Tag Archives: google updates

google updates 2019

An Ultimate Guide For Google Updates 2021

Google Updates 2019

After all ups and downs, we have successfully completed the 2019 year in regards to Google updates in 2019. Even after many major Google updates, 2019, very few websites got hit by Google; they might be working for users is the reason. We have seen lots of changes in Google in order to improve the search results. Google made several changes but here, you are going to find the top major Changes/Google Updates which happened last year, 2019.

March 2019 Core Update (aka Florida 2 Core Algo Update)

March 12, 2019

This was the very first major update which happened in March 2019. Google regularly updates the Google Core Update 3-4 times a year. So, it was the first one for that year. 

What were the major changes in Google after this Google Core update?

There were lots of discussions going on amongst the SEOs after the release of this update. As there was no name for this update till then, it was difficult to find out its impact on Google’s SERP. 

Later Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison named it “march 2019 Core Update” in a tweet. 

The Highlighted Point – 

  • Behaves like a rollback of previous updates.
  • Aggressive spidering by GoogleBot
  • All countries are affected
  • Most affected categories so far are Autos Vehicles, Health, and Pets Animals

Read More – March 2019 Core Update  

Google De-indexing Issue

The issue arises when many Webmasters started to see the drop-down in their Google Webmaster data. Actually, this was because of some errors made by tools (as assumed before Mr. Pete tweet).

The pages were dropping from the Google Index. Almost all websites were affected. The pages were not coming in Google at any place for most of the websites. 

This all happened because of some bug in the Google index. So, after all, there was nothing from the Google end intensely, it was a bug that hampers all indexed websites.  

The Highlighted Point – 

  • Google De Indexed Millions of Pages
  • It Called it “Bug”
  • It Fixed the Issue and Gain What Were be Loose
  • Not Major Impact on Google Ranking for a Long Time

Read More – Google Algorithm Update Tools False Alarm?

Domain Diversity Update

June 7, 2019

Amongst all Google updates 2019 (happened in 2019), The Domain Diversity Update was one of the most important updates. The marketers and SEOs have been continuously asking for such updates or algorithms.

This Google Update was all about showing the more diverse, different and unique search results to users. As earlier or still, you may find several listings from a single domain for a query. In this scenario, many listings were getting several places in top results while some deserving listings were not anywhere.

What Now?

With the help of this Google update, Google Search is trying to show more unique results in the top searches. Now, it will not show more than 2 listings from the same domain. Google SearchLiaison further added that we may still get more than 2 listings for some domain if its system found it unique in some way.

Is it going to consider the results from Root-domain & Subdomain Results differently?

No. If we were getting 2-2 results from root domain and sub-domain respectively. After releasing this Google Update, we will get only 2 results (2 from any domain or 1 from each domain)

The Highlighted Point –

  • The marketers and SEOs were demanding such type of update for a long time
  • Now, we will see the maximum 2 results from the same domain
  • Google may show you more than 2 results if it finds it relevant 
  • Root-domain and Subdomain results will be considered from the same domain
  • The other listings will get space in the top search 

Read More- Google search update aims to show more diverse results from different domain names

Pre-Announced Google Core Update

One more Google Core Update. This one is the 2nd Google Core Update after the previous one happened in March 2019. I think this is the first time Google pre-announced before it’s been rolling out. Danny Sullivan stated that they just wanted to be more proactive and marketers will be known about the update and don’t feel puzzled.

Google usually rolls out the core updates several times in a single year. For 2019, this was the 2nd one. So, as always nothing special. It was just another Google Core Update that rolls out to improve the search result.

Read More- Google pre-announces June 2019 core search algorithm update

Google Update to Reduce Adult Content

Google has tried made little bit changes in its Google Search Algorithm in regards to showing adult content. Now, after the update, Google is going to show less adult or porn content for the searches as “School Girl”, “Teens” and more. 

So, there was nothing to worry about the other industry. It may have helped several websites for Schools, Student activities, NGOs working for Girl child and more. 

Read More – Google Search Algorithm Tweaked To Show Less Porn For Lesbian, Teen & Other Queries

Google Issue with Indexing New Content


Again indexing issue in Google after the Google De-Indexing Issue in March 2019. It affected every new content but this time the News websites have been hampered mostly as they do publish the news every 15 mins (averagely). 

This was a technical issue from the Google side. There is nothing to worry about. The issue has been resolved by Google as Google confirmed.

Read More- [Update: Resolved]- Google Indexing Bug Seems To Be Recovering

Pre-Announced Google Core Update

Google again pre-announced the Google Core Update in September. Earlier they pre-announced the same Google Core Update in March 2019. 

The question is – Why are they pre-announcing from the last 2 updates? Is something big going to happen? 

Google on Twitter “Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the September 2019 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog for more about that.”

Find the same tweet below:

There were lots of websites that were hit by this update but yes, there were some improvements also seen in some websites.

Read More – Google To Release September 2019 Core Update Later Today

Google Reduces the Number of Reviews in SERP

This is big! 

Why does Google want to hide or minimize Google reviews? 

This update will help Google to hide or minimize the google reviews in search snippets. Now Google is going to show the review snippets from the selected schema types. By doing this, Google wants to remove misleading reviews and make it more meaningful. 

The Schemas Google Will Accept For Reviews

We can have several types of reviews and we can create those reviews with the help of different Schemas. Find the following Schemas which Google is going to accept and will show the reviews in search results – 

Read More – Making Review Rich Results more helpful

Change in the Nofollow Links Treatment

Google has announced some important changes in using the NoFollow attribute. Google introduces 2 new NoFollow Attributes – 

  • Nofollow Attribute For User Generated Content
  • Nofollow Attribute For Sponsored Content

Before releasing this update, there was only one NoFollow Attribute being used for all non-trusted links i.e. rel=”Nofollow”.

Now, we can use 3 different Nofollow attributes – 

  • rel=”sponsored” – Use for paid and sponsored links.
  • rel=”ugc” – Use for user-generated content such as comments, reviews and more.
  • rel=”Nofollow” – Use for Non-trusted links.

Google posted – 

“All the link attributes, sponsored, ugc and nofollow, now work today as hints for us to incorporate for ranking purposes.”

It is big. Now, Google will treat UGC nofollow links as hints for ranking purpose. It means now Google may crawl the links with NoFollow attributes. The NoFollow attribute was not used for crawling and indexing (Google didn’t follow them) and so Google didn’t use them for ranking hints. 

The Highlighted Point –

  • Google announced 3 different Nofollow attributes. 
    1. rel=”sponsored”
    2. rel=”ugc”
    3. rel=”Nofollow”
  • Post these changes, Google may use all Nofollow attributes as a ranking hint.
  • We can use the attributes in combination with one another i.e. rel=”Nofollow sponsored”, rel=”nofollow ugc” and so on.
  • As per Google recommendations, the webmasters should mark the paid and affiliate links with “nofollow” or “sponsored” attributes
  • Means by working on UGC one can generate the backlink which may be crawled by Google
  • Google can track how many websites/person is indulging in Paid linking/promotion on 3rd party website
  • One question – Would Google like to target those who are paying for a link, for PPC?

Read More – Google Nofollow Links Ranking Change – How it Affects SEO

Google BERT Update

What is BERT?

BERT is the acronym for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. Basically, it is designed to understand the intent behind the search queries. 

It has the capability to understand the full context of each word in search queries. It also understands the meaning of whole queries by looking at the words that come before and after it.

Why is BERT?

As we know, Google always tries to improve its search results. With the same aim, Google keeps changing or bringing new things.

This time Google wants to understand the queries in a better way so that it could provide the most relevant results to the users.

Google also stated that it wants to understand the Queries better than ever before.

It is a neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP)called BERT. This technology enables anyone to train their own state-of-the-art question answering system.

Google also said that it is extending the BERT method to more languages so that it could help the other people who don’t understand/search in English.

Google is also going to use the BERT for featured snippets too. 

The Highlighted Point –

  • BERT will help Google to understand the context (not meaning) behind the queries.
  • It will help Google to understand queries like humans rather than robots.
  • Marketers don’t need to change anything if you are already writing for users.
  • BERT will help to understand the prepositions like “to”, “for”, “of” etc.
  • In the very beginning, it is limited to US English searches only. It will be expanding to the other local languages too.
  • It is going to impact the featured snippets too.

Read More – Google BERT Update Impacts 10% Queries & Has Been Rolling Out All Week

November 2019 Google Local Update

Again one more step from Google to understand the meaning behind queries in a better way and improve the search result.

Now Google is going to use the Neural Matching method for local searches too. By implementing this method, Google is trying to improve the results for local searches too.

What is the Neural matching method?

As Google stated in another tweet, “Neural matching is an AI-based system Google began using in 2018 primarily to understand how words are related to concepts. It’s like a super-synonym system. Synonyms are words that are closely related to other words.”

An example by Google, neural matching helps us understand that a search for “why does my TV look strange” is related to the concept of “the soap opera effect.” We can then return pages about the soap opera effect, even if the exact words aren’t used…

The marketers need not do anything in regards to this update. Yes, if you are going to lose the ranking; need to introspect your business listings a

Read More – Google Has Confirmed The November 2019 Google Local Update

Hope you have enjoyed this blog. Kindly comment if these Google updates in 2019 had hit you and also let us know – what did you do for recovery. It will be good to share your experience with the readers. 

Also Read – Google Updates 2017

The Google Updates Of 2017

Leave a reply

All Google Updates of 2017

Here I am going to provide you those updates which have been released in 2017 till September. This contains all updates which you would have not noticed or slipped by you. Here you will get each and every updates or seems like updates. There might be few updates which have not been approved by Google but still they are working.

  • AMP Pages Are More Likely to Get into Featured Snippet
  • Sep 1, 2017
  • According to this update If the page is AMP Powered, there is more chances to getting into Featured Snippet This update can significantly affect mobile traffic. Details Here
  • Google Quality Update
  • Aug 19, 2017
  • There are many webmasters has noticed the significant changes in their ranking between Aug 14 to Aug 19.  Actually there was an update released which is known as Google Quality Update. It impacts those website which have bad user experiences as :- 
  1. – Thin content with lots of ads
  2. – Broken links and/or Flash
  3. – Low relevance to the query Details Here
  • Significant Long-Term Google Update
  • Jun 24, 2017
  • Many webmasters have confirmed that they’ve seen traffic changes during this month. Despite all efforts, this analysis has revealed no patterns for the update, and there has been no official announcement from Google. Details Here
  • Weeklong Google Update
  • May 17, 2017
  • It has been seen some changes in ranking which reminded about Google Update again and it has been confirmed by many webmasters Although this change may be caused by the recent drop of the Featured Snippet link from search results, it is not enough to completely explain the shifts, which have been occurring for a week already. Details Here
  • Google is rolling out tappable shortcuts on mobile web
  • Mar 21, 2017
  • Google has announced that a new version of its search app will now provide instant access to information related to sports, cafes and weather. This can potentially reduce mobile traffic and visibility for websites that were previously ranked for ‘regular’ searches for this information. Details Here
  • Large Google Rankings Update ‘Fred’
  • Mar 8, 2017
  • Early it was not confirmed by Google but it had huge impact on ranking and traffic both. Webmaster forums have reported numerous position and traffic shifts. Later, Google’s representatives have officially confirmed that they released an update that specifically targets websites with “quality issues.” Details Here
  • Google shows more Top Stories in Related Picks
  • Mar 6, 2017
  • Google has added a new feature that allows users to see more AMPs in search results. Some pages now show the ‘Related picks’ section under Top Stories, which can be expanded into a series of AMPs. Details Here
  • Google Algorithm Update
  • Feb 7, 2017
  • Many webmasters and tracking tools, including SEMrush Sensor, have reported significant rankings changes in Google search results. The last update was on Feb 3, 2017 and just within one week this was another update. It seems Google is rolling out another ranking algorithm update. Details Here
  • Google Japan Penalty for Low Quality Websites
  • Feb 3, 2017
  • Google Japan has announced that they rolled out an update aimed at lowering rankings of websites that don’t bring high quality content to their users. Details Here
  • Google Algo Update Seems to Target PBNs
  • Feb 1, 2017
  • Webmasters and the BlackHatWorld forum have reported that there seems to be a Google update penalizing PBNs (Private Blog Networks), a black hat SEO technique. Although these claims are supported by data from different tracking tools, including SEMrush Sensor, Google has not officially confirmed this update. Details Here
  • Intrusive Interstitials Mobile Penalty
  • Jan 10, 2017
  • Google has announced that starting January 10th it will be penalizing mobile pages with interstitials that impede user access to content. Here are the examples of techniques that could be penalized:
  1. – Pop-ups that cover the main content
  2. – Standalone interstitial that needs to be dismissed to access the main content
  3. – Hiding the main content below the fold Details Here

Read Also: Google Update Cheat Sheet

Google Updates Cheat Sheet

Leave a reply

Here this is the Cheat Sheet where we have tried to include each and every Google Updates. You can go through the every update with the help of given Source Links.

Time Updates Effect Sources
8 March, 2017 Fred Update Gary Illyes jokingly referred to is as “Fred”, and the name stuck, but he later made it clear that this was not an official confirmation. Source Link
10 January, 2017 Intrusive Interstitial Penalty Google started rolling out a penalty to punish aggressive interstitials and pop-ups that might damage the mobile user experience. Source Link
23 September, 2016 Penguin 4.0 They suggested the new Penguin is now real-time and baked into the “core” algorithm Source Link
1 September, 2016 Possum Update Drop in local pack prevalence Source Link
17 July, 2015 Panda 4.2 The impact was unclear Source Link
21 October, 2014 Pirate 2.0 More than two years after the original DMCA/”Pirate” update, Google launched another update to combat software and digital media piracy Source Link
17 October, 2014 Penguin 3.0 This update appeared to be smaller than expected (<1% of US/English queries affected) and was probably data-only (not a new Penguin algorithm) Source Link
23 September, 2014 Panda 4.1 Google announced a significant Panda update, which included an algorithmic component. They estimated the impact at 3-5% of queries affected. Given the “slow rollout,” the exact timing was unclear. Source Link
6 August, 2014 HTTPS/SSL Update After months of speculation, Google announced that they would be giving preference to secure sites, and that adding encryption would provide a “lightweight” rankings boost. They stressed that this boost would start out small, but implied it might increase if the changed proved to be positive. Source Link
24 July, 2014 Pigeon Update Google shook the local SEO world with an update that dramatically altered some local results and modified how they handle and interpret location cues. Google claimed that Pigeon created closer ties between the local algorithm and core algorithm(s). Source Link
19 May, 2014 Panda 4.0 about 7.5% of English-language queries were affected. Source Link
4 October, 2013 Penguin 2.1 The overall impact seemed to be moderate, although some webmasters reported being hit hard. Source Link
20 August, 2013 Hummingbird changes to semantic search and the Knowledge Graph for months to come Source Link
22 May, 2013 Penguin 2.0 The exact nature of the changes were unclear, Source Link
27 September, 2012 Exact-match Domain (EMD) Google announced a change in the way it was handling exact-match domains Source Link
18 September, 2012 Panda 3.9.2 Ranking flux was moderate but not on par with a large-scale algorithm update. Source Link
20 August, 2012 Panda 3.9.1 impact seemed to be fairly small. Source Link
10 August, 2012 Pirate Update Google announced that they would start penalizing sites with repeat copyright violations, Source Link
24 July, 2012 Panda 3.9 Google claimed ~1% of queries were impacted. Source Link
25 June, 2012 Panda 3.8 much smaller impact than Panda 3.7 Source Link
8 June, 2012 Panda 3.7 Ranking fluctuation data suggested that the impact was substantially higher than previous Panda updates (3.5, 3.6) Source Link
25 May, 2012 Penguin 1.1 This confirmed that Penguin data was being processed outside of the main search index, much like Panda data. Source Link
27 April, 2012 Panda 3.6 It was unclear its impact. Source Link
24 April 2012 Penguin Update Penguin adjusted a number of spam factors, including keyword stuffing Source Link
19 April, 2012 Panda 3.5 This update was with minimal impact Source Link
23 March, 2012 Panda 3.4 Google’s public statements estimated that Panda 3.4 impacted about 1.6% of search results. Source Link
27 February, 2012 Panda 3.3 This came just 3 days after the 1-year anniversary of Panda, an unprecedented lifespan for a named update. Source Link
18 January, 2012 Panda 3.2 It was unclear how this fit into the “Panda Flux” scheme of more frequent data updates. Source Link
18 November, 2011 Panda 3.1 Some analysits called it 3.1 after 2.5 because there were changes on high rate. Source Link
5 October, 2011 Panda (Flux) Sites were affected by ~2% Source Link
28 September, 2011 Panda 2.5 It was unclear its affect Source Link
12 August, 2011 Panda 2.4 Google rolled Panda out internationally, both for English-language queries globally and non-English queries except for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Google reported that this impacted 6-9% of queries in affected countries. Source Link
23 July, 2011 Panda 2.3 Affected Data and Ranking Factors Source Link
28 June, 2011 Google+ New Social Media From Google Source Link
21 June, 2011 Panda 2.2 Impacted Sites and Data Source Link
2 June, 2011 Schema.org Google, Yahoo and Microsoft jointly announced support for a consolidated approach to structured data. Source Link
9 May, 2011 Panda 2.1 These changes weren’t discussed in detail by Google and seemed to be relatively minor. Source Link
11 April, 2011 Panda 2.0 Google rolled out the Panda update to all English queries worldwide Source Link
23 February, 2011 Panda Update Panda seemed to crack down on thin content, content farms, sites with high ad-to-content ratios, and a number of other quality issues. Source Link
February, 2009 Canonical Tag Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo jointly announced support for the Canonical Tag, allowing webmasters to send canonicalization signals to search bots without impacting human visitors. Source Link
June, 2005 XML Sitemap Google allowed webmasters to submit XML sitemaps via Webmaster Tools, Source Link
January, 2005 Nofollow Attribute Nofollow helps clean up unvouched for links, including spammy blog comments Source Link
September, 2002 1st Documented Update Updates are unclear but it appeared to be Monthly PageRank Update Source Link
December, 2000 Google Tool Bar Google Launched their Browser Toolbar & Toolbar Page Rank Source Link

Read Also: Free SEO Tools

Google Penguin Update

1 Reply

Google Penguin Update

After Panda Update, Google introduces another update Penguin Update in April 2012. Google Penguin Update deals with only link Quality, nothing else. Sites which get links in a wrong way always come in this update and hit by Penguin.

Sites that have purchased links or have acquired low-quality links through places such as low-quality directories, blogspam, or link badges and infographics could find their sites no longer ranking for search terms.

Which Sites Might Be Affected

Here are some of the reasons why your site might be affected by this recent Penguin update:

  • Anchor text over optimization
  • Link irrelevance
  • Outbound link quality
  • Keyword stuffing (high keyword density, repeating keywords)
  • Hidden links and hidden texts (Black-hat SEO practice)
  • Serving duplicate content from sub-domain (Fixing WordPress duplicate content)
  • Low quality backlinks

How To Recover From Penguin Update

Whether your website is affected from Penguin Update or not, you can check it from Google Analytics. If your traffic has dropped down during Update release date, then your site might be affected from Penguin Update. Here is few tips to recover from Penguin Update:-

  • Link Quality
  • Increase Anchor Text Distribution
  • Stop Building Unusual Links
  • Get rid of all unrelated links on your website
  • Only obtain backlinks from relevant sites or by providing great content.
  • Try and get links to your site with different anchor texts.
  • Try and include only contextual links.

Real Time Penguin

In its previous update(2016) Google has said from now Penguin will be Real time Penguin. Now webmasters do not need to wait for update. This is a bad news for whom who create links in illegal way for few times only. Here is more to know about Real Time Penguin.

Read Also :- Google Updates , Fred Update

“Fred” Update in January 2017 – Google Update

1 Reply

As we know Google makes update at least 3 or 4 daily in its algorithm. Till now we have seen countless updates like Panda Update, Penguin Update and HummingBird Update and more.

This new “Fred” update has left several assumptions which has made SEOs demented.

Why it is “Fred” ?

Suddenly changes in ranking and traffic without any confirmation from Google side, has left many questions. The SEOs were very worried about it. They started to ask Google and its team. After some persistence, Garry Tweeted (unofficially and jokingly); “Every update unless otherwise stated, shall be called Fred.”

This is how the new update got its name “Fred”.

Meaning of Fred from Google

I have just performed a search in Google with “Fred Meaning” and look what I got from Google…

After seeing this meaning I am just taking it as Penguin’s little sister which is wiser than it.

What The Folks Were Thinking ?

Since there was nothing confirmed about it from Google side so the search experts started to give their point of view over it. Some of them said it is all about backlinks but some of them said its content. After many research and analysis the folks reached at the point that it is all about Low Quality Link.

For Whom it is Enemy ?

Let’s talk about who might be affected from this. Here is the few points which may be the valid reason for this

Since it has been already disclosed that it is all about links. Then there may be following two reasons:-

  • It affects those websites who has backlinks from spam sites.
  • It penalizes low quality content site which does not offer any value to the users.

How to recover from it ?

Are your website affected from it ?

If Yes, follow these few tips to overcome this hit:-

No Compromise with Quality

Yes you must announce this in your team meeting that you are happy with few Quality links instead of several low quality link. Never prefer any spam or low quality links you may be hit any time due to it.

Never Use Automated Backlink Generator

There are lots tools which claim to provide you quality links but this never happens. It generates backlinks in bulk so there is no way to be them as better as it needs. So, never try any paid or free tool to generate backlinks.

Get Relevant Links

Never go irrelevant topic. Just because of few links never accept irrelevant backlinks. It never provides you as much benefit as it harms you.

Use Appropriate Anchor Text

Always pick those keywords which are meaningful, relevant to the topic and one of your keyword.

Overall after seeing lots of updates we have come to know that there are many stick to hit you if you do any illegal activities in order to increase your ranking or traffic. So just be original and show what you have.

Read Also: Google Updates

Google Updates : The Thing You Must Know

Leave a reply

Why Google Needs Updates?

To Make Results More Useful. More Search Oriented. And Keep Away Unproductive Things.

Google always tries to provide accurate and most relevant result to the users. After many steps Google provide these results. How Google Provides Ranking Results has been always an exciting question for everyone.

Every year, Google changes its search algorithm around 1000+ times. Few of these changes are minor and few are majors like Panda and Penguin (They affect Traffic & Ranking mostly).

Know more Google Updates :-

Do you Want to Hit by any Updates?

No.

Exactly!!! No one wants to be hit.

Then, What Should Not Be Done?

Follow Quality Guidelines strictly. This is the way which makes you perfect and there would be no chance to be hit by any update.

By understanding the Guidelines you can create quality content and Quality Backlinks which satisfy the users and as well as search engine.

Don’t You Read?

Really!!!

No one can prevent you from updates. One day you will be hit by Google. I’m sure.

Really this is shocking for me. Please follow any blog like Moz, Search Engine Land or you can read Google Webmaster  guidelines. But be updated. It’s important to keep yourself educated and find out those points actually What’s Google is looking for?

Read Also:- What Is Search Engine Optimization ?