Google Updates & Algorithms

An algorithmic penalty is an informal SEO term for a drop in rankings caused by Google's automated systems rather than by a human reviewer.

Algorithm update trackers, also called SERP volatility tools, measure how strongly Google's search results change over time.

In SEO, a Google algorithm update is a change to the algorithms and ranking systems of Google Search that affects how results are ordered.

A Google core update is a broad change to the algorithms and systems of Google Search that Google rolls out several times a year.

Google Dance is a historical SEO term for the noticeable ranking changes that followed Google's index updates in the early 2000s.

Google sandbox is an SEO theory that Google holds back new websites in search results for a while, even when their content and links are …

A manual action is a penalty Google applies to a site after a human reviewer determines that pages do not comply with Google's spam …

A reconsideration request asks Google to review a manual action taken against your website and lift it.

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) is an AI system Google uses to understand how combinations of words express …

Deduplication systems are ranking systems at Google that remove redundant results when many pages say nearly the same thing.

MUM (Multitask Unified Model) is an AI system from Google that can both understand and generate language.

NavBoost is a Google ranking signal that pairs search queries with documents by memorizing which results users clicked.

Neural matching is an AI system Google uses to understand representations of concepts in queries and pages and to match them.

Original content systems are ranking systems that Google uses to show original content, including original reporting, ahead of pages that …

Passage ranking is an AI system Google uses to identify individual sections, called passages, of a web page to better understand how …

RankBrain is an AI system in Google Search that helps Google understand how words relate to concepts.

Reliable information systems is an umbrella term from Google's overview of ranking systems.

Site diversity is a Google ranking system that generally keeps more than two listings from the same site out of the top results.

Expired domain abuse is a Google spam policy violation.

A link spam update is an announced improvement to how Google detects and discounts unnatural links.

Scaled content abuse is a Google spam policy violation.

Site reputation abuse, often called parasite SEO, is the practice of publishing third-party pages on an established site to take advantage …

SpamBrain is Google's AI-based spam-prevention system.

A spam update is a Google improvement to its automated spam detection, in the context of search rankings.

The exact match domain update (EMD update) is a Google change from late September 2012 that reduced the ranking advantage of domains whose …

The Florida update is the SEO industry's name for a major change in Google's ranking that began on November 16, 2003.

Fred is the unofficial name of a Google ranking update from March 2017.

The Google API leak is the 2024 publication of internal documentation for Google Search's Content Warehouse API.

The helpful content update was a Google ranking system announced in August 2022 to show more original, helpful content written by people …

The Hilltop algorithm is a ranking method from search engine research that scores pages according to the links of independent "expert …

In SEO, Hummingbird is a major improvement to Google's ranking systems from 2013, not a bird or an app.

The Medic update is the name the SEO industry uses for a Google core update from August 2018.

Mobilegeddon is the SEO nickname for Google's mobile-friendly update, which began rolling out globally on April 21, 2015.

Over-optimization in SEO describes optimization that is pushed so far that it looks manipulative.

The Panda update was a Google system introduced in 2011 to make sure high-quality and original content appears in search results.

The Payday Loan update is a Google webspam update that, according to reports, began in June 2013 and affected queries with heavy spam …

The Penguin update was a Google system introduced in 2012 to combat link spam.

Phantom update is the SEO industry's name for a change in Google's ranking from early May 2015, often called "Phantom 2".

The Pigeon update is, according to reports, the name Search Engine Land gave to a change in Google's local search that launched in the …

Possum update is the name the local SEO community gave to a change in Google's local ranking around September 2016.

Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) refers to the freshness systems Google uses to show newer content for queries where people would expect it.

The reviews update (first called product reviews update) was a series of announced changes to Google's reviews system, which rewards …

The top heavy update, officially the page layout algorithm change, is a Google change announced on January 19, 2012.