February 2009 Vince Gave more weight to brand-related signals in search results. June 8, 2010 Caffeine Improved indexing speed and freshness of search results. February 24, 2011 Panda Penalized low-quality and duplicate content, emphasizing the importance of high-quality, original content. January 19, 2012 Page Layout Algorithm Penalized websites with excessive ads above the fold. April 24, 2012 Penguin Targeted link spam and low-quality backlinks, leading to a focus on high-quality and natural link building. September 28, 2012 Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update Reduced the influence of exact-match domains in search rankings. August 22, 2013 Hummingbird Improved understanding of user intent and context, promoting the use of conversational and long-tail keywords. August 2012 Pirate Update Targeted websites with copyright infringement issues. June 11, 2013 Payday Loan Update Targeted spammy queries and specific industries, like payday loans and gambling. July 24, 2014 Pigeon Enhanced local search results and emphasized the importance of location-based SEO. Various iterations between 2013 and 2015 Phantom Update Affected content quality and user experience factors, leading to ranking fluctuations. October 26, 2015 RankBrain Introduced machine learning to better understand search queries, rewarding relevant and user-focused content. March 8, 2017 Fred Targeted low-quality, ad-heavy, and affiliate-heavy content, emphasizing content quality and user experience. August 22, 2017 Hawk Update Focused on local search results, reducing the filtering of local businesses. August 1, 2018 Medic Mainly affected YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) websites, placing a higher emphasis on expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). October 22, 2019 BERT Improved natural language understanding, rewarding content that provides valuable and contextually relevant information. April 21, 2015 Mobilegeddon Gave preference to mobile-friendly websites in mobile search results, making mobile optimization crucial. May 2021 – June 2021 Core Web Vitals Focused on website speed, user experience, and page loading performance, prioritizing sites with good Core Web Vitals scores. March 26, 2018 Mobile-First Indexing Shifted to mobile-first indexing, ranking websites based on their mobile versions. Regular updates, unannounced Broad Core Algorithm Updates (Multiple) Broad changes affecting overall search rankings and results. December 3, 2019 Core Update Google confirmed a broad core algorithm update, one of the biggest updates in years, affecting various search results. January 13, 2020 Core Update Google released a broad core algorithm update affecting search rankings. January 22, 2020 Featured Snippet Deduplication Google stopped repeating webpages in featured snippet positions within regular Page 1 organic listings. February 10, 2021 Passage Ranking Google introduced Passage Ranking for English-language queries in the United States, focusing on specific content passages. April 8, 2021 Product Reviews Update Google implemented a search ranking algorithm update rewarding in-depth product reviews over thin content summaries. June 2, 2021 Broad Core Algorithm Update Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan announced a broad core algorithm update affecting various ranking factors. June 15, 2021 Page Experience Update Google confirmed the rollout of the Page Experience update, focusing on user experience signals. June 23, 2021 Spam Update Google announced an algorithm update aimed at reducing spammy content in search results. June 28, 2021 Spam Update Part 2 The second part of Google’s spam update aimed at improving search quality. July 1, 2021 Core Update Google Search Liaison announced the July 2021 Core Update, impacting various aspects of search results. July 12, 2021 Core Update Completed The July 2021 Core Update rollout was successfully completed, resulting in ranking changes. July 26, 2021 Google Link Spam Algorithm Update Google initiated an algorithm update to combat link spam tactics and their impact on rankings. November 3, 2021 Google Spam Update Google rolled out a spam update as part of their routine efforts to improve search quality. November 17, 2021 Broad Core Update Google Search Central announced a broad core update affecting a wide range of search results. November 30, 2021 Local Search Update Google announced a November 2021 Local Search Update, influencing local rankings. December 1, 2021 Product Review Update Google introduced the December 2021 Product Review Update, impacting English language pages with product reviews. February 22, 2022 Page Experience Update Google announced the Page Experience update, emphasizing user-centric page performance. March 23, 2022 Product Algorithm Update Google updated product review rankings to identify high-quality reviews, enhancing the product review system. May 22, 2022 Core Update Google released the May 2022 Core Update, affecting search rankings and user experience. July 27, 2022 Product Reviews Update Google rolled out the July 2022 Product Reviews Update, providing guidance for high-quality product reviews. August 25, 2022 Helpful Content Update Google launched the Helpful Content Update, promoting user-focused content creation. September 12, 2022 Core Algorithm Update Google announced a core algorithm update affecting various search ranking factors. September 20, 2022 Product Review Algorithm Update Google confirmed the rollout of a new product review algorithm update, enhancing product review rankings. October 19, 2022 Spam Update Google announced a spam update targeting spammy content practices in search results. December 5, 2022 Helpful Content Update Google introduced the December 2022 Helpful Content Update, focusing on useful and informative content. December 14, 2022 Link Spam Update Google announced the December 2022 Link Spam Update, targeting link spam practices and their impact on rankings. February 21, 2023 Product Reviews Update Google introduced the February 2023 Product Reviews Update, enhancing product review rankings and guidelines. March 15, 2023 Core Update Google announced a core algorithm update impacting search rankings and relevance.