Google algorithm updates
A complete history
from 2003 to 2022
By BBI Brandboost
November 2003
The Florida update
Signalled a new era for SEO as the use of spamming tactics such as keyword stuffing and invisible text were made a thing of the past.
December 2005
The Big Daddy update
Changed how Google handled technical issues such as URL canonicalization and redirects.
August 2009
The Caffeine update
Allowed Google to crawl and store data far more efficiently. This provided 50 percent fresher results!
February 2011
The Panda update
Developed to reduce the prevalence of low-quality, thin content in search results, and to reward unique, compelling content.
April 2012
The Penguin update
Introduced to punish sites seen to be over optimising. It specifically targeted link spam and manipulative link building practices.
September 2013
The Hummingbird update
Marked a huge advancement in Google’s search technology as it influenced how users responded to and engaged with search results. Impacted about 90 percent of searches worldwide.
April 2015
The Mobile-friendly update
From this moment on, mobile-friendly websites have been rewarded with better search rankings and Google has served better results to searchers on mobile devices.
August 2018
The EAT update
Expertise, authority and trustworthiness rewarded as part of Google’s mission to direct web users to high quality informative online content.
October 2019
The Bert update
Impacted 10% of searches and affected complicated queries that depend on context, nuance and an understanding of grammar. Find out more >
June 2021
The Page Experience update
This search algorithm gave greater weight in the rankings to websites which provide a higher quality user experience.
March 2022
The Product Review update
This algorithm helps identify higher quality product reviews in search results to make it easier for Google to get sound purchasing advice in front of users.
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