Panda – Released in 2011, Panda was designed to reduce the visibility of low-quality, thin content websites in search results. It targeted websites with poor grammar, duplicate content, and excessive ads.
- Penguin – Launched in 2012, Penguin aimed to penalize websites that engaged in manipulative link building practices, such as buying links or participating in link schemes.
- Hummingbird – Released in 2013, Hummingbird was a major algorithm update that aimed to improve the understanding of user intent behind search queries. It focused on synonyms and natural language processing.
- Pigeon – Launched in 2014, Pigeon focused on improving local search results by providing more accurate and relevant results for local queries.
- Mobile-Friendly Update – Released in 2015, this update aimed to improve the mobile search experience by prioritizing mobile-friendly websites in search results. It was based on the increasing number of searches conducted on mobile devices.
- RankBrain – Launched in 2015, RankBrain aimed to improve the understanding of complex search queries by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
- Possum – Released in 2016, Possum aimed to improve local search results by diversifying results based on the user’s location and search history.
- Fred – Launched in 2017, Fred targeted low-quality, ad-heavy content websites that prioritized revenue over providing value to users.
- Medic – Released in 2018, the Medic update focused on improving the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of websites in the health and medical niches.
- BERT – Launched in 2019, BERT aimed to improve the understanding of natural language queries by Google’s search algorithm.
- Core Algorithm Updates – These updates are broad and impact the overall search results. They aim to improve relevance, quality, and diversity in search results.
- Page Experience Update – Released in 2021, this update aimed to improve the user experience by prioritizing websites that provide a better page experience.
- Link Spam Update – Launched in 2022, this update aimed to identify and nullify link spam, which is the practice of acquiring links to manipulate search rankings.
- Helpful Content System Update – Released in 2022, this update aimed to prioritize content that provides helpful information and answers to user queries.
- Spam Update – Launched in 2022, this update targets spammy content and sites that engage in manipulative practices to improve their search rankings.
- Product Reviews Update – Released in 2022, this update aims to improve the ranking of product review pages by ensuring that they provide helpful and trustworthy information.
These algorithms are just a few examples of the many updates that Google has released over the years to improve its search algorithms and provide a better user experience.