37 SEO Updates You Should Know From 2012

2013 is here, and 2012 is gone, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still feeling the effects of Google’s updates in 2012. From Panda refreshes to Penguin updates, many different changes happened last year. Read on to learn about the 37 updates you should know about from 2012.

Update 1: December 21, 2012. Panda #23: A “refresh,” as Google titled this update, where 1.3% of English queries are affected.

Update 2: December 4^th, 2012. Knowledge graph broadened: Google’s queries now include Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Italian with high competence and understanding.

Update 3: November 21^st, 2012. A data-only update is affecting less than 1% of queries.

Update 4: November 5^th, 2012. Panda #21: 1.1% of English queries felt the kick of this update.

Update 5: October 9^th, 2012. Page layout adjusted to avoid unwanted ads by the user.

Update 6: October 5^th, 2012. Third penguin update affecting 0.3% of English queries.

Update 7: October 4^th, 2012. Sixty-five updates for August/September which included how page quality is assessed to the expansion of the knowledge graph and 7-result SERPs.

Update 8: September 27^th, 2012. Update of Google’s Exact Match Domain to rid of “low-quality” EMDs, affecting 0.6% of queries.

Update 9: September 27^th, 2012. Panda update #20 where reasonably significant upgrades to the algorithm and data as well were made.

Update 10: September 18^th, 2012. Panda update only affecting data and less than 0.7% of queries.

Update 11: August 20^th, 2012. Minor Panda update where less than 1% of queries were affected.

Update 12: August 14^th, 2012. Traditional 10 listings per page reduced to 7 while making it easier for a given domain to command the page.

Update 13: August 10^th, 2012. Digital Millennium Copyright Act disciplines in place for sites repeatedly violating copyrights.

Update 14: August 10^th, 2012. 86 Changes to search quality for June/July including changes to data, algorithm, clustering, and credible sources.

Update 15: July 24^th, 2012. A panda update where less than 1% of queries were affected

Update 16: July 19^th, 2012. Google says to not worry about prior link warnings, as they will not cause serious harm.

Update 17: June 25^th, 2012. Panda update only affecting data, the algorithm was left alone.

Update 18: June 8^th, 2012. Panda update affecting less than 1% of queries, just another “refresh.

Update19: June 7^th, 2012. May brings 39 updates of search highlights, from improving Penguin to improving Google News.

Update20: May 25^th, 2012. Minor refresh to the Penguin algorithm, in turn affecting just one-tenth of a percent of queries.

Update 21: May 16^th, 2012. Smarter Search. Google’s Knowledge Graph allows the user to find what they are looking for in detail, not just a broad sense.

Update 22: May 4^th, 2012. April showers bring in 52 updates, highlighting a more significant “base” index and pagination improvement.

Update 23: April 27^th, 2012. Minor Panda update hardly affecting any sites

Update 24: April 24^th, 2012. Webspam dealt with; Google took action on keywords being packed into pages to help rid of over-optimization.

Update 25: April 19^th, 2012. Standard Panda update with minor changes, causing hardly any impact.

Update 26: April 16^th, 2012. Domain bug squashed, which was causing domains to be shuffled without legitimate cause.

Update 27: April 3^rd, 2012. March madness reels in 50 changes, from anchor text to improving navigation and image search.

Update 28: March 23^rd, 2012. Another Panda update, affecting about 1.6% of queries.

Update 29: March 12^th, 2012. Improvement to Google Video, search quality tactics were implemented with this update.

Update 30: February 27^th, 2012. Panda update making minor changes to how local search and evaluating links are done.

Update 31: February 27^th, 2012. 40 changes to improve search quality, including a step up in the image search category and maintaining freshness on its site.

Update 32: February 27^th, 2012. Venice. A local update was aiming to make organic results localized and update local search data.

Update 33: February 3^rd, 2012. 17 search quality improvements to upgrade efficiency and a more aggressive input of Panda.

Update 34: January 19^th, 2012. Avoiding annoying ads, Google weakened sites containing too much ad space in opposition to credible content.

Update 35: January 18^th, 2012. Minor Panda update that did not affect the algorithm.

Update 36: January 10^th, 2012. A more personalized search, Google aimed to use social data to personalize the user’s search.

Update 37: January 5^th, 2012. Google implemented 30 updates ranging from image search quality to relative query improvements.

Thanks to  https://moz.com and https://searchengineland.com for the data for this post!