update

• This update filtered real-time results in local searches.
• It filters local websites for a local search query.
• This update focuses on listing more specific keywords.

 

                         Google FRED Update – 2017

• This update was to regulate advertisement volume on websites.
• It helped prevent the over usage of advertisements on a website.