Top 5 Google SEO Updates in 2017

07 December 2017 Sarah Lee

Technology is ever advancing and ever evolving. Technology changes and updates as fast as we can blink. To be on top of the Search Engine Optimization or SEO, website administrators must keep up with the changes or advancement in technology for search engine ranking. Since Google is the pioneer in the field of search engines, it is quite logical to keep up with Google's algorithm update. Any website aims to achieve search engine ranking and to appear on top when the keywords are entered in a search engine page. So, you must keep an eye on the emerging trends in SEO updates for the year 2017.

Google has centered its operations on enhancing the web usage by its users, thus keeping track of the updates that are rolled out by them, helps the administrators to keep up the ranking of their websites. Google with a history of famous algorithm updates, search index changes and refreshes on a regular basis forms the crux of search engine rating module.

To find the latest Google SEO updates, administrators must keep track of the following algorithm updates.

Google Hummingbird Update

Google Hummingbird Update, introduced in 2013, was Google's new search algorithm that still plays a significant role in deciding the ranking of websites. Made up of 200+ factors, they affect the search results and website ranking. The boom in the smartphone market has led to this most significant change in the Hummingbird with the enhancement of its capabilities to keep a sharp eye on the mobile marketing trends. Hummingbird is precise and fast and can decipher the meaning of an entire phrase, thereby making the search results better and useful.

Updates on Hummingbird are:

Ensuring better search results by using Knowledge Graph facts
Recognition of Keyword stuffing made easy
Long-tail keywords effectiveness

Google Penguin Update

Google started the Penguin update on April'12 with the sole aim of catching sites that were spamming Google's search results and using unscrupulous means to increase their website ratings on SERP's. With this update, Google was able to penalize sites with spams and stolen content. Before the Penguin update was initiated, many websites were using manipulative methods to gather traffic for their sites and increase their ratings.

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Google Mobile-Friendly Update

The boom in the smartphone market led the Google to provide far more updated versions to profit the large numbers of mobile users. The algorithm was intended to make the sites more mobile friendly for the phone users. The change was so incredible and significant that people are calling the day the change was introduced, people termed the day with names such as Mobilegeddon, Mobilepocalyse, Mopocalypse or Mobocalypse. Google has launched a tool to test if your site is according to its guidelines and is mobile friendly.

Google Pigeon Update

Google's Pigeon update, another search algorithm update was introduced in order to add more significance and value to the search results that helped in better ranking of the worthy websites. This update helped in enhancing their distance and location tracking parameters while yielding better search results. Google maps were made better and more efficient with the Pigeon update as this update lets Google know the user's location and listing in the directory. The Pigeon update is far more helpful to the local businesses as the primary focus of this update was to provide preference to local search results in SERP's.

Latest updates in SEO according to the Google Pigeon Updates are:

Location is the primary focus
Over-optimization of one's website is not advisable
Strong domains do matter

Google Panda Update

The panda update was initiated to stop low-quality content from appearing on top of the SERP's and was highly effective in catching hold of sites that got away during the upgrading process. Panda update was able to regulate the ranking of the entire site rather than a particular page.

Key features of Panda update:

It avoided the occurrence of the same keyword on multiple sites or pages.
It got rid of auto-generated content.
It eliminated pages with one or two paragraphs only.
New content was encouraged and accepted.
It discouraged too many outbound keyword links.

SEO is the vital tool that a website can use to increase its visibility and traffic. Optimal use of the advancements and Google upgrades furthers its causes.