Some of the biggest changes to search engines since 2010:
- 2011, Panda: Google starts pushing thin and copied content down its results.
- 2012, Penguin: Google starts punishing bought and spammy links.
- 2013, Hummingbird: Google gets better at understanding what a whole question means, not just its keywords.
- 2015, mobile-friendly update: sites that work well on phones get a boost in mobile searches.
- 2015, RankBrain: Google starts using machine learning to rank results.
- 2016: Google removes the adverts down the right-hand side of its results.
- 2019, BERT: Google reads searches more like a person does, including small words like "for" and "to".
- 2020: Adobe Flash reaches its end of life and browsers stop running it.
- 2022, helpful content update: Google rewards pages written for people rather than for search engines.
- 2024, AI Overviews: Google starts showing AI-written answers above its results in the UK.
The basics still hold: a fast, clear website, useful content and links from relevant sites.