As the year 2015 sets in, SEO industry will change significantly. Google Algorithm updates clearly indicate that SEO is going to be more and more challenging for SEO experts. Below are the some updates done by Google in 2014.

Pirate Update 2 – October 21, 2014

According to the name Pirate, it is designed to improve the original Pirate filter and decrease the ranking of websites that offer copyright material like downloads of movies, books, etc. Websites which receive a significant number of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaints are penalized by the Google Pirate Algorithm.

Penguin 3.0 Update – October 18, 2014

Penguin 3.0 update of the algorithm means the quality metrics feeding into Penguin have changed. Google implied that this update would be a softer and gentler as compare to the previous Penguin algorithm. With this update Google is getting significantly better to identify bad links. If Penguin hit your website badly, you may also loss rankings across all keywords.

Panda 4.1 – September 23, 2014

Panda Algorithm is frequently updated by Google, Panda 4.1 is rolled out to find duplicate content and penalize them accordingly. Now, Panda identify low-quality content more clearly. This algorithm should result in greater diversity in SERP, with small and medium sites of high quality. It affects approx 3-5% of queries.

Google Authorship Removed – August 28, 2014

Google decided to stop showing authorship in their search results. Many people created their profile only for authorship to boost their articles or posts. But Google knows who authored an article or story and may rank according to the authority and legitimacy of the author.

HTTPS Update – August 06, 2014

With this update Google boosts the ranking of sites which have HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure). According to Google this factor would only impact 1% of global search queries. There are many sites, especially e-commerce, which have SSL enabled only in their checkout area to secure online transactions. Ranking boost will only be applied to the  pages that have SSL enabled, to gain this kind of ranking boost keep your whole site HTTPS enabled.

Google Local Algorithm Update – July 24, 2014

The Google Local Algorithm Update is also known as pigeon update, Google said this update would make local search more accurate and mimic organic rankings. In Google places many directories get advantage of this algorithm like Food, Education,  Hospitality etc. and some experienced a loss like Jobs, Real estate, Movies.

Authorship Photo Drop — June 28, 2014

Google makes an announcement that dropped all authorship, photos from SERPs, bad news for marketers who are trying to increase  CTR and a brand’s visibility. According to Google good photo attached to a search result would yield better click through  and users find visuals more appealing.

Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 Update – June 12, 2014

Payday Loan Algorithm rolled out by Google again, if your site rank on queries that Google doesn’t like then this update is for you. Queries which return spammy results like payday loans, casinos, Viagra etc and other related keywords used by spammers are affected.

Panda 4.0 Update – May 19, 2014

This algorithm helps to boost good quality content sites while pushing down low-quality content sites in the SERP. Panda is updated regularly to provide users the best possible search results. Their main target is scraped and low-quality content sites. This update is more soft than previous one.

Payday Loan Algorithm 2.0 Update – May 16, 2014

With the international rollout of Pay Loan Algorithm 2.0, those queries are affected which return an excessive no. of very spammy results and not related to the Panda or Penguin algorithms. It’s impact different language queries by 0.2%.

Top Heavy Algorithm Update – February 06, 2014

Sometimes too many ads on page distract users to get the useful information what they are looking for. Top Heavy Algorithm  or Page layout Algorithm make the search experience more effective so that the visitor gets the content easily what they are seeking.