Google Algorithm Updates and Changes 1998-2013 [Infographic]

Google is most popular search engine at the time of writing and many online businesses depends on Google Algorithm. Google algorithm is the set of rules and expressions which determine how a webpage will rank in Google. In simple word, when you search for any query “SEO changes”, this algo will decide the placement of search results. For any online business and Bloggers, it’s important to keep an eye on Google algorithm updates and changes.

Google is one of the search engines that change their algorithm so much that sometimes it is hard for people to keep up with the updates and stay current. The most obvious reason for these frequent changes is the fight against spammers and black hat SEO techniques.

Most of the changes are minor but each year there are about 500-600 hundred of them. There are also bigger algorithmic updates that Google launches every few months. The infographic shows in a very interesting way how much the algorithm has changed since Google was first launched.

Some of these big updates include the “caffeine update”, the “Panda farmer”, the query encryption and much more. So far, SEO gurus have been able to keep their heads above the water, although Google makes sure this task gets harder every time. In the infographic you will find out what all of these minor and major Google updates did and how they affected the SEO world.

Google Algorithm Updates – Panda Updates

Click on image to see large view. Latest Google Panda (3.8 update) happened on June 26th 2012 and latest Google penguin update happened on May 27th 2012..

People who are seeing significant traffic drop in last 1 year, they should keep an eye on following Google panda updates date:

GOOGLE PANDA UPDATE TIMELINE:

• Panda 1 : Feb 23rd 2011
• Panda 2.0: April 11, 2011
• Panda 2.1 : May 9, 2011
• Panda 2.2 :June 21, 2011
• Panda 2.3 : July 23, 2011
• Panda 2.4 : August 12, 2011
• Panda 2.5 : September 28, 2011
• Panda 3.0 : October 13, 2011
• Panda 3.1: November 18, 2011
• Panda minor update : Dec 19, 2011
• Page layout algo : January 19, 2012
• Panda 3.3 : February 27th 2012
• Panda 3.4 : March 24th 2012
• Panda data refresh: April 19th 2012
• Google Penguin update: 24th April 2012
• Panda 3.6: April 27th 2012
• Penguin 1.1: May 27th, 2012
• Google Panda 3.7: June 11th, 2012
• Panda 3.8 : June 26th 2012
• Panda 3.9 : Affected Korean and Japanese language.
• Panda 4.0 : July 25th-26th 2012
• Google Panda 20th Update : 27th September 2012
• Google Exact Match Domain penalty: 28th September 2012
• Google Penguin update: 6th October 2012
• Google Page layout algo update: 10th October 2012
• Panda 21 : November 5th, 2012
• Panda 22: NOvember 22nd, 2012
• Panda 23: December 21-22, 2012

Now, Google algorithm update is happening every month, where Google all changes they have made in recent algo update. Google panda update happened on above mentioned dates which is one of the most prominent Google algo change which happened in last few years. On Feb 23, 2011, when Google panda launched , it affected 12% of search engine results and kicked many of the player out of outline  business, although it helped many at the same time.

Google freshness update was another major change last year, which helped to bring recent & updates pages at the top. Anyhow, if your website is affected by Panda updates, you should check out this guide: How to recover from Google panda.

Now, one thing which is clear in 2012 and in coming year, social signals and your network is going to be one big factor for ranking. My suggestion would be, stay active on Google+ and create Google+ page for your Website and Business. Google authorship is another thing, which I highly recommend you to implement, as author trust factor is going to be another game changer in coming days.

• Read: Post Panda SEO survival guide for Bloggers

Instead of making changes n your site, after every Google panda update & Google algorithm update, my suggestion would be create a quality and helpful site. Take care of all the factors which includes on-Site SEO, Keyword research, On-Page SEO, Link building, Social media promotion, website usability, website design and so on.