A Complete List of Google’s Algorithm from the Beginning Until Today
Website SEO methods are constantly changing; that’s why website SEO in 2025 is very different from that in 2010. All of this is due to the continuous updating of Google algorithm and those of other search engines to provide the best results according to users’ wants and needs. At the same time, besides updating old algorithms, Google has introduced new ones, each with specific tasks. Below, we will introduce the most important Google algorithms.
What Is an Algorithm?
The term “algorithm” is mostly used in mathematics and programming. However, algorithms are present in most of the tasks we perform. Perhaps by becoming familiar with the definition of an algorithm, you’ll sense its presence more in your life. In essence, an algorithm is a list of instructions and rules that a computer must follow to execute and complete a task.
What Is Google Algorithm?
Google’s algorithms are complex systems that help find and rank the most relevant pages for a searched query. In fact, Google’s entire ranking system is composed of several algorithms, each considering various on-page or off-page factors.
Get to Know Google’s Zoo
Generally, Google’s updates are divided into two categories: major updates and minor updates. These minor updates sometimes occur several times a day, but their impact isn’t significant enough for us to notice any specific changes. On the other hand, major algorithms of Google’s search engine happen annually and create such a buzz that even Google confirms the new update and assigns it a name.
Since most of the names of Google’s initial algorithms were taken from animals, many dubbed it Google’s virtual zoo.
Google Algorithms and Their Penalties
Many of the algorithms introduced by Google have a direct impact on your website’s traffic status. Of course, we cannot say with certainty that all these algorithms are directly related to your website’s SEO; however, it’s best, as an SEO specialist, to always be aware of Google’s new algorithm updates. Below, we’ll look at a list of Google algorithm and read explanations about some of them.
- PageRank Algorithm
- Google Dance Algorithm
- Google Sandbox
- Hilltop Algorithm
- Caffeine Algorithm
- Panda Algorithm
- Freshness Algorithm
- Venice Algorithm
- Penguin Algorithm
- Pirate Algorithm
- EMD Algorithm (Exact Match Domain)
- Page Layout Algorithm
- Zebra Algorithm
- Hummingbird Algorithm
- Payday Loan Algorithm
- Pigeon Algorithm
- Mobilegeddon Algorithm
- RankBrain Algorithm
- Possum Algorithm
- Fred Algorithm
- Medic Algorithm
- BERT Algorithm (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)
- Mobile-First Indexing Algorithm
- E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
- MUM Algorithm (Multitask Unified Model)
- Product Reviews Algorithm
- E-E-A-T Update (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
- Helpful Content Algorithm
Before we delve into reviewing Google’s algorithms, it’s worth noting a point. Many SEO specialists, when they see that website traffic has unexpectedly decreased significantly, first turn to issues like spam, checking backlinks, or on-site SEO. However, one of the things they might not consider is the updates that Google makes to its SEO algorithms. After reading this article, you’ll realize the importance of this matter and understand that Google’s algorithms are one of the things that need to be continuously monitored.
PageRank Algorithm – 1998
In the late 20th century, Google decided to introduce a new algorithm that would enable the ranking of websites. PageRank Algorithm is one of Google’s first algorithms.
Initially, this algorithm examined the links given to each domain or page, and based on that, any website that had more and more credible links was placed at higher ranks. Gradually, Google developed the PageRank algorithm with the aim of preventing the creation of massive and paid backlinks.
Google Dance Algorithm – 2004
Google rearranges new websites and pages several times on the results page to assess user behavior towards them. This allows Google to consider the number of clicks, the duration users stay on the page, and overall user behavior to assign an appropriate rank to the new page.
Sometimes, the Google Dance might happen for a page that hasn’t been newly created. The reason could be that Google has recently noticed this page and wants to give it a chance to achieve a better rank. If, during the time this page is in the Google Dance and ranks first or second, it manages to attract users, it will certainly see a positive impact on its ranking.
Google Sandbox – 2004
If your website is newly established, you might find yourself in the Google Sandbox. The main purpose of Google Sandbox is to prevent your pages from obtaining appropriate rankings right at the beginning when the pages are indexed. This happens because the content of your pages might not be as suitable and relevant as other pages available in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), or it might be spam. As a result, it places it in the Sandbox for a while to ensure its validity. (This feature has never been officially confirmed by Google, but many SEO specialists believe that this algorithm exists and affects ranking results.)
Hilltop Algorithm – 2004
One of the oldest algorithms introduced by Google is the Hilltop Algorithm. The Hilltop idea was proposed in 2003, and in 2004, its release was officially announced. The goal of this algorithm was to identify authoritative pages in search engines. At that time, when a user searched for a word, that word might have significant overlap with different topics, and Google couldn’t provide the user with the correct and authoritative page.
This algorithm was created to identify specialized and credible pages, and it still plays an important role in website ranking alongside the PageRank algorithm.
Caffeine Algorithm – 2010
In 2009, Google announced that the Caffeine Algorithm would become one of the most important algorithms in the history of search engines. It took several months for Google to fully prepare it, and finally, in 2010, it was officially launched.
The function of the Caffeine Algorithm was essentially a new system for indexing websites. Before that, Google’s robots only gave importance to fresh and new content, and websites had trouble re-indexing past content. The Caffeine Algorithm didn’t directly impact website rankings; however, with the change it brought, websites that more frequently updated their old content achieved better rankings.
Panda Algorithm – 2011
The Panda Algorithm was launched in 2011. Although Google had been providing services for years before that, Panda was the first algorithm to be officially introduced in the modern SEO world. This algorithm joined the core algorithm in 2016, and as a result, it is continuously active and checking websites. The goal of this algorithm is to lower the ranking of websites with low-quality content. Overall, all of Google’s algorithms aim to identify and eliminate spammy websites to make Google search results as efficient as possible.
The most common penalties announced through this algorithm include duplicate content or plagiarism; try to write unique and original content. Panda focuses primarily on on-page factors and assesses how well the search phrase matches the overall page topic. This Google algorithm is particularly sensitive to and addresses the following two issues:
- Websites created solely for linking to other websites (Affiliate sites)
- Websites with very short content
The Panda Algorithm also identifies thin content. If a page has thin content, either in terms of word count or the links it provides to external websites, it’s best to revise or delete it. Another problem in your content that might result in penalties from Google is the excessive repetition of keywords. This alone can spam your website and reduce your ranking in Google’s results.
Pirate Algorithm – 2012
This is one of those Google algorithms that matches its name perfectly. With this update in 2012, Google aimed to combat the copying of content from other websites, akin to plagiarism. Consequently, it assigned negative rankings to websites that published duplicate content.
Particularly, websites involved in the unauthorized downloading of books, films, or music will be affected by the Pirate Algorithm. Although the accuracy and power of this algorithm aren’t yet sufficient to target every new website with stolen content, the number of these websites is increasing daily. For those looking to invest in their website, paying attention to this aspect is crucial to avoid Google penalties.
Exact Match Domain (EMD) Algorithm – 2012
In 2012, the Exact Match Domain Algorithm was introduced. This algorithm has been updated multiple times over the past decade, aiming primarily to eliminate spammy websites with poor-quality content.
Websites that produce low-quality content and fail to meet their audience’s needs, offering no value, are more likely to be affected by this algorithm.
Penguin Algorithm – 2012
The Penguin Algorithm was introduced by Google to determine the quality of links given to a page. This algorithm, which has been updated several times, can help improve a website’s ranking or penalize websites that have received harmful and paid links.
When Google announced that backlinks could positively affect rankings, some websites began creating or purchasing artificial backlinks. To counter this, Google launched the Penguin Algorithm. With this update, pages identified as violators will be removed from the search results page. At best, they may experience a drop in rank.
The latest update occurred in 2016, stating that backlinks for each page would be examined, and if violations were found, the landing page would be penalized. However, since the performance of individual pages affects the website’s overall ranking, the penalty or rank drop of one or more pages can negatively impact the entire website.
Page Layout Algorithm – 2012
This algorithm was first introduced in early 2012. In its initial version, known as “Top Heavy,” Google aimed to prevent websites from placing too many ads at the top of their pages. A few months later, the head of Google’s webspam team announced a new update for this algorithm on Twitter and stated that Page Layout had affected 0.7% of English queries.
In 2014, another update was applied to improve its performance. In a 2016 interview, John Mueller mentioned that this algorithm had become fully automated and could be effective without manual intervention.
After the latest update, Google had no issue with ads at the top of the page as long as they didn’t harm user experience and weren’t excessive. Therefore, websites could place ads at the top of their pages. Google also published several images to clarify how these ads should be placed.
Additionally, Google’s crawlers can effectively identify websites with intrusive ads at the top of their pages and consider it a negative factor in rankings. This algorithm helps ensure that users, especially those accessing such websites via mobile, don’t have to scroll 4 to 5 times to reach the needed content, improving user experience.
Zebra Algorithm – 2013
This algorithm is essentially an update to the core algorithm, initiated in 2013. A Google representative encountered a strange phenomenon when visiting search results: a glasses shop ranked first on Google, which bore no resemblance to a store.
Following the Zebra update, which was later referred to as an algorithm, Google targeted e-commerce websites offering poor-quality services. If an online store didn’t meet the required criteria, it would be removed from search results or demoted to lower ranks.
The Zebra Algorithm served as a stark warning to e-commerce websites that operated without consideration for users and provided low-quality services.
Hummingbird Algorithm – 2013
One of the improvements in Google’s algorithms involves a deeper understanding of query concepts. In the past, when a user searched for a phrase on Google, the results initially showed links containing that keyword. However, the Hummingbird Algorithm changed this process, and now it matters more that the search result is related to the topic and context of the query, not necessarily that the exact keyword is used in the article or page content. This has optimized and increased the importance of using synonyms.
Google designed the Hummingbird Algorithm for voice search, and as more devices become equipped with voice typing, its significance grows. Accordingly, Hummingbird focuses on the entire search phrase rather than individual words. This helps address issues like typos or search phrases that don’t accurately represent the user’s intent. With this algorithm, Google can provide results that match the user’s intent despite any typing errors.
To optimize your content for this Google algorithm, you should use synonyms in addition to keywords. The text should be sufficiently smooth and readable. However, don’t worry; Hummingbird doesn’t penalize for not following these tips. By adhering to them, you can appear better in search results related to your content.
Since Google values valuable and original content, it’s best to work more on your keyword research. Instead of relying solely on short phrases and keywords, focus on creating valuable content. Writing unnatural or vague keywords in titles is still common among websites. Over time, as search engines become more intelligent, these websites will face issues since the concept and context in writing will gain importance.
Payday Loan Algorithm – 2013
This algorithm was created to combat pornography and gambling websites, which are considered spam websites.
Pigeon Algorithm – 2014
There are other birds in this Google virtual zoo, and one of them is the pigeon algorithm, which was born a year after the hummingbird, in 2014. Like the Venice algorithm, this algorithm focuses on local SEO, with the difference that in addition to affecting results pages, it also paid special attention to Google Maps, leading to Google’s ability to provide results closer to users.
Mobilegeddon Algorithm – 2015
SEO industry interprets Google’s mobile update as Mobilegeddon. SEO experts thought this update would completely transform search results. When Mobilegeddon algorithm was introduced in 2015, 50% of Google searches were done from mobile devices, which led Google to give special points to websites that were optimized for mobile-sized pages. We call these websites mobile friendly. This algorithm goal is to provide users with easy and quick access to your website via the mobile platform.
Mobile friendly is a factor that is currently more important to Google than the desktop version. In this section, Google also paid attention to page loading speed to complete user satisfaction, and in 2018, in another update, it included page loading speed as a ranking factor. Speed matters in both mobile and desktop search. Google recommends that websites use responsive templates or high speed mobile-friendly page technology. This technology, known as AMP, allows a website’s pages to be displayed much faster in mobile mode. To make sure your website pages are mobile friendly, you can use Google Mobile Friendly Test tool, which is completely free to check your website.
Rank Brain Algorithm – 2015
Rank Brain is pinnacle of Google’s art among search algorithms, because in this update, Google has used machine learning to manage search terms. This way, it can guess the words meaning that doesn’t know, find words with similar meanings, and provide relevant results based on that. This update was introduced in 2015, and through it, Google was able to provide users with much more relevant results than before. A year later, in March 2016, Google announced that the Rank Brain algorithm was one of the three most important algorithms for ranking websites. You cannot SEO your website’s pages for Rank Brain algorithm in the same traditional ways, as you would do for other algorithms unless you write high-quality content.
Possum Algorithm – 2016
In 2016, after Venice and Pigeon algorithms, Google unveiled Possum algorithm for local search to add another layer to its virtual zoo. After this update, it became easier for some businesses that were not able to rank well in Google’s overall rankings to be visible in local search, so that users could more easily reach businesses near them. So with this update, local search rankings were completely separated from search rankings, and there were many changes to local search results.
Fred Algorithm – 2017
This algorithm initially had no name and no title was chosen for it until Gary IIIyes cleared up the confusion on Twitter, replying to a user, “all updates published from now and do not have a name will be called Fred. This algorithm is a nightmare for low-quality websites (especially websites that use affiliate marketing) and, along with the E-A-T algorithm, aims to provide users with higher-quality results. Basically, Fred algorithm finds websites that meet the following conditions and sends them to lower ranks to make room for other websites:
- Having too many ads.
- Creating short content.
- Having low link quality.
- The content is not of good quality.
- Having too many affiliate links.
- Displaying too many ads in the content.
- The audience does not interact with the content.
All of these factors, or sometimes some of them, are enough for this algorithm to come to your website.
Medic Algorithm – 2018
The Medic algorithm is a broad and core algorithm that affected many websites and led to many changes in rankings. This is the only algorithm that targets only one specific field and topic; the medical field. The reason probably is to protect users from false and misleading medical information. This update was implemented in 2018 in all countries and all languages, and included all blogs, medical websites, lifestyle and health advisors. However, almost half of websites got affected were in non-medical topics.
BERT Algorithm – 2018
The word BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. The BERT algorithm has been introduced as biggest change in past 5 years, affecting one in 10 websites. This algorithm like Rank Brain algorithm is a learning machine; a neural network-based technique developed for natural language processing. BERT can figure out a word meaning by looking at the words before and after it. It uses the context and relationships between words in a sentence to find out the word meaning.
Mobile First Index Algorithm – 2019
In the past, a large number of Google users only used the desktop version, but over time, a larger percentage of users switched to using the mobile version of websites. For this reason, Google focused on mobile version of websites, and this issue became so serious that Google officially announced that the mobile version of websites is a priority and indexes pages through mobile version.
Google E-A-T Search Evaluator Guide Document – 2019
Google, realizing that health, financial, and legal websites are highly sensitive and directly related to people’s lives and property published a guideline called E-A-T. It is actually an acronym for three words: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The guideline was initially focused only on websites that deal with Your Money and Your Life (YMYL), but Google is planning to expand it to all websites across all fields. A website that operates in the mentioned fields must create content under the following conditions in order to have a high score in the eyes of this algorithm and be ranked at the top of Google:
Content creation must be written by an expert and have a relevant work field, and the content must not be copied in any way. For example, if you are working in health field, Google will give you a top ranking when the author who writes about drugs, their interactions, their effects, etc. is an expert so that the user’s lives are not at risk.
Your website must be reliable in the field of expertise you are working in. From Google and E-A-T perspective, a website that is trusted among other businesses can also provide confidence to users. In addition to the previous two factors, credibility is also a requirement for content created in this field. Authentic author, accurate and practical information and using authentic sources instead of copying content defines the credibility factor in Google’s eyes.
MUM (Multitasking United Model Algorithm) – 2021
This algorithm, as its name suggests, can perform several tasks at once. Unlike other algorithms that perform tasks one after another, the MUM algorithm performs multiple tasks together. It simultaneously has the ability to read text, understand the concept, and reinforce it with video and audio. It is also fluent in more than 75 languages so that it can receive information correctly and answer complex questions from users.
Product Reviews Algorithm – 2021
The whole purpose of search engines in ranking websites is to show the most relevant and accurate results to users. This is very important for users who conduct comprehensive research before purchasing a product. For this reason, in April 2021, Google introduced a new algorithm called “Product Review”. This algorithm considers content suitable for products that is based on accurate analysis and real research. In general, this algorithm focuses on first-hand product descriptions, unique and relevant images, and helps users have a better experience when purchasing products. Since the introduction of this algorithm to date, Google has made several updates to it.
- EEAT Update – 2022
In last days of 2022, Google made significant changes to its search results Quality Rating Guidelines (QRG) by adding a new factor “experience” to the E-A-T concept. Currently, the E-A-T has been transformed into E-E-A-T, and each is defined as follows:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
The meaning of experience in E-E-A-T is how much personal experience the author has about a subject. By introducing this index, Google wants to make sure whether a piece of content is written based on the author’s life experience. The author’s experience can include the experience of using a product, receiving a service, visiting a real place, or experiencing a real task. To understand this concept, consider the following examples:
✅ Correct example: Writing an iPhone review by someone who has used it for a few days.
❌ Counterexample: Writing iPhone review content that is written only by collecting general information and without personal use.
Although Google has added the experience factor to its evaluation guidelines, it emphasizes that trustworthiness is the most important index in E-E-A-T. Pages that are untrustworthy will definitely have a low E-E-A-T, regardless of how much experience, expertise, or credibility they have.
Helpful Content Algorithm – 2022
In 2022, Google introduced a new update called “helpful content” with the aim of helping users find quality content. With this algorithm, Google identifies low-value content and helps useful content written for human users to rank better in search results. This algorithm is a Side-Wide algorithm, unlike many other algorithms that operate on a page-by-page basis. This means, it checks not just one page, but the entire website. So, if Google determines that a website contains a lot of useless content, it will affect the entire website.
Since in recent years, Google has placed great importance on user experience concept , by producing content that meets the helpful content algorithm index , you can first gain the audience satisfaction and then Google robots. As a content creator or website administrator, you can assess your website’s content value by answering a few basic questions in Helpful Content guide. Also, consider that all algorithms introduced in this article have had several updates since their publication, and their mechanisms have been improved through careful evaluations and testing. However, Google usually announces its major updates officially.
Google search engine algorithms purpose
The purpose is to categorize website content and help the audience find the desired information as much as possible. A huge amount of information is uploaded to various websites every day, turning the World Wide Web into an endless library. Google, as the librarian of this library, must be able to categorize the materials to make them available to users based on their needs. What helps Google in this is algorithms. Google’s new algorithms perform this process within seconds. Google’s ranking algorithms seek to provide the audience with information that will yield the highest efficiency and put a satisfaction smile on audience’s face, among the websites indexed by Google itself.
Google Algorithm and Their Impact on Results Rankings
Since Google is an ocean of content, it must index all in order of relevance to the search terms and content quality provided. Because the user doesn’t have time or ability to review all displayed results, so the winner is the one with higher ranking.
To index web pages for each search term, Google uses crawlers or spiders that crawl all pages and go from link to link and ultimately creating an index for each term that might be searched. The main job of a search engine is to provide users with websites that contain their search terms. As a result of this automatic process that determines where the result of each search term appears on the search results page, each page is assigned a rank called Page Rank.
The giant search engine cannot have a very large database that is disorganized and starts sorting it whenever a user searches for terms in it. So Google indexes and manages content at any time through its crawlers. Searching the index will be much faster than searching the entire database. When content is indexed, Google makes a copy of it and places a shortcut for each page in the index.
Now that this process is complete, Google can find related phrases much more easily when searching for a word. For every search term on Google, there are thousands of results, Google uses its algorithms to decide the order in which results are displayed to the user. This order in which search results are displayed is the heart of SEO. Data is Google’s greatest asset. The enormous volume of data requires modern management to ensure that everything the users want is delivered to them while respecting the confidentiality principle. Every year, Google tries to bring the world of information into a newer era by inventing new algorithms.
Conclusion
Although Google algorithm can penalize or demote websites and this only happens in cases where they violate the rules. In most cases, these algorithms have helped users. It has been search engine algorithms that have improved the presentation of search results, created competition between websites, and increased the content quality on websites.
If you own a website and you want to bring more users to your website, you should SEO it according to Google’s algorithms to protect yourself from any possible damage.
