Timeline of Major Google Search Algorithm Updates
Timeline of major Google updates. We don’t go into detail about the rollout of the Panda update which has been ongoing for several years.
| Update name | Date | Category | Effect | Further reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medic | 21/08/2018 | Core updates | Location and organic results affected. Lifestyle, money and health websites largely affected. |
https://www.mariehaynes.com/the-august-1-2018-google-update-strongly-affected-ymyl-sites/ |
| Mobile-First Indexing | 26/03/2018 | Most websites moved to mobile-first indexing. Google now crawling most websites as if using a mobile instead of desktop. | https://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing-to-more-sites-295095 | |
| Penguin 4.0 | 23/09/2016 | Core updates. Penguin. |
Penguin now part of the core algorithm instead of being run at various times. | https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/09/penguin-is-now-part-of-our-core.html |
| Mobile-Friendly 2 | 12/05/2016 | Mobile. | Google boost mobile-friendly sites further. | https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/continuing-to-make-web-more-mobile.html |
| RankBrain | 26/10/2015 | Core updates. | Machine learning now baked into the core algorithm. | https://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440 |
| Mobilegeddon | 22/04/2015 | Mobile. | Google announce that mobile and web results will now differ. | https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html |
| Pigeon | 22/12/2014 | Local search. | Improvements in local search results. | https://searchengineland.com/google-pigeon-update-rolls-uk-canada-australia-211576 |
| Pirate 2.0 | 21/10/2014 | Core | Downranking of pirate media websites. | |
| HTTPS/SSL | 06/08/2014 | Core | Preference now given to secure sites | |
| Hummingbird | 20/08/2013 | Core | Google replaces its core engine with prior updates now baked in. | https://searchengineland.com/google-hummingbird-172816 |
| Penguin 2.0 | 22/05/2013 | Core. Penguin. | ||
| Exact Match Domain (EMD) | 27/09/2012 | Core. | Exact and keyword-match domains no longer given preference. | https://moz.com/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data |
| Penguin 1.0 | 24/04/2012 | Core. | Spammy websites penalised. | https://search.googleblog.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html |
| Freshness | 3/11/2011 | Core. | Sites with up-to-date content rewarded. | https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html |
| Schema.org | 02/06/2011 | Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sign up to a uniform approach to machine-readable data. | https://searchengineland.com/schema-org-google-bing-yahoo-unite-79554 | |
| Panda | 23/02/2011 | Core | Spammy website, thin content, content farms and built-for-ads sites downranked | https://www.wired.com/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-farms/ |