Year 2021 was a tough time for most people, not just because of Covid-19 and its dangerous Delta and Omicron variants, but for SEO’s, businesses and webmaster this was due to several search engine algorithm updates from Google.
The first core update of Google came out in June 2021, and it was called a slow rollout because it took around ten days to finish. Moreover, it received mixed results from the market. However, soon after this, the company launched another core update in the month of July, and data providers called it a fast rollout.
Then, several months later, Google launched another core update in November, right before the holiday shopping season. However, it rolled out through Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This update hit the market hard. Many SEO experts called it a blindsided update due to inappropriate timing.
Along with three core updates in one year, Google also launched two product review updates in 2021. As the name indicates, these updates were closely linked to the content written on product pages to make sure that the audience receives the best suggestions out of search results.
The first product review update was launched in April 2021, and it mainly impacted the English content. Another update from Google regarding product reviews was rolled out in December 2021, just before the Christmas holiday. This second update was slightly bigger than the previous product review update and it touched the e-commerce ecosystem to great extent.
Other than this, Google also rolled out some spam-related algorithm updates. The first update in this category was launched on June 23, 2021, and it finished within the same day. This 24-hour update targeted various spam-related issues in Google search. Another 24-hour spam update was rolled out by Google within a few days on June 28, 2021. Later, on July 26, Google released a link spam update, and it took around four weeks to complete. It targeted spammy links that otherwise manipulate search engine results and misguide end users.
The page experience update by Google was delayed, but it went live on June 15, 2021. This update took a long time to roll out and ultimately finished on September 2, 2021. It was basically a slow rollout that didn’t bring any major changes to the system. It is expected that Google may launch another page experience update in February 2022 and it may improve the desktop search experience by a considerable level.
Along with many other web search algorithm updates, the company also worked on local search update this year. Google’s local update was rolled out in late November and it took more than a week to finish. This update mainly focused on various proximity factors to enhance the experience for the local SEO communities. Other than this, the mobile-first indexing update from Google is scheduled for the year 2022. Let’s see where this next rollercoaster ride takes us!
