From influential to farty: Google updates since 2000

May 14, 2020, 8:54 a.m.
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Google regularly updates its search algorithm. You can read what has happened in the past few years in our Google update history.

Google is constantly working on optimizing its search algorithm and has made several updates in recent years. Some are barely significant and happen almost every day, others have driven site operators to the brink of madness. Often it is not even possible to say exactly what an update specifically included, since Google rarely makes official statements about updates. In the foreground is always the effort to optimally help users with their search queries. For site operators this means: just don’t stop! But that’s exactly what makes the SEO game so exciting, isn’t it?

We take a look back at the updates that Google has brought us since 2000.

Google updates from 2000 and 2001

in the December 2000 Google launched the Google Toolbar. This browser plugin enables users to use Google search directly from any page. The toolbar also contained the Google page rank, which marked the importance of a page. Google got the SEO stone rolling.

in the July 2001 Google Image Search starts. It initially has access to around 250 million indexed images. For comparison: Today there are over 50 billion indexed images.

Google updates from 2002

The first documented Google algorithm update hit the webmasters in the September 2002. Some site operators, which previously occupied top 10 positions, plummeted. The update triggered massive discussions: Im Webmaster World Forum there were over 400 posts after just one day. The update apparently concerned the relevance assessment and the meaning of anchor texts. There was no official statement from Google – not for the last time in the long history of Google updates.

Google updates from 2003

In 2003, the update carousel from Google really got going, starting with the so-called Boston update in February 2003. The update takes its name from SES in Boston, where Google announced the changes. The update includes an expansion of the index and small changes to the algorithm, which should be made regularly in the future.

in the April 2003 the Cassandra update took place, which was carried out against massive links from and to other sites owned by the site operator as well as hidden links and hidden text.

Nice in May 2003 followed the Dominic update. Exactly what it contained remained unclear, but a number of fluctuations in the search results could be observed.

With the Esmeralda update in June 2003 Google heralded the end of the monthly updates. The update only affected the Google Search infrastructure.

With the Fritz update, the so-called Google Dance, i.e. the monthly update of the algorithm, was in the July 2003 finally over. Google started rolling out changes step by step, which allowed the index to change daily.

The indexing of the website was changed with the Supplemental Index in September 2003. Instead of just indexing the content in the source text of a page, additional information and documents could now be saved in a separate index. In 2007, Google stopped using this index.

The Florida update in November 2003 was clearly against webspam. Many blackhat methods such as keyword stuffing became ineffective.