Latest Google SEO Updates & Algorithm Changes in 2017

The digital world is now more hyped-up, dynamic and influential than ever before. It is more focused and competitive as well. With the end goal for you to achieve high search engine rankings and to maintain them, you have to take after the latest SEO updates. This is the initial move towards staying aware of the latest SEO trends and remaining focused.

The SEO updates are directly proportional to the search algorithm updates that search engines receive. Since Google is the pioneer in the search marketing, new changes in Google’s search algorithms are vital to enhance optimization of your website. Website admins need to have phenomenal understanding of all the latest search algorithm updates and related procedures, as only this can let them know latest SEO updates essential to optimize websites, ensure better DA and high rankings in SERPs.

     Largely, Google is centered around enhancing its web search administrations for online users, and by keeping a track of changes in the Google Search Algorithm updates, marketers can increase ranking of their sites. Google has a long history of famous search algorithm updates that channelize ranking mechanism of SERPs.

To find latest Google SEO updates, marketers need to check latest updates of the following search algorithms-

10 Google SEO Updates & Algorithm Changes in 2017

1.) Google Hummingbird Update

        

Introduced around August 2013, Google Hummingbird Update is Google’s new search algorithm that plays a significant role in deciding ranking of websites. It is made up of 200+ factors that can affect search results and website ranking. The biggest changes made in Hummingbird were capability to have a sharp eye on mobile marketing, which is not surprising at all given the explosion of the smart phones in recent years. The name ‘Hummingbird’ comes from its ability of being “precise and fast” and it is mainly designed to better focus on meaning of a phrase or keyword rather than individual keywords. Hummingbird looks at the entire phrase to decipher the meaning of that phrase. Google Hummingbird SEO updates aid pages matching the meaning do better in search results.

SEO new updates related to Hummingbird

• Application of meaning technology to billions of pages from across the web
• Use of Knowledge Graph facts to ensure better search results
• Easy recognition of Keyword stuffing
• Effectiveness of Long-tail keywords

2.)  Google Penguin Update

Google propelled the Penguin Update in April 2012 to catch the websites that are spamming Google’s search results. This update is mainly aimed at decreasing search rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and use black-hat SEO techniques to artificially increase ranking of their websites, by obtaining or buying links through some wrong practices. The primary reason behind this update was to penalize websites that use manipulative techniques for achieving high rankings.  As per Google’s estimates, Penguin influences approximately 3.1% of search queries in English, and approximately 3% of queries in languages like German, Arabic and Chinese, and an even much bigger percentage of them in “highly spammed” language categories. Pre-Penguin sites normally utilized some negative external link building tactics to rank good in SERPs and boost their traffics. However, once Penguin was introduced it implied that content was vital and those with incredible content would be recognized and those with little or spammy content would be punished.

Some confirmed Google Penguin SEO updates are

• Penguin 1-on April 24, 2012 (impacting around 3.1% of queries)
• Penguin 2-on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%)
• Penguin 3-on October 5, 2012 (impacting around 0.3% of queries)
• Penguin 4(a.k.a. Penguin 2.0)- on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries)
• Penguin 5(a.k.a. Penguin 2.1)- on October 4, 2013 (impacting around 1% of queries)
• Penguin 6(a.k.a. Penguin 3.0-) on October 17, 2014 (impacting less than 1% English queries). On December 1, 2014, Google confirmed that the update was still rolling out with webmasters continuing to report significant fluctuations.
• Penguin 7(a.k.a. Penguin 4.0)- on September 23, 2016

3.) Google Panda Update

Google’s Panda Update is acquainted in February 2011 and it is known as the powerful search filter implied to stop sites with low quality content from making their way into top search results of Google. Panda is updated every once in a while. At the point when this happens, sites already hit; may get away, if then they have rolled out the correct improvements according to Panda updates. Through its different updates, Panda can likewise catch sites that got away some time recently. Google Panda was quite effective in affecting ranking of entire sites or a specific section rather than individual pages on a site.

Some important SEO updates according to Google Panda Update are

• No Multiple Pages with the Same Keyword
• Get Rid of Auto-generated Content and Roundup/Comparison Type of Pages
• No Pages with 1-2 Paragraphs of Text Only
• No Scraped Content
• Panda Likes New Content
• Be Careful with Affiliate Links and Ads
• Too Many Outbound Links with Keywords are bad

4.) Google Pigeon Update

Propelled on July 24, 2014 for U.S. English results, Google Pigeon Update” is another search algorithm update introduced to give more valuable, significant and exact local search results that are attached more closely to conventional web search ranking factors. Google said that this new search algorithm enhances their distance and location tracking parameters in more result-oriented manner. The changes made through Google Pigeon Update will also affect search results shown in Google Maps as this update lets Google provide search results based on the user location and listing at hand in the local directory. The main purpose behind introducing Google Pigeon Update is to provide preferences to local search results in SERPs and that is why this is extremely beneficial for local businesses. 

Latest updates in SEO based on Google Pigeon Updates are

• Location Matters More Than Ever
• Don’t Over-Optimize Your Website
• Strong Domains Matter more

5.) Google Mobile-Friendly Update

Introduced On April 21, 2015, Google introduced its Mobile-Friendly search algorithm that is intended to give a lift to mobile friendly sites pages in Google’s mobile search results. The change is significant to the point that the date it happened is being alluded by a variety of names such as Mobilegeddon, Mobilepocalyse, Mopocalypse or Mobocalypse. One of the ideal approaches to get ready is to test that Google considers your site pages to be mobile friendly by utilizing its Mobile-Friendly Test tool. It is very effective in including approaches that bring more mobile-friendliness in SEO campaigns.

Latest Google Mobile-Friendly SEO updates are

• Google mobile-friendly testing tool now has API access
• Google may pick desktop over AMP page for the mobile-first index
• Google begins mobile-first indexing, using mobile content for all search rankings
• Google will show AMP URLs before App deep link URLs in mobile results
• Google says page speed ranking factor to use mobile page speed for mobile sites

6.) Google: Payday Update

Propelled on June 11, 2013, Google Payday Update was a new Google search algorithm focused at cleaning up list items related to “spammy queries” such as payday loans or pornographic or some other kinds of heavily spammed queries. It can be understood as a set of algorithm updates for the Google search engine results initiated to identify and penalize web sites that use different kinds of search engine spam techniques (also known as  Black Hat SEO or spamdexing) for improving their rankings for particular search queries that are actually “spammy”.

Recent Google Payday updates are

• Google Payday Loan 1.0
• Google Payday Loan 2.0
• Google Payday Loan 3.0

7.) Google: Pirate Update

Introduced in August 2012, Google’s Pirate Update is a filter that prevents sites that have many copyright infringement reports, as documented through Google’s DMCA system. It is periodically updated and at the point when updates happen, websites beforehand affected may get away, if they have made the correct changes. It may likewise catch new websites that circumvented being caught recently; in addition, it may also release ‘false positives’ about those who were caught.

Some of the latest Google Pirate SEO updates-

• The Pirate Update Penalized Websites That Received A High Volume Of Copyright Violation Reports
• The Pirate Update Is A Win For Media And Artists
• Getting A Page Removed From The Index Requires Valid Documentation

8.) Google: EMD Update

Launched in September 2012, The EMD (Exact Match Domain) Update is a filter used by Google to impede low quality sites from positioning admirably just on the grounds that they had words that match search terms in their domains. At the point when a crisp EMD Update happens, sites that have enhanced their content may recover great rankings. New sites that comprise poor content or all those that were previously missed by Google EMD updates may get caught. Likewise, “false positives” may also get discharged.

 According to Matt Cutts, “EMD is set to reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains in search results.”

 9.) Google: Top Heavy Update

Google Top Heavy update was propelled in January 2012 as a way to avoid sites that were “top heavy” with advertisements from positioning well in Google search listings. Top Heavy is updated repeatedly, and at the point when a Top Heavy Update occurs, websites that have evacuated extreme advertisements may recapture their lost rankings. New sites considered as “top heavy” may get caught again with new Top-heavy update.

Some of the Google Top Heavy SEO Updates

• Google Updates Its Page Layout Algorithm To Go After Sites “Top Heavy” With Ads
• Have The Same Ad-To-Organic Ratio As Google Search? Then You Might Be Safe From The Top Heavy Penalty
• The Top Heavy Update: Pages With Too Many Ads Above The Fold Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm

 10.) Google Page Rank Update

On the off chance that you do SEO or are involved with search marketing, you will for sure come across Google Page Rank Topic eventually. Page Rank is Google’s arrangement of tallying link votes and figuring out which pages are most critical in view of them. These scores are then utilized alongside numerous other things to figure out whether a page will rank well in a search or not. However, some of the experts find Page Rank as a metric that is out of date and deprecated now and they suggest marketers to not waste time on them. Google came up with its Last Toolbar Page Rank Update in 5/6 December 2013 and thereafter it declared- “PageRank is something that we haven’t updated for over a year now, and we’re probably not going to be updating it again going forward, at least the Toolbar version.”

Some of the Toolbar Page Rank Updates that decide SEO new updates are-

• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 5/6 December 2013 (LAST PAGERANK UPDATE EVER)
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 4 February 2013
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 7 November 2012
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 2 August 2012
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 2 May 2012
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 7 February 2012
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 7 November 2011
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on 1st Week August 2011
• Toolbar Page Rank Updates released on JULY 2011

            

11.)What is the Fred Algorithm Update?

While Google remains vague about what this update specifically targeted, numerous SEOs report that Fred affected low-quality, ad-heavy sites with thin content and bad backlinks.