Google executives like Gary Illyes and John Mueller confirm that Google is constantly changing their algorithm, even though most of these changes aren’t publicly announced or described.
Moz estimates that there are 500 to 600 changes per year!
While Google does make major update announcements, the exact inner workings of the algorithm are unknown (and a bit mysterious) to the general public. A good majority of information out there is just speculation from industry professionals.
So it makes sense that 40% of marketers cite changing search algorithms as their biggest obstacle to SEO success.
After all, if everyone knew exactly how to rank in the first position without penalties for shortcuts or black hat SEO strategies, Google wouldn’t succeed in ranking only the best results. Anyone could hack their way to the top without putting in the work.
Not only would this make it hard for honest people like you and me to succeed, but it would also seriously compromise Google’s mission statement:
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
The best knowledge we have of Google’s algorithm comes in the form of major algorithm updates like:
- Mobile-friendly update (April 2015), favoring websites with mobile-friendly versions and setting the stage for future penalties if sites don’t comply.
- Pigeon (July 2014), working to integrate local search results like Google Maps.
- Hummingbird (August 2013), aiming to understand the context and intent behind a user’s search instead of just looking at the literal words they typed.
- Penguin (April 2012), targeting spammers and sites that buy unnatural links to boost their rankings.
Not to mention Panda, Google EMDs (exact match domain names), and the Private Blog Network (PBN) deindexing updates. Then there’s Phantom, which first appeared in May 2013 and is believed to have been updated four times – but has never actually been confirmed by Google.
So how are you supposed to keep track of all these?
There are some great resources to help. Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History is an awesome database that organizes updates chronologically. Check out Google Webmaster Central and The Webmaster too.
Check out the video below to learn more about my strategies for link building, on-page SEO, and user metrics when trying to rank on Google.
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