History of Google SEO and Search Engine Updates

ABOUT GOOGLE

Google is a multinational company specialized in internet services. It is founded by Larry Page and Sergy Brin as a part of their Ph.D. project in 1996. Google products and services include online advertising, cloud computing, search engines, software etc.. 

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION(SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing the web pages or On-page optimization refers to how well a website's content is presented. It is the measures that can taken directly within the website. Off-page optimization refers to the measures that can be taken outside the website to improve its ranking.
websites for getting high rankings in search results. When a site gets high rank or index its visibility will be more and it will get more visitors and users. SEO practice helped web masters to improve their web pages or web sites and also helped search engines to provide better results. There is on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

GOOGLE SEO

The first method in SEO was Niche/Content Specific. Here the indexing is done on the basis of the information provided such as keyword meta tag or based on the keyword density. But this method was not reliable because the spamming activities like keyword stuffing came into practice. Keyword stuffing is the process of stuffing the pages with excessive or irrelevant keywords to manipulate the ranking of the site. So this method became inaccurate to provide the search results.

 Next Google introduced Link Specific method to replace the content specific method. In this method the websites were ranked based on the external links they get from other sites. After that the Page rank system was introduced to rank the quality of the sites that provide the links. If a site gets a link from another site which has a high page rank its index will be high. The page ranking is based on a website’s age, organic visits, time spend on the website by users etc..

When spamming activities began to practice in this method also Google introduced Passing The Juice and nofollow Mechanism. Passing the juice mechanism was introduced to curb the malpractices like link selling. Passing the Juice means when a site A having high page rank gives its link to another site B the page rank of A will automatically decreases. This can be prevented by the command nofollow. When the nofollow command is added in the html codes the page rank of the link donor will not decrease, also the site accepting that link will not be much benefited from that link.

UPDATES

The important updates of Google are the following :

Google Panda Update : 

Google Panda Update which is introduced on 23rd February 2011, is meant to stop Content Spamming. Content Spamming includes : 

•     Content Plagiarism : copying of contents

•     Low Quality Contents

•     Grammatical Error

•     Spelling Mistake

•     Content Spinning : rewriting the contents with small variations to provide an alternate version of the same content.

•     Thin Pages : pages with poor contents 

Now Panda algorithm became a filter in the Google ranking algorithms.

Google Penguin Update :

Google Penguin Update, introduced on 24th April 2014 is used to find out Link Spamming. Different Link Spamming methods are :

•     Link Exchange

•     Links from Low Quality Directory

•     Automated Software Link Creation

•     Paid Link

•     Comment Spamming : abusing of web-based forms to post unsolicited advertisements as comments

•     Guest Blogging for getting Links

Google Payday Loan Update : 

Google Payday Loan launched on June 2014 is an update for punishing websites that use spam techniques to boost the ranking for heavily trafficked or highly paid search keywords such as “payday”, “casinos” etc..This type of spa,ming is used to earn high Cost Per Click(CPC).

Google Pirate Update :

Google pirate update is designed to prevent copying of multimedia contents such as images, videos etc.. It was introduced in 2012. It punishes the websites that violate the Google’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act(DMCA). Using Google’s DMCA a site can notify Google if there is any copyright infringement of its contents.

Google Exact Match Domain(EMD) Update : 

It was launched on September 2012. If a user types “best seo analyst” and if there is a domain http://BestSeoAnalyst.com then this sites get a very good ranking because the query and the domain name are same. This feature is misused by creating domains that exactly matches the keyword but with irrelevant or poor quality contents. The EMD update is for filtering such domains which is an exact match domain but do not provide any useful information for users.

Google Pigeon Update :

Google Pigeon Update launched on 24th July 2014 focuses on providing individualized results for users. According to Google it provides “a more useful and relevant experience for searchers seeking local results”. It provide accurate and relevant local search results for users relying on the factors such as location and distance to provide better search results to the user.

Google Humming Bird Update : 

Google started Humming Bird update on 30th August 2014 but annonced the change on September 26th. The algorithm provides semantic search results. It makes the search more easy and comfortable for users by giving suggestions based on the similar words they search and the history of their previous searches. Here the search engine focuses on the intent of a person carrying out a search that is, the focus is on why a person searches rather than what a person searches.

Google Mobilegeddon Update :

Google introduced Mobilegeddon update on 21st April 2015 which is a mobile friendly update. It was introduced to give a boost to mobile friendly updates in ranking. Google gave warning for sites a month before the updation to update their sites to mobile friendly. This update was to provide more comfort for user who browses using mobile phones. The update ensured that web pages and websites are compatible with all mobiles so that the users can see the pages without tapping or zooming or without horizontal scrolling.

Google RankBrain Update :

The RankBrain update was to introduce Machine Learning as a part of their algorithm. The launch was closer to spring in 2015 but the announcement was made on 26th October 2015. Here the search engine uses Artificial Intelligence(AI) to process its search results. Using AI a computer can work as its own rather than taught by humans. This update made it possible to choose the most relevant sites for particular queries.

Nimmy Johnson