If you are browsing for some tips for 2016 online marketing plans that can turn beneficial for you and does not goes against Google rules and algorithms. Then you must know what were those online marketing trends being followed by others during the last decade and what Google made changes during the last decade that changed the trend of online marketing.Let’s start in descending order and get to know in detail about the Google updates that made a huge impact in online marketing trend.
2005
Nofollow
In January 2005 Google introduced the concept of “Nofollow” attribute. This was an attempt to combat spam and control outbound link quality. What effect it has, it helped to clean spammy and unvouched for links. It made the spammy bloggers to bite their nails as commenting below blogs are now not a good way to get a link back to your website and significantly impacted the graph links.
Allegra
Allegra was introduced in February 2005. The specific details about the update were unclear, however, webmasters witnessed ranking changes. Many thought that it affected the “sandbox”, some believed that LSI was tweaked and some said it penalized suspicious links.
Bourbon
This May update was famous by the line “something like 3.5 changes in search engine.” However, no one knows what this 0.5 change was about. According to many webmaster expert they said that Bourbon changes are about duplicate content and non-canonical URL’s.
Personalized Search
It was launched in June, though the impact was small at first. However, this new version of Google Personalized Search made search engine constantly store data what user search and then which pages they browse. This makes Google to show results as per user need and search habit.
XML Sitemap
Now we are very familiar to what XML sitemap is all about. This was introduced in June 2005. It allowed webmasters to submit XML sitemap via webmaster account.
Gilligan
This update was called as “False” update. Easier said this change was both for index data and toolbar PR. However, Google claimed that there are no major changes had occurred.
Jagger
This update of October 2005 was a huge blow for user who were involved in building spammy backlinks. This Google update targeted low-quality links, including link farms, paid links and reciprocal links.
Google Local/Map
Now-a-days we use map even for searching any company location. We prefer to click on the business listing instead of the company official page to find the contact address. This change was launched in October 2005 and made a great impact of Local SEO. Google merged its map data with Local Business Center(LBC). This encouraged local business to upadte their information. Now we call it as NAP (Name, address and Phone number)
Big Daddy
In December 2005, Big Daddy update was announced by Google. This update was majorly about website infrastructure update. The focus was on canonicalization, redirects (301/302) and other technical issues. However, this updated was wrapped up in March 2006.
2006
2006 was a silent year till the last two months. In November and December Google launched the below 2 update:
Supplement Update
This update was launched in November 2006. This update was about supplement ends and how the filtered page is created. Many thought that it was a penalty. However, Google said this update is not a penalty for any website.
False Alarm
In December 2006, all were waiting for the huge change update by Google. However, it has been just a False Alarm. Google did not release any major changes.
2007
Universal Search
This was not a typical algorithm update that can harm any website, but opened more door to rank well in a different section. Google integrated few features of News, Images, Video, Local results and other verticals in May 2007. This made the SERP to have a new look and the tradition 10 link listing was gone.
This may have raised your eyebrow, if you didn’t know when this update was made. As now a days we are very familiar to the SERP.
Buffy
No one knows what was exactly Buffy update was about. However, Matt Cutts said this update is to accumulate all the small changes we did till date. This update was launched in June 2007 in honor of Vanessa Foc leaving Google.
2008
Dewey
This change was thought to be a big change, but the specifics were not clear. Some said it would impact SERP, but there was no proof about the change. This confusion about Dewey effect was discussed in April 2008.
Google Suggest
In August 2008, a major change happened with the Google logo and a box home page. Google also introduced the new feature of “Suggest.”. This made a few suggestions to be displayed below the search box when any one type there queries.
2009
Rel-Canonical Tag
In February 2008, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google jointly announced the support of Canonical Tag to the world. This made webmaster to send canonicalization signals to search bots without impacting visitor search and visit.
Vince
If you have a big brand, then this February Vince update was for you. Many SEO said this change was in favor of big brand to get ranked well, however Matt Cutts said it is just a minor change.
Caffeine
In August 2008 Caffeine algorithm made massive infrastructure changes, it speed the crawing rate, expended the index and integrated real time indexation and ranking. It was finally rollout in early 2010.
Real Time Search
This real time search was really a good change. It added real time feeds from Twitter, Google News, newly indexed web content to get ranked in SERP. This change is expanding more adding more real time feeds from various social media and news to get ranked.
2010
Google Places
In September 2009 “Places” was rolled out from Google. However, in April 2010 “Places” was official relaunched and helped the Local Business Center to brand and integrate the local pages for local search optimization. Along with this feature a new feature of local advertising was also launched in April 2010.
May Day
In early May, May Day algorithm was officially launched and it higly impacted long tail traffic. This change impacted those websites who have large scale thin content. This was somewhat linked foreshadowing the Panda update.
Brand Update
This was not a traditional update that may hurt any website ranking, but made a good change to allow the same domain to appear multiple times on a SERP. Previoulsy domain was listed for only 1 or 2 times in the SERP.
Instant Previews
In November 2010 a magnifying glass icon was dead in Google search result. It helped visitor to view the landing pages. This update made the website to properly design quality landing page.
Social Signals
In December 2010, Binga and Google made an announcement that social media will also be used to determine any website ranking.
Negative Reviews
Many know this trick, but it was in December 2010 Google updated this algorithm to target those websites who follow this approach to rank well.
2011
Attribution Update
This update was really a great one that made the website to suffer who copied other content or scrape others content. The original website who has the original content should get the value, this was the motive of this algorithm.
Panda/Farmer
This update of February 23, 2011 affected 12% of a search result. It hit spammy website hard. It cracks down all the tin content, duplicate content, content farms, low content and high ads and spammy links.
The +1 Button
If you love to share, then this update made many people happy. It made +1 button to appear directly next to result links. Clicking on +1 button made increase in both organic and paid search.
Schema.org
In June 2011, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google jointly announced the support of structured data. They have jointed merged and created a number of new schemas to make search results richer.
Google+
This update was called as a rivalry update against Facebook. Google attacked Facebook with Google+. Google+ was used for sharing content and tightly integrated into productss like Gmail.
Expanded Sitelinks
After experimenting for a few months, the expanded sitelinks was officially rolled out by Google.
Pagination Elements
In September 2011 Google introduced the rel=”next” and rel=”prev” link attribute to fix crawl and duplication problem.
Query Encryption
For privacy reasons, on October 18, 2011 Google announced that they will encrypt the search query.
December 10 Packs
Google previously released 10 Pack updates in November. These packs changes were not huge, but were small changes that have happened till date. Google then announced that these packs would come every month.
2012
January 30 Pack
This was a change of 30 updates that happened in January 2012. It made changes in image search landing pages quality detection, related query improvements, relevant sitelinks, rich snippets, and more.
Search + Your World
In January 2012 a radical shift in personalized was announced by Google by pushing Google+ social data and user profile in search result.
Panda 3.2
Google confirmed on January 18, 2012 that Panda algorithm is released.
Ads Above the Fold
On January 19, 2012 Google updated the page layout algorithm and devalued those websites that add too much ad-space above the “fold”
February 17 packs
On February 3, 2012 Google released 17 Pack changes for search quality highlights. This 17 pack was about speed, spelling checking, freshness and integration of Panda to search engine.
Venice
On February 27, 2012 Google introduced a code name “Venice”. This update was for localize organic search for local search data.
March 50- Pack
Yet another 50 Pack change in the Google algorithms happened in march. This pack includes changes for anchor text scorning, image search, local search query, etc.
Parked Domain Bug
This was a nightmare for a few websites that accidently got parked and devaluated by Google. Google made the announcement that due to some error this change happened, will soon revert it.
Panda 3.5
In the mid of April 2012 Google rolled out the Panda data update.
Penguin
After Panda update was rolled out in April 2012, Penguin was introduced on April 24. This algorithm impacted 3.1 English query. This update was being on a number of spam factors, including keyword stuffing.
April 52 Pack
A pack of 52 changes was updated in April 2012 and included many changes, including what Pengiun algorithms has changed in Google search, about pagination handling and much more.
Knowledge Graph
In March, Google started rolling out “Knowledge Graph”. Knowledge graph helped was installing impacting the search result as it was including the search result for people, place and things.
May 39 Pack
In May 2012, Google again released a pack of 39 changes in algorithms. These changes include better link scheme detection, Penguim improvement, changes in the title, Google News, etc.
Link Warnings
In March and April, Google sends unnatural link warning message to all the website through Google Webmasters Tools.
DMCA Penalty
August 2012 can be said to be as a DMCA takedown phase for many website. Google penalized website that repeatedly violated copyright rules and were engaged in spammy activity.
7 Result SERP’s
Google made a great change in SERP by limiting the result to 7 results instead of 10 results. However, this change was rolled out soon.
Exact-Match Domain (EDM) Update
In September 2012 this update was a devaluation update. It reduced the presence of EDM in MozCast data.
Panda #23
In December 2012, just before Christmas another Panda update was rolled out.
2013
Panda #24
I was a New Year and Google announced its first official Pnada update, claiming 1.2% query.
Phantom
The exact working on this update was not known, however many websites noticed a huge drop down in traffic. This was fluctuation of Phatom was updated in May 2013.
Domain Crowding
To control crowds or diversity, deep in the SERP for pages 2 + this update was released in May.
“Payday Loan” Update
Google announced this “Payday Loan” update for those websites who were engaged in notoriously spammy results. This update affected website mentioning payday loans and porn.
Multi-Week Update
Matt Cutts tweeted about “multi-week” algorithm update and this update starts from 12th June 2016 to “the week after 4th July 2016”. This update made massive ranking volatility as per the MozCast data.
In-depth Articles
This was thought a good update. Google made SERP to add a new type of news result called “In -Depth articles”, This was for a better and more evergreen, long-form content to rank well.
Hummingbird
Hummingbird update was compared to Caffeine and was thought to be a core algorithm that may power SERP.
Authorship Shake-up
Authorship make-up disappeared from roughly15% of query. The fall was around December 12. 2013. However, the number remains volatile.
2014
Payday Loan 3.0
Less than a month after Payday Loan 2.0 update, this was another major add-on update.
Authorship Photo Drop
Authorship photo will not be seen in SERP was a surprise algorithm update made by John Mueller on 28 June 2014.
Pigeon
The pigeon was an update that created a tie between local algorithms and core algorithms. This update made a huge impact on some local results.
HTTPS/SSL Update
On 6 August 2014, Google announced that secure website will have more preference than unsecure website. This was said that adding SSL certificate will add a lightweight running boost.
Authorship Removed
After dropping the authorship for photo, Google announced that it will completely remove authorship markup. This update was made in August 2014.
“In The News” Box
In October 2014, a display change was made by Google and gave place to news websites in search. This gain of importance in the SERP to news website made a good result for these websites.
Pirate 2.0
After original DMCA ”Pirate” update that was made two years made an add-on to stop pirate in software and digital media section.
Pigeon Expand (UK, CA, AU)
The original update only hits the USA in July, but this update of December 2014 expanded to the UK, CA and AU.
2015
Mobile Update AKA “Mobilegeddon”
This was a good update for those websites who also have mobile friendly websites. This update stated that ranking will automatically improve for those websites who has a mobile friendly website. This update was updated on date 22 April 2015
Quality Update
Google did not reveal what was the major impact about this change. However, the change impacted the “quality signal” for any website. This update was made on date 3 May 2015
Panda 4.2
Google announced that this is a major Panda data refresh. However the impact was unclear and so sign of major drawback was seen with any websites.
RankBrain
On October 26, 2015 Google made a major announcement that machine learning has become a major part of our algorithm. This algorithm made use of artificial intelligence to help process data to show a search result. This AL made impact what will be seen in the SERP.
2016
Adword Shake-up Update
This update is most famous for those who are connected with PPC. This update was made on date 23 February 2016 and removed all the right column ads entirely and placed them in the top 4 places instead of organic blue link search. This significantly impacted the CTR for both paid and organic results.
Mobile Friendly 2
The original mobile friendly update was made an year ago to benefit mobile friendly website to rank well. However, as most of the website are already mobile friendly Google rolled out another ranking signal to boost mobile friendly website. This update didn’t have a huge impact in ranking.
“Possum”
This Possum update heavily impacted organic search results. This update effects was noted by MozCast and recorded extreme temperature of 108 degrees and a drop in local pack prevalence. The local SEO community noticed major shake and changes due to this update on 13 September 2016.
Penguin 4.0 ( Real Time)
Google announced the most awaited Pengium update on 23 September 2016. This update was no real and backed into a core algorithm. The impact was small with no report of Pengium recoveries.
Organic blue links drop from 10 to 8.5 per search query
Searchmetrics says that Google will now display 8 links instead of 10. It will now give place to snippets, app packs, knowledge panels, images, videos and more. This update is revealed on 6 October 2016.
Conclusion
These are the update made by Google during the last decade. Hope this article helped you to know what were the shift of online marketing trend in the last decade.
