Google Updates

On May 25, Google began rolling out its first broad core algorithm update this year. The May 2022 core update seems much more significant than the November 2021 core update. Unlike the November 2021 core update, where the timing for that update was not the best, i.e. right during the busiest online shopping season, this update was scheduled a lot better for retailers.

• Google’s May 2022 Core Update was significant and hit fast

Google first released news of the update in October 2022 and new properties are automatically converted to GA4 but Universal Analytics will officially be deprecated on July 1, 2023 so be sure to update your website’s code before then or you could lose analytical data.

• Google Everything you need to know about switching to Google Analytics 4

Heavily focused on short queries (especially 1-word queries) and disproportionately hit YMYL queries (health and finance).

• Google Search may be showing featured snippets less often (SEL)

Google rolled out so-called “passage indexing” (which is probably closer to passage ranking) for US/English queries. While we measured two days of moderate rankings flux, it was unclear exactly how the update impacted SERPs. Google initially estimated this update would impact 7% of queries.

• Google passage ranking now live in US English search results (SEL)
• How AI is powering a more helpful Google (Google)

One day after Google announced the end of the December Core Update rollout, it was measured moderately-high rankings flux at 99°F. It was unclear whether this was the last hurrah of that rollout or a separate, medium-sized algorithm update.

• Google December 2020 Core Update Is Complete (SER)

Google announced a Core Update that appeared to roll out quickly, with the bulk of the impact hitting on December 3rd. Some sites reported reversals a few days later, but this seems to have been limited.

• 1,000+ Winners and Losers of the December 2020 Google Core Algorithm Update (Path Interactive)
• The Themes Running Through The December 2020 Core Update (Rank Ranger)

Google claimed that the bulk of the indexing and canonicalization bug(s) had been fixed by around October 14th.

• Is There A Google Search Ranking Update Or More Indexing Issues & Fixes? (SER)

Google confirmed an indexing and canonicalization bug starting in early September.

• Pages Dropping Out Of Google’s Index With More Google Ranking Fluctuations? (SER)

Rank tracking tools and webmaster chatter suggested a significant update, but no update was confirmed by Google. Some industry analysts suggested the changes were rolled back the next day and may have been temporary.

• August 15th – Another Possible Big Google Search Algorithm & Ranking Update (SER)

SEOs reported massive ranking changes for a few hours on August 10, which then seemed to disappear. Google later confirmed a glitch in their indexing systems.

• A Google Search bug wreaked havoc on the search results Monday night (SEL)
• Google Search bug caused by issue with its ‘indexing systems’ (SEL)

Rank-tracking tools showed heavy flux, while no algorithm update was confirmed, a Google rep confirmed an indexing bug affecting Disqus comments that would be fixed during this time period.

• A Big Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Happening Now? (SER)
• User Comments And The Difference Between Indexable And Indexed (GSQi)

Google announced another Core Update (the second of 2020), which caused heavy rankings flux from about May 4-6. It is confirmed as the second-highest Core Update after the August 2018 “Medic” update.

• Google May 2020 Core Update rolling out (SEL)

While not an algorithm update, per se, COVID-19 dramatically shifted consumer search behavior. The WHO pandemic declaration on March 11th seemed to be a pivotal turning point.

• What SEOs can learn from COVID rankings volatility (SEL)

Multiple tools registered very high ranking flux for a few days. Google reps said that this was not a Core Update, and some data sets showed these changes reversing around February 12th.

• Unconfirmed Google Search ranking update feels big (SEL)
• February 2020 Google Algorithm Update: Some Big Losers & Winners (seoClarity)

Google announced that URLs in Featured Snippets would no longer be appearing as traditional organic results, in line with Google’s philosophy that a Featured Snippet is a promoted organic result. This had significant implications for rank-tracking and organic CTR.

• Google’s Featured Snippet-Apocalypse, FAQ Schema, No Snippet & Max Snippets Tags

Google rolled another core update showing heavy flux across three days and a high temperature of 97°F, in line with the previous three core updates (but smaller than the August 2018 “Medic” core update).

• Google January 2020 core update almost done rolling out (SEL)

Google confirmed that the BERT natural language processing algorithm was rolling out internationally, in 70 languages. This announcement came after speculation from the SEO community, and the exact timing of the roll-out is unclear.

• BERT is rolling out to Google search in over 70 languages (SEL)

Google upgraded their algorithm and underlying hardware to support the BERT natural language processing (NLP) model. BERT helps Google better interpret natural language searches and understand context.

• Understanding searches better than ever before (Google)

SERP trackers registered multiple days of ranking flux. Google did not confirm an update, and no details were forthcoming.

• Possible Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On October 3rd (SER)

Google rolled out another core update. The update seemed to impact sites affected by previous core updates. Google did not provide many details.

• Google September 2019 core update to roll-out later today (SEL)
• The September 2019 Google Core Update – Case studies … (GSQi)

Ranking trackers and webmaster chatter registered a week of heavy flux that was later dubbed the “Maverick” update by the search community. Google did not confirm an update, and details were limited.

• Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Again: Update Maverick (SER)
• Unconfirmed “Maverick” Google Algorithm Update: July 2019 (Performics)

Google pre-announced a “site diversity” update, claiming it would improve situations where sites had more than two organic listings. While the update did marginally improve SERPs with 3-5 duplicate sites on page one, the impact was relatively small.

• Google search update aims to show more diverse results from different domain names (SEL)

Google pre-announced a “core” update, but with limited details. Sites impacted in previous core updates seem to have been affected, in some cases, and some major UK publishers reported heavy losses. On average, the impact was smaller than the August “Medic” update.

• Early data around the Google June 2019 core update shows some winners, losers (SEL)
• The June 3, 2019 Core Quality Update was a big one (Marie Haynes)

Two days in a row, Google confirmed indexing bugs. The first bug reportedly was preventing new content from being properly indexed.

• Google has fixed the indexing issue from Thursday night (SEL)

Google confirmed a bug that dropped pages from the search index around the weekend of April 5th. Most sites recovered soon after.

• Google says de-indexing issue is fixed (SEL)

Google confirmed a “core” update, stating it was the third major core update since they began using that label.

• Google released a broad core search algorithm on March 12 (SEL)
• Google Names The 3/12 Update The “March 2019 Core Update” (SER)

For one day, Google showed anomalous page-1 counts, with up to 19 organic results. These appeared to be related to In-depth Articles, which disappeared entirely on March 6.

• March 1st Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update – Unconfirmed (SER)

After a relatively quiet December and January, tracking tools detected heavy ranking flux, with MozCast reaching 103.4°F.

• Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Happening Today? (SER)

Webmaster chatter and other tracking tools indicated high algorithm flux. Google did not confirm.

• Google Search Algorithm Update Hits Friday November 30th? (SER)

Tracking tools and webmaster chatter indicated heavy algorithm flux. No confirmation from Google.

• October 16, 2018 Google Search Algorithm Update (SER)

Webmaster chatter around an update spiked, but Google would not confirm any significant changes.

• Google Algorithm Update On September 11th (SER)

Google confirmed a “broad core algorithm update,” with wide reports of massive impact. It rolled out over the period of about a week, but peaked on August 1-2. This update seemed to disproportionately affect sites in the health and wellness vertical, although large-scale impact was seen in all verticals.

• Google Medic Update: Google’s Core Search Update Had Big Impact On Health/Medical Sites (SER)
• The August 1, 2018 Google Update strongly affected YMYL sites (MarieHaynes.com)

After warning users of unsecured (non-HTTPS) forms months earlier, Chrome 68 began marking all non-HTTPS sites as “not secure.” The changes rolled out on July 24, but rely on users installing the latest Chrome version, which can take weeks or months.

• A milestone for Chrome security: marking HTTP as “not secure” (Google)
• Chrome starts telling users HTTP sites are not secure (SEL)

Algorithm trackers and webmaster chatter signaled heavy rankings flux, but Google did not confirm.

• Google Search Algorithm Update Saturday July 21st? (SER)

Six months after announcing it, Google rolled out the mobile page speed update, making page speed a ranking factor for mobile results. Google claimed that this only affected the slowest mobile sites, and there was no evidence of major mobile rankings shifts.

• Using page speed in mobile search ranking (Google)
• It’s Live: Google Speed Update Now Rolling Out (SER)

Google moved videos from organic-like results with thumbnails into a dedicated video carousel, causing a shake-up in results that were previously tracked as organic. At the same time, the number of SERPs with videos increased significantly.

• Google Is Replacing Video Thumbnails with A Desktop Carousel (RankRanger)
• Trapped In Google’s New Video Carousels – A Dangerous SERP Feature For Some Ecommerce Retailers (GSQi)

Algorithm tracking tools and webmaster chatter showed heavy activity, but Google did not confirm an update.

• Is Another Google Update Happening In May? (SER)

After testing longer display snippets of up to 300+ characters for a few months, Google rolled back most snippets to the former limit (about 150-160 characters).

• Google confirms it shortened search results snippets after expanding them last December (SEL)

Heavy algorithm flux that peaked on April 17 and continued for over a week. Google later confirmed a “core” update, but didn’t provide any specifics and the update wasn’t named by Google or the SEO community.

• Google confirms rolling out a broad core search algorithm update earlier this week (SEL)
• Google Ranking Algorithm Update Continues On For Over A Week (SER)

Google announced that the mobile-first index was finally “rolling out.” Since the index has been in testing for many months, and Google has suggested they are migrating sites gradually, it’s unclear how much impact this specific roll-out had on the overall index. Webmaster should begin to see notifications within Google Search Console.

• Rolling out mobile-first indexing (Google)
• Google begins rolling out mobile-first indexing to more sites (SEL)

On a small set of Knowledge Cards, including some time/date queries and unit conversion calculators, Google started displaying zero organic results and a “Show all results” button. A week later, Google stopped this test, but we believe it is an important sign of things to come.

• In-Depth Look at Google’s New Zero Result Search Results (SEM Post)

Google confirmed a “core” update on March 7th, but volatility spiked as early as March 4th, with a second spike on March 8th, and continued for almost two weeks. This may have been multiple updates or one prolonged, rolling update. The “Brackets” name was coined by Glenn Gabe; no details were provided by Google.

• The Brackets Update – Analysis and Findings From The March 7, 2018 Google Algorithm Update (GSQi)
• Google Confirmed Weekend Algorithm Ranking Shift As “Core Update” (SER)

Rankings showed a spike in volatility (across a number of tools) around February 20th, which quickly settled down, sometimes signalling a targeted algorithm update. Google did not confirm any update in this time period.

• Google Algorithm Update Chatter & Signals February 20th (SER)

Chatter and several tools showed ranking volatility around December 14th. Barry Schwartz named this the “Maccabees” update, but Google would only confirm that several small updates had happened in the general timeline. Pre-holiday updates tend to get more attention (and are generally rarer) due to their disruptive effect on e-commerce.

• Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update: The Maccabees Update (SER)
• Google confirms mid-December search ranking algorithm updates (SEL)

After testing longer search snippets for over two years, Google increased them across a large number of results. This led us to adopt a new Meta Description limit — up to 300 characters from the previous 155 (almost doubling). Google confirmed an update to how snippets are handled, but didn’t provide details.

• Google officially increases length of snippets in search results (SEL)
• Google Shuffles Global SERP Feature Trends (RankRanger)

Algorithm trackers and webmaster chatter detected a high amount of flux, peaking (in our data) around November 15. Google did not confirm an official update.

• Mid-November Google Algorithm Search Ranking Update (SER)

Over a period of a few days from October 27-31, there was a substantial drop in Featured Snippets. This co-occurred with a jump in Knowledge Panels, as Google seemed to add many panels for broad terms and objects (“travel”, “toilet”, “web design”, etc.). Some of these panels disappeared around December 15.

• Is the featured snippet bubble bursting? (SEL)

With the launch of Chrome 62, Google started warning visitors to sites with unsecured forms. While not an algorithm update, this was an important step in Google’s push toward HTTPS and may have a material impact on site traffic.

• Next steps toward more connection security (Chromium)
• Google emails warnings to webmasters that Chrome will mark http pages with forms as ‘not secure’ (SEL)

Algorithm trackers (including MozCast) and webmaster chatter spotted increasing flux starting around September 25th, which seemed to spike on the 27th, after a period of relative calm. No update was officially confirmed.

• More Google Algorithm & Search Results Shuffling (SER)

Google officially launched their jobs portal, including a stand-alone 3-pack of job listings in search results. These results drew data from almost all of the major providers, including LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and CareerBuilder.

• Connect to job seekers with Google Search (Google)
• Google launches its AI-powered jobs search engine (TechCrunch)

MozCast and other tools tracked a massive, multi-day spike that kicked off around May 17th. This preceded a sustained period of high algorithmic flux that may not have settled down for months.

• Was There A Google Algorithm Update Starting On Wednesday? (SER)
• The May 17, 2017 Google Algorithm Update (GSQi)
• Google Search Ranking & Algorithm Shifts Still Underway (SER)

Google rolled out what appeared to be a major update, with reports of widespread impacts across the SEO community. Gary Illyes jokingly referred to is as “Fred”, and the name stuck, but he later made it clear that this was not an official confirmation.

• New, unconfirmed Google ranking update ‘Fred’ shakes the SEO world (SEL)
• Did Google’s Fred update hit low-value content sites that focus on revenue, not users? (SEL)

Algorithm changes beginning on February 1st continued for a full week, peaking around February 6th (some reported the 7th). Webmaster chatter and industry case studies suggest these were separate events.

• The February 7, 2017 Google Algorithm Update – Analysis and Findings From A Significant Core Ranking Update (GSQi)
• February 7th Google Algorithm Update Was Big (SER)

There was a period of heavy algorithm flux starting around February 1st and peaking around February 6th. It is unclear whether this was multiple algorithm updates or a single update with an extended roll-out, but anecdotal evidence suggests at least two updates.

• Unconfirmed Google algorithm update may be better at discounting links and spam (SEL)

Google started rolling out a penalty to punish aggressive interstitials and pop-ups that might damage the mobile user experience. Google also provided a rare warning of this update five months in advance.

• Google warns it will crack down on “intrusive interstitials” in January (SEL)
• Official: Google Intrusive Interstitials Mobile Penalty Now Rolling Out (SER)

Multiple Google trackers showed massive flux around December 14-15, including a rare. Webmaster chatter was heavy as well, but Google did not confirm an update.

• December 15th Google Search Algorithm Update Signals (SER)

November 10th and another on the 18th. Industry chatter was high during both periods, with some suggesting that the second spike was a reversal of the first update. Google has not confirmed either event. Many people reported bad dates in SERPs during the same time period, but it’s unclear whether this was causal or just a coincidence.

• November 10, 2016 Google Algorithm Update – Was It A Core Ranking Update, The Mobile-first Index Being Tested, or Both? (GSQi)
• Was There A Google Search Update On November 10th? (SER)