Google Algorithm Changes: 10 Highlights Since 1997

In 1997, the domain name for Google was first registered. Google is constantly improving their search engine, and each year there may be hundreds of updates. But most of them are minute, and don’t affect how we search. 

Over the years, there have been some highlights, though.  At one point, the web was littered with websites offering little more than long lists of words, in the hopes that users would click on one of the ads. But over the period of time, Google has encouraged websites to create valid, informative content, through their targeted algorithms. Frustrating yes, but helpful for webmasters who create quality content to rank higher organically.

In order to effectively market products, a blog, or a website, it’s best to learn about the past ten major highlights since 1997.

• 1999 - In 1999, Google started selling advertisements that would come up during specific keyword searches. 
• 2000 - In the year 2000, Google created their browser toolbar, and the TBPR—Google Tool Bar Page Rank. This Google toolbar could be used from any page on the net. TBPR measured a page’s ranking on the net, and many webmasters would eagerly pay attention to their site’s rankings.
• 2003 - The Cassandra update happened in 2003. This was the year when Google started ignoring hidden text, and hidden links. They also cracked down on sites with massive linking. 
• 2005 - In 2005, Google started tapping into users‘ personal search history, to present tailored results. This was the start of using browser history for other applications.  
• 2007 - In 2007, a Google Search would also give the user non-text specific information, such as video and images.  
• 2009 - In 2009, Vince was a major update. It seemed to favor major changes. They claimed it was a small update, yet would have major implications on brand promotion.  
• 2010 - Webmasters were puzzled in May 2010, when web traffic tapered off. It was confirmed that the algorithm had changed again, and would affect large-scale thin content. This update foreshadowed the future Panda update.  
• 2010 - Google updated to a search that was instantly presented, as the user typed. While many were worried, it’s impact ended up being small, as users needed to search for their specific key phrase anyway.  
• 2011 - Panda/Farmer was born, and it hit sites hard. It took a couple of months to fully roll out. Panda started cracking down on thin content sites, content farms, sites with an excess of ad-to-content ratios, and a number of quality issues. Instead, websites with information that was of high importance to users were favored. Unfortunately, many valid websites were also hit hard.  
• 2014 - Google launches Pirate, in order to combat piracy. This update targeted specific websites. Presumably, sites that have stolen content would be removed from user search rankings.

And in 2015, the "Mobilegeddon Update" was dropped, where Google started taking into consideration the mobile friendliness of a website while deciding its ranking for mobile searches.

One thing is clear, Google updates were regularly coming and will regularly come so it is impossible to say that your current SEO strategy will work every time. Every marketer must know the trends and changes in algorithms to keep websites optimized and stay ahead of their competitors.

So how did we do? Did you know these major changes in Google algorithms? Let us know in comments!

Originally appeared here. More on TrigacyDigital blog