Google algorithm, a look at the most famous updates in recent history

Late last week Google surprised us with the launch of the December 2020 Broad Core Update, of which we begin to see the effects in SERP – although the movements will only stabilize in a few days yet. Maybe it can be useful to take an overview of the main updates of Google’s algorithm, narrowing the field only to the last decade, to “relive” and remember the great updates that have changed the operation of the search engine and also overturned the SEO.

Google’s algorithmic updates

The search engine is constantly evolving and the work of Google never stops: the broad core update of December is the third “major” intervention of the year, which is accompanied by thousands of minor changes (only in 2019 there were 3200, as publicly said by Google). Many of these interventions refer directly to Google search ranking algorithms and, therefore, also impact SEO activity, in a more or less obvious way.

Even those who have been looking for less time in this sector will have heard of Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird or Rankbrain, which are now milestones in the history of Google: so let’s find out more about these colossal updates and what they meant, thanks to the support of two different articles on Search Engine Journal.

The Florida update and the “no manipulations” message

One of the first updates to have disrupted the SERPs and brought down entire businesses was the Florida Update back in 2003 – a name attributed to the fact that it occurred almost at the same time as the Pubcon conference, indeed in Florida, in which the professionals “noticed” the changes.

According to experts, Florida was “a clear message from Google that using SEO techniques to manipulate search results could have brought consequences” and that was when Google started its battle against blatant manipulation tactics.

Google Panda and the new definition of quality

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