Major Google Algorithm Updates: A Brief Overview

PandaPenguin

HummingbirdPigeon

Panda

Lowered the rank of low-quality sites that mainly specialized in publishing

thin content.

Increased the rank of high-quality sites with

trustworthy and reliable content, such as news

outlets.

Penguin

Devalued and penalized websites for using link

schemes that irresponsibly pointed links toward a page in order to boost

ranking.

Hummingbird

An algorithm focused on user intent and

providing searchers with relevant results

that have deeper context.

Pigeon

Geared toward local search results, among

other things this update strives to serve local results that relate to geographic location.