Top Four Google Algorithm Changes That Affect SEO Today
SEO is constantly evolving as search engines strive to give users the best results possible. Google has had many algorithm changes designed to show users results from quality websites. The ones which impacted webmasters the most include:
1. Panda
Launched on February 23, 2011. Panda went after low quality sites with poor quality content. It went after article directory websites that published hundreds of articles from companies seeking exposure and a backlink. Individuals mainly wrote articles for search engines, not readers. Publishing prolific amounts of poor-quality content wouldn’t propel article directories to the top of the search results anymore. These sites still exist, though.
2. Penguin
Launched in April 2012, with a refresh in in May 2013, 204 and 2016, Penguin went after webmasters using black hat SEO tactics. Links are so important for search engine optimization that webmasters and shady companies created low-quality links to increase a site’s ranking. With Penguin, sites using manipulative tactics to build links saw their ranking drop. Google came up with a disavow tool. allowing sites to tell the search engine to ignore certain links. Webmasters that spent good money to buy links found themselves disavowing them. Earning links by creating link-worthy content is now the norm.
3. Hummingbird
Hummingbird, announced on September 26, 2013 but launched a month before, focuses on returning results based on user intent. It places an emphasis on natural language search queries, taking meaning and conversation into account. This was a major change for individuals engaged in SEO. They can write content naturally, without having to add unnatural sounding keyword phrases. It might be helpful to visit SEO Toronto Company and learn more from their resources.
4. Mobilegeddon
Launched on February 26, 2015, Mobilegeddon was Google’s way of telling webmasters that they were using a site’s mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor. It had a major impact on SEO because it showed webmasters that the user experience on their site was important to Google. While publishers should know where their traffic comes from, some people deluded themselves into believing their audience almost always used desktop devices to access their website,
These four Google algorithm updates are the ones with the most significant impact on search engine optimization, although there have been many others that publishers should have paid attention to if they want their website to rank well.