SEO Landscape Changes

This is a chronological list of important algorithm changes, Google Panda/Penguin data updates, and changes to best practices that might affect my clients. I use this list with my quarterly SEO reviews to make sure that there aren’t changes to the “SEO landscape” since the last review that I haven’t addressed with each client.

• November 2, 2015 – Google’s App Interstitial ad penalty goes live.
• April 22, 2015 – Google’s Mobile Update, favoring mobile-friendly sites when searching on mobile devices
• May 6, 2015 – new Search Analytics in GWT allows you to see search query terms per landing page (vs. [not provided] in Google Analytics)
• June 3, 2015 – at SMX Advanced, Maile Ohye of Google mentions that interstitials that cover the page’s content cause the covered content to be seen as less important/relevant
• June 18, 2015 – Google core search algo update
• June 26, 2015 – spammy structured markup penalties
• July 3, 2015 – possible Penguin data update
• July 8, 2015 – Google+ reviews now available on mobile
• July 18, 2015 – Google Panda 4.2 starts to roll out
• August 14, 2015 – Google Panda 4.2 appears to have been rolled back
• October 2, 2015 – Gary Illyes confirms Google Panda 4.2 is still rolling out (or, is it rolling BACK out with some fixes?)
• October 27, 2015 – Google announces RankBrain, part of the Hummingbird portion of the ranking algorithm.

You’ll find photos of other kinds of landscape here.