algorithm-updates

Summary:  Google ended up rolling out two major algorithm updates in February of 2014.  The first, which seemed like the monthly Panda update, caused serious collateral damage with a number of prominent movie blogs. After hearing from one movie blog owner, Matt Cutts of Google got involved, and Google refined the algorithm.  Two days later, … Read more

As of July 2013, Google will not confirm Panda updates anymore.  And as I explained in my post about unconfirmed Panda updates, this can lead to serious confusion for webmasters.  For example, if Panda updates are not documented, then it becomes that much harder to understand why a serious drop in organic search traffic occurred. … Read more

In August of 2012, Google announced an update to its search algorithm that targeted websites receiving a high number of DMCA takedown requests.  The update was unofficially called “The Pirate Update”, based on the concept of pirating someone else’s content like music, movies, articles, etc.  With the update, Google explained that “sites receiving a lot … Read more

In June I wrote an important blog post, based on the amount of Panda work I help companies with.  The post was about the maturing of Panda, and how Google planned to roll out the algorithm update once per month, while taking up to ten days to fully roll out.  Google also explained that it … Read more

Summary: I analyzed the first double Penguin recovery I have come across during my research (after the Penguin 2.1 update). But what I found could reveal a glitch in the Penguin algorithm. And that glitch could be providing a false sense of security to some business owners. If you have followed my blog and Search … Read more

On Friday, October 4th at 4:50PM, Matt Cutts announced that Penguin 2.1 was rolling out.  It was shortly after reading that update that I tweeted we could be in for an icy weekend (as the latest update would surely take out more websites).  But on the flip side, a new update also meant that more … Read more

Summary: How I helped an ecommerce retailer recover from Panda in eight days, when it was never Panda in the first place. A few weeks ago, I had a business owner reach out to me about a potential Panda hit.  His initial email to me was similar to many others I have seen.  He noticed … Read more

At SMX West, Matt Cutts spoke about the latest Panda changes, and mentioned that the algorithm update had matured.  He explained that Panda will now roll out monthly, but slowly over a 10 day period.  Previously, Panda would roll out every 4-6 weeks and the rollout would be relatively quick (all in one shot).  In … Read more

Penguin 2.0 launched on Wednesday, May 22nd, and it’s an update that most SEOs have been eagerly awaiting.  Leading up to the rollout, all signs pointed to a nasty algorithm update that was going to be bigger and badder than the Penguin 1.0.  There was a lot of speculation about how aggressive it would be, … Read more