A Look Back at Google Search & Algorithm Updates
Time to Read: 3m 38s
I’ve been doing SEO for most of the past decade, but it was starting to feel like the past couple of years brought more Google changes than I’ve seen during the whole time I’ve been doing SEO. So I looked it up. I wasn’t just being nostalgic for the good old days either; there actually were more major updates in the last couple of years. (Thanks Moz for keeping such a great history.) 
There were other changes that impacted SEO as well: minor updates that occur on a daily or weekly basis, the Google Blackout (where Google stopped passing some referral information to Google Analytics), and changes to the Google SERPs that resulted in far fewer organic, non-Google property results showing above the fold. Google also made their Shopping search engine a paid, rather than free, service. It’s been a challenge for the SEO community to keep up with all Google’s changes.
Back in My Day
When I started doing SEO, (and yes, I had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow to do it) the industry was still reeling from the effects of the 2003 Florida Update. That was the first BIG update Google made to target shortcut and shady SEO practices. So I never got to just stuff keywords into meta tags and have my clients’ sites rank. Quality work was the topic of discussion during 2004, so that was what I learned. The world of SEO was pretty quiet for me for the next 6 - 7 years. I just focused on helping my clients create quality websites with great content that the search engines could easily crawl. And it worked like a charm. Google Updates would come and go, largely unnoticed by me, unless it was that a competitor site got hit with the update and we climbed up a position or 2. No way was I going to be an “algorithm chaser” like those shady black-hat guys who hung out in dark alleys preying on innocent business owners and cluttering up the SERPs with 0-value sites.
Then Came the Pandas and Penguins
Google said they were going to start heavily targeting WebSPAM (shady and shortcut SEO practices that violate their webmaster guidelines). And I guess they were serious about it. 80% of the updates that specifically targeted shady and shortcut practices happened in 2011-2012.
There was much rejoicing in the “white-hat” SEO community. Finally, Google was going to war against the spammers! Finally high quality sites would out-rank spammers and all my clients would have incredible success! (Or so I thought.)
The Casualties of War
The tactics I was using were in line with Google’s guidelines, but some of my clients still got hit. Some did things against Google’s guidelines (and my advice), like buying links, which is a direct violation of Google’s guidelines. Others just weren’t careful in how their data was structured and ended up making duplicated content, or had other sites copying their content. Innocent enough, but as in any war, innocents still suffer. I needed to change my approach and be more proactive with changing algorithms. I had to fully (not just sort-of) understand how and when to use the canonical tag, double check my clients’ content with the web to make sure nobody else had copied it, and change site structure to ensure we didn’t mistakenly create duplicated content. I had to start worrying about what constitutes a natural vs. unnatural link profile and how to determine if an anchor text link would do more harm than good. Even links that were built years before I started working with my clients had to be evaluated. Watching for algorithm updates and checking traffic and visibility every time an update happened became a necessary part of my defensive strategy.
2013 and Beyond
Judging by the changes since 2011, I think it’s safe to assume that Google will continue to target shady and shortcut SEO practices, and that sometimes, legitimate sites will get caught in the crossfire. It’s more important than ever to make sure your SEO team is fully up to date on more than just basic keyword research and content optimization skills. They need to have the technical understanding of what it means to do SEO in 2013 and beyond. What do you think the rest of 2013 has in store for SEO?
There were other changes that impacted SEO as well: minor updates that occur on a daily or weekly basis, the Google Blackout (where Google stopped passing some referral information to Google Analytics), and changes to the Google SERPs that resulted in far fewer organic, non-Google property results showing above the fold. Google also made their Shopping search engine a paid, rather than free, service. It’s been a challenge for the SEO community to keep up with all Google’s changes.
Back in My Day
When I started doing SEO, (and yes, I had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow to do it) the industry was still reeling from the effects of the 2003 Florida Update. That was the first BIG update Google made to target shortcut and shady SEO practices. So I never got to just stuff keywords into meta tags and have my clients’ sites rank. Quality work was the topic of discussion during 2004, so that was what I learned. The world of SEO was pretty quiet for me for the next 6 - 7 years. I just focused on helping my clients create quality websites with great content that the search engines could easily crawl. And it worked like a charm. Google Updates would come and go, largely unnoticed by me, unless it was that a competitor site got hit with the update and we climbed up a position or 2. No way was I going to be an “algorithm chaser” like those shady black-hat guys who hung out in dark alleys preying on innocent business owners and cluttering up the SERPs with 0-value sites.
Then Came the Pandas and Penguins
Google said they were going to start heavily targeting WebSPAM (shady and shortcut SEO practices that violate their webmaster guidelines). And I guess they were serious about it. 80% of the updates that specifically targeted shady and shortcut practices happened in 2011-2012.
There was much rejoicing in the “white-hat” SEO community. Finally, Google was going to war against the spammers! Finally high quality sites would out-rank spammers and all my clients would have incredible success! (Or so I thought.)
The Casualties of War
The tactics I was using were in line with Google’s guidelines, but some of my clients still got hit. Some did things against Google’s guidelines (and my advice), like buying links, which is a direct violation of Google’s guidelines. Others just weren’t careful in how their data was structured and ended up making duplicated content, or had other sites copying their content. Innocent enough, but as in any war, innocents still suffer. I needed to change my approach and be more proactive with changing algorithms. I had to fully (not just sort-of) understand how and when to use the canonical tag, double check my clients’ content with the web to make sure nobody else had copied it, and change site structure to ensure we didn’t mistakenly create duplicated content. I had to start worrying about what constitutes a natural vs. unnatural link profile and how to determine if an anchor text link would do more harm than good. Even links that were built years before I started working with my clients had to be evaluated. Watching for algorithm updates and checking traffic and visibility every time an update happened became a necessary part of my defensive strategy.
2013 and Beyond
Judging by the changes since 2011, I think it’s safe to assume that Google will continue to target shady and shortcut SEO practices, and that sometimes, legitimate sites will get caught in the crossfire. It’s more important than ever to make sure your SEO team is fully up to date on more than just basic keyword research and content optimization skills. They need to have the technical understanding of what it means to do SEO in 2013 and beyond. What do you think the rest of 2013 has in store for SEO?