Major Google Updates Documented

Aug 10, 2011 at 10:34am ET by Barry Schwartz

SEOmoz announced they have published the Google Algorithm Change document detailing all “major updates” that happened since the Boston update in 2003.

SEOmoz did it with style in this graphical document:

While I agree with a lot of the updates listed here, I had worked up a list of my own a few months ago. I was extremely selective and this it he list I came up with the list below.

My Google Update List:

Fritz (Summer 2003)
Florida (November 2003)
Austin Update (Jan 2004)
The Sandbox (April 2004)
Bourbon (May 2005)
Big Daddy (October 2005)
Supplemental (Jan 2007)
Paid Links (October 2007)
Dewey Update (Mar 2008)
Vince / Brand (March 2009)
May Day (May 2010)
Caffeine (June 2010)
Scraper Filter (Jan. 2011)
Panda (February 2011)

SEOmoz Google Update List:

Google Toolbar – December 2000
Boston – February 2003
Cassandra – April 2003
Dominic – May 2003
Esmerelda – June 2003
Fritz – July 2003
Florida – November 2003
Austin – January 2004
Brandy – February 2004
Google IPO – August 2004
Nofollow – January 2005
Allegra – February 2005
Bourbon – May 2005
XML Sitemaps – June 2005
Personalized Search – June 2005
Gilligan – September 2005
Google Local/Maps – October 2005
Jagger – October 2005
Big Daddy – December 2005
Supplemental Index – November 2006
Universal Search – May 2007
Buffy – June 2007
Dewey – April 2008
Google Suggest – August 2008
Vince – February 2009
Rel-canonical Tag – February 2009
Caffeine – August 2009
Real-time Search – December 2009
Google Places – April 2010
May Day – May 2010
Brand Update – August 2010
Google Instant – September 2010
Instant Previews – November 2010
Social Signals – December 2010
Overstock.com Penalty – January 2011
Panda/Farmer – February 23, 2011
The +1 Button – March 30, 2011
Panda 2.0 – April 11, 2011
Panda 2.1 – May 9, 2011
Schema.org – June 2, 2011
Panda 2.2 – June 21, 2011
Google+ – June 28, 2011
Panda 2.3 – July 23, 2011

Both SEOmoz and I pulled a lot of this data from this WebmasterWorld thread, which has always done a great job of documenting Google updates. I supplemented my list above with the Google Updates category on the Search Engine Roundtable.

The main difference is that SEOmoz is also including major user interface changes and none specific algorithm changes, including specific penalties.

Overall, it is really good for SEOs and webmasters to get an idea of how Google has updated their index, algorithms and penalties over time so that you can better anticipate the future changes coming from Google.

Panda Update Must-Reads

Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Panda” Algorithm Update, Feb. 2011
Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Panda Update. Now What?, March 2011
Google Speaks More About Panda Update, March 2011
The Panda Update: New Information From Google and The Latest from SMX West, March 2011
Lessons Learned at SMX West: Google’s Panda Update, White Hat Cloaking & Link Building, March 2011
Panda 2.0: Google Rolls Out Panda Update Internationally & Incorporates Searcher Blocking Data, April 2011
It’s Panda Update 2.1, Not Panda 3.0, Google Says, May 2011
Impacted By Google’s Panda Update? Google Asks You To Consider This…, May 2011

More Panda News & Recovery Tips

Google: We’ve Made No “Significant” Changes To The Panda Update, March 2011
Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Panda” Algorithm Update
When Pandas Attack: Online Retailers Need To React, March 2011
5 New Tactics For SEO Post-Panda, April 2011

Panda Winners & Losers

Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s Panda Algorithm Change?, Feb. 26, 2011
Winners & Losers As Panda 2.0 Goes Global? eHow, Bing’s Ciao.co.uk & More, April 2011
New York Times: Yes, Google’s Panda Update Hit NYT-Owned About.com, April 2011
Yellow Pages SEO In The Post-Panda World, April 2011
Hitwise Data Pegs Panda Impact On Demand Media Sites At 40%, April 2011
Panda Update: Google Lowers The Boom On eHow.com, April 2011
Demand Media: Panda’s Impact On eHow.com “Significantly Overstated,” April 2011

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

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http://www.planetc1.com/ Michael Dorausch

Browsing through that list brings back memories and it reminds me we’ve been at this a long time now.
http://www.michael-martinez.com/ Michael Martinez

Barry wrote: “Overall, it is really good for SEOs and webmasters to get an idea of how Google has updated their index, algorithms and penalties over time so that you can better anticipate the future changes coming from Google”

That remains to be seen.
http://www.30go30.com/dr-pete Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Thanks, Barry. Not surprisingly, many of our resource links in the list go back to SEL. Deciding what should be included was tougher than I initially thought. Even figuring out technically what’s an algorithm update can be tricky. Caffeine was certainly important, but it technically wasn’t an algorithm update. Leaving out Panda would’ve drawn 100 complaints, but it’s not clear Panda is integrated into the main algo (I think Vanessa’s “platform” description makes sense – almost like a lab sitting to the side that feeds into a ranking factor).

I can only say that it was a lot of fun to dive back into the history, and I’m looking forward to adding to the list and trying to keep it current.
http://www.footinmouthdisease.net F.M.

They left out the Local Map User Interface update that removed Reviews from non Google sources from the local results and Places pages.