The Most Impactful Google Algorithm Changes

Google is constantly making changes to its search engine algorithms, and figuring out how to navigate those changes is what keeps those in the SEO field constantly on their toes.

Many of these changes and updates are nuanced, and don’t make an immediate, huge difference in website ranking, especially for small businesses. But a few of them have made huge waves when they were released and changed the way we all practice SEO.

I recently stumbled across an article on Search Engine Land where they interviewed SEO’s on the most memorable Google update they’ve experienced. As expected, Florida and Panda topped the list.

Florida, released in 2003, quickly shut down cheap SEO practices like keyword stuffing and hiding keywords in content, and shifted the focus to content creation. It was this change that really shifted the SEO game from keywords and backlinks, to creating content rich pages.

Panda, the next largest change in 2011, again pulled back on SEO’s ability to “cheat” the system, and focused instead on quality over quantity content. Google made it very clear that it’s new focus was “long tail keywords”, as well as diverse content on every page. Blogs needed to be new and unique, and duplicated pages would be discounted as unique content.

Also mentioned was Penguin, which came quickly after in 2012. This updated specifically targeted aggressive link building tactics, making many link building companies obsolete.

Click here to learn more about that the panel had to say about these Google algorithm changes as well tactics you can start (or continue) to implement to algorithm proof your website and stay high in the ranking.