Do we have a timeline of google, bing updates
-
I thought it would be handy if we had a timeline with dates of any updates to the algo's.
Does one exists here at SEOMoz or elsewhere.
Thanks -
Sure, if you have the relevant data at hand I can get my team to visualize it.
-
Thanks guys. what would be good is if SEOMOZ make a timeline page. it makes it easier to answer questions about lost rankings and such without havinfg to look them up each time.
-
I can't edit this post at the moment for some reason, but will include Vince when I can. This was definitely a big change, can't believe I forgot!
-
Nice. Can you do one for all the way back to 2003?
-
Hopefully the following infographic will shed some light
http://www.elevatelocal.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/google-algorithm-infographic.jpg
-
Great timeline!!!
I add 1 big Google update you've miss: Vince update in 2009 (February/March 2009), aka the Nig Brand Rank Update...
I believe it is important as, imho, we must see in it the 1st step of the actual updates.
-
Nice list.
These are the really big updates - the ones that are big enough that they grabbed the SEO community's attention. However, small updates occur a few times each week. These are small tweaks that gently steer and correct between major updates.
-
I don't think it exists really, but I reckon we can piece things together
2000 - 2003 :- Practically monthly updates, pretty much shooting in the dark to remember what it was the changes as I don't think anybody really understood things as fully nor monitored as closely.
Feb 2003 :- First 'named' update, Boston.
April 2003 :- Cassandra
May 2003 :- Dominic
June 2003 :- Esmerelda
November 2003 :- FLORIDA! Boom, this was the first one that made SEO what it is today. It started ranking sites in a way that nobody could fully work out. It blasted the spammers (although many quality pages were also effected if they were using the same over-optimisation/ stuffing techniques) and started the link race game that we have today.
January 2004 :- Austin. Hammered some more sites in a Florida type fashion. Seemed to introduce the QDF factor.
February 2004 :- Brandy.
February 2005 :- Allegra.
September 2005 :- Something funny happens here
October 2005 : - JAGGER! First step in the fight back against the new link currency. Recipricol links devalued, link farms devalued, paid links (where detected) penalised and/or devalued. Sandbox changes to make it harder to rank for new sites.
October 2005 :- Jagger 2. Domain age seems to play a bigger part of the algorithm.
October 2005 :- Jagger 3. Refinements to the first 2.
December 2005 to March 2006 :- BIG DADDY! Algorithm change to evaluate link trust. Non-thematic links, lots of recipricol links, lots of links on a page, lots of links from low quality sites all
August 2006 :- Lots of little things.
November 2006 :- Lots of minus position penalties for unnatural looking link profiles.
June 2007 :- Buffy. Not a real update apparently but there was one earlier that month which I think added some ridiculous penalties of up to -950!
April 2008 :- Dewey. Massive changes depending on what data centre you went through and changed SERPs multiple time each day. Google may have also given a cheeky little boost to their own intellectual property... Also think it was this one that started to stink up the UK search results with loads of foreign sites (not as xenophobic as it sounds, lol).
August 2008 :- Devalued exact anchor text links?
March 2009 :- VINCE! Also known as the brand update. Google gave a significant boost for sites that had a 'brand' (under the guise of 'trust'). Ultimately this moved the playing field to give the advantage to bigger sites with bigger budgets. Requires SEOs to improve visibility across sites to show that they're not a fly-by-night organisation. [Thanks Gianluca]
January 2010 :- Caffeine. Fresher results, more verticals, real time. Algorithm itself doesn't seem to change much. More of a sys admin change than anything.
May 2010 :- MAY DAY. Smacked some thin affiliates and pages with no content (auto-generated pages without products specifically).
December 2010 :- Started taking into account poor reviews and penalising those merchants. Black hats get to work reviewing their competitors. Perhaps the start of a bigger sentiment change with them also using Facebook and Twitter (though if that were the case I'd expect to never see Virgin Media in the search results :D).
January 2011 :- Content farms that scrape content take a hit. Harbinger of Panda.
March to April 2011 :- PANDA! Hammers (some) content farms.
All right, I'm probably missing lots of big ones, but if other people want to contribute I'm sure we can do something with this
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Algorithm change this month - theories ?
Hi Moz fans! If you've not had the chance to check out moz cast go check it out it seems Google has been busy and so much so it broke Moz cast. There has been some discussion on seo round table about the changes and something seems to be going on. I wanted to find out how you guys are all finding it have you had a change in rankings? Any theories on what you think Google is up to? Personally I've seen rather a few of my sites go up in the rankings last week or so. As always look forward to hearing your thoughts and feelings on it Moz.
Algorithm Updates | | GPainter3 -
Google Hangout Video Takeover?
A while back I posted about a youtube video campaign that dominated the attorney rankings throughout Florida. Today, I noticed a new hangout video that does not have the reach of the before mentioned video, but it has just popped up as number three for the term "Tampa Car Accident Attorney." It wasn't even listed anywhere in the first few pages Monday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=barTgGYQTIM Has anyone else noticed Google Hangout Videos having this kind of success or is this a "flash in the pan" incident? Also, is there any significance to this even being a Google Hangout video as opposed to just a youtube video? Thanks, Ruben
Algorithm Updates | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
15% Drop in Traffic. Anyone have theories about the most recent update?
Analyzing our traffic, looks like we were hit site wide, with some article pages that don't have great engagement seeing more damage than others. We've been talking to other sites, and sites that have never seen any penalties and do everything right have also seen about 15-20% drop in traffic. The sites we know that weren't affected are brands (sites you would recognize by name). The only conclusion I can draw from everything (looking at mozcast metrics 'big 10' is that branded websites saw a boost. Does anyone else have any theories about what this most recent update was about?
Algorithm Updates | | nicole.healthline0 -
Google local page
I was in google places and then set up a goole local account 9 months ago but it is not showing as listed. What am I doing wrong or what can I do about it?? https://plus.google.com/u/0/106415232585067786390/about thanks Jo Ann
Algorithm Updates | | jojojo0 -
Google Panda - large domain benefits
Hi, A bit of a general question, but has anyone noticed a improvement in rankings for large domains - ie well known, large sites such as Tesco, Amazon? From what I've seen, the latest Panda update seems to favour the larger sites, as opposed to smaller, niche sites. Just wondered if anyone else has noticed this too?Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | Digirank0 -
Has Google lost its mind? I am the only link in every SERP for a query?
I run a small online debutante dress store and have been doing some onsite seo recently. Anyways, when I search for the search query "deb dress style guide" my site is the only search result for the first three pages of Google Australia (my target market). Just endless links to my site. I have competitors in my niche who all have websites worthy of listing in the SERP as shown when you google "deb dresses". Can anyone explain whats going on?
Algorithm Updates | | mydebdress20 -
Bing SEO?
I've put in a lot of time on my site to make sure it is full of good relevent content and has a healthy back link profile. I rank well on google but not on Bing. How do I go about optimizing my site for Bing and what does Bing look for that makes them rank sites differnetly than google? Also what other search engines should I be looking to optimize for? As a note I am a Realtor with a Real Estate website.
Algorithm Updates | | bronxpad0 -
Google changing case of URLs in SERPs?
Noticed some strange behavior over the last week or so regarding our SERPs and I haven't been able to find anything on the web about what might be happening. Over the past two weeks, I've been seeing our URLs slowly change from upper case to lower case in the SERPs. Our URLs are usually /Blue-Fuzzy-Widgets.htm but Google has slowly been switching them to /blue-fuzzy-widgets.htm. There has been no change in our actual rankings nor has it happened to anyone else in the space. We're quite dumbfounded as to why Google would choose to serve the lower case URL. To be clear, we do not build links to these lower case URLs, only the upper. Any ideas what might be happening here?
Algorithm Updates | | Natitude0