the life of an SEO is never boring. Search is always changing and subsequently Google's algorithms are updated to reflect changing search behaviours and to combat the actions of bad actors / spam in the search engine results pages. We look at past algorithms, the many types of algorithms and identify how you can ascertain whether you've been impacted by an algorithmic update and how to remedy / recover

1. Life of An SEO -
Surfing the waves of Google’s
many algorithmic updates
Navigating two decades of evolution
Dawn Anderson - March 2024

2. Dawn Anderson
● UK based SEO consultant
● 17 years in SEO
● SEO conference speaker
● EU, UK, US, Global Search Awards judge
● Former digital marketing lecturer &
trainer
● Industry publication author
Stalker of information retrieval threads and IR conference hashtags since 2017

3. The Life of an SEO…is never boring

4. Search is always changing

5. Whilst Google
sees
Modern SEOs as partners

6. Google keeps a lot of SEOs sleeping
with one eye open

7. Confirmed algorithmic update
cadence has increased dramatically
in recent years

8. 10 major confirmed
updates & 4 broad core
updates
In 2023 alone

9. Evolution of Google
Algorithm Updates

10. In the early days of
Google, algorithmic
updates were few and
far between - e.g.
‘Google Dance’

11. Google
Florida
Update
2003 - The first major
algorithmic update
● Wide sweeping consequences
● Just before the holiday season
● Lots of false-positives / non-spammy
sites impacted
● Google promised to not run major
algorithmic updates before holiday
season

12. Caffeine…
Stirred the pot

13. The Early Years
Jagger
B
i
g
D
a
d
d
y
Florida
Fritz
Everflux
Austin
Bourbon
PageRank
Dewey
Vince
Caffeine
Exact-match

14. By 2012, there
were still few
enough to give
change details
monthly

15. Now… Google rolls out 1000s of
updates & tests every year
Most we don’t even notice

16. Many are merely ‘experiments’ which
go nowhere
Implicit testing on slices of the search population

17. But…
There are disruptive algorithmic updates

18. 2011 - 2013
was VERY
notable

19. 2011 - 2013 - A period of aggressive
punitive algorithmic updates

20. Google Panda
● 2011
● Punitive algorithm
● Designed to lower the
rankings of low quality
content / spun content /
content farms / web content
spam / duplication
● Now part of core

21. 2011… Everyone
remembers where
they were when
Panda first hit

22. Google
Penguin
● 2012
● Punitive algorithm
● Focused on link building /
designed to combat link
web spam
● Many updates / wide impact
● Tools appeared to detect
‘toxic’ links

23. It was the Summer of 2013

24. Categories of Updates -
Focused / Aspected
Algorithmic Updates

25. Local intent updates
Google Venice, Google Pigeon, Google Possum

26. Domain
Clustering
Algorithm
Designed to prevent multiple urls from
same domain hogging the SERPs
● 2013
● Long tail + location sites
● Combat sites using granular related
internal linking to cluster near
relevant pages together in top SERPs
● Yelp
● Trip Advisor
● AKA domain crowding algorithm
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-domain-clustering-algorithms
-19109.html

27. Interstitial algorithm update
On-Page Factor Algorithms
3
Exact-match domain
1
Mobilegeddon
Pre-announced mobile friendly update
Caused panic and chaos in the SEO space
‘Nothing happened ‘on the day’
4
2
Page Layout Algorithm
Designed to negatively target pages ‘top heavy’
in ‘main content’ with ads
A number of variants have been launched
● Penalise sites which are presenting an interstitial
on entry for users from search
● Weak algorithm - Many still use interstitials
Suppresses exact-match domain advantages

28. Core Web Vitals - 2020
UX - Page experience and user-centric performance metrics
● Speed
● Mobile friendliness
● HTTPS
● Page movement
● Interactivity UX measures

29. Ethical
Purpose
Updates
Pirate Payday Loan

30. Link Based Updates
● Jagger - Manipulative link building -
punitive
● PageRank update - a devaluing
● Penguin - The big one - Punitive then a
devaluing algorithm
● Web-spam - Recent (link and web
content spam combined)

31. ‘Whole’ system level
updates

32. Google
Humming Bird
- 2013
● 2013
● A system shift toward greater use
of natural language understanding
in ranking results
● Total rewrite of the core
algorithm

33. Google RankBrain
- 2015
● Hugely misunderstood amongst SEOs
● Built upon Hummingbird
● Machine learning predictive query algorithm
● Designed to bridge gaps in 15% daily unseen queries

34. Google BERT
2019
Needs no introduction
● Mostly nuanced
queries
● Expensive to run
● Likely on re-ranking
● Unlikely for ‘obvious’
queries
● Context and intent
emerging

35. Broad
Core
Updates
‘Total Relevance’
Revisited

36. Most Recent
Updates

37. Product Reviews
Update
● Designed to reward high quality
expert product reviews over lower
quality reviews.
● Not to be confused with user
generated content reviews
● Lots of blow-back on this update

38. The Helpful
Content
System Update
Negatively impacts sites deemed
‘NOT HELPFUL’ content
● Original launch: August 2022
● Punitive algorithm
● Rolling site-wide classifier
● Constantly learning
● Can take months to recover
● Site owners have to convince Google
their content is now ‘helpful’ to
recover

39. Spam Updates
Several spam tactics including:
● Cloaking
● Hacking
● Automatic redirects
● Scraped content
● Auto-generated content
Big focus on non-English markets

40. Latest Update - Last Night
HCU & combined spam updates - aims to reduce SERPs web spam by 40%

41. Identifying &
Resolving
Algorithmic Impact

42. SERP volatility tools to monitor for
updates
● Algaroo
● Semrush monitor
● Google Grump
● MozCast
● Cognitive SEO
● SERPWoo

43. Monitoring algorithmic flux across
different verticals
Semrush Sensor
● By sector
● By country
● By feature

44. Be vigilant -
Monitor for
updates on the
horizon

45. Check
Google
Search
Status
Dashboard

46. Ascertain whether an algorithmic
update has impacted?
Utilise tools and follow the data

47. Algorithm checker Sistrix tool

48. Check for visibility drops Sistrix

49. Resolving
Algorithmic Impact

50. What
should
you do?
It depends…

51. Many SEOs don’t
have to do anything
at all… Just
continue
progressing

52. Don’t panic or
re-act too quickly
● There are often rollbacks on
algorithmic updates
● Wait until the total roll-out is completed
● Coincidences do happen (technical
SEO issues happening at the same
time as updates)

53. Evaluate
content
performance
post update
Look for patterns
where traffic dropped
significantly

54. Revisit a
technical audit
sweep
● Crawlability
● Connections between
pages
● Server response codes
● Robots management

55. Carry out a UX review
Seems particularly prevalent with helpful content update

56. Carry out a content review
● Is there content which is out of
date?
● Irrelevant content?
● Factually incorrect content?
● Low quality, thin content?
● Aggressive advertising?
● No interest any more (lacking
search demand)?
● Programmatically generated?

57. Know Your Audience
Create content for them -
NOT search engines
● What matters to them?
● Top Tasks?
● Key information needs?
● Pain points?

58. Know What
Your Audience
Considers
Helpful
Content

59. Clean Up Carefully

60. Build
Content
Lifecycle
Into
Your
Workflow
A
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e
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f
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t
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Research demand and
publish
S
u
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s
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t
p
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d
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m
a
n
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61. Finally… Don’t be an
‘algorithm chaser’

62. Thank you
Twitter - @dawnieando
Website: https://bertey.com
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/msdawnanderson/