It's been 3 1/2 years since we launched the MozCast project, and one request I hear a lot is if we can make more than 30 days worth of data available. So, working with Dave Snyder and the team at CopyPress, we've put together the highlights of 2014 and 2015 — the confirmed algorithm updates you already know, and the ones you might have missed. The data is mine, but credit for everything else goes to CopyPress (Thanks, Dave!). If you have any questions about specific events or dates, feel free to comment, and I'll do my best to follow up with any available data.
If there's anything that I've learned from the MozCast project, it's that the updates that get named aren't always as big as we think, and many nameless changes have major impacts on rankings. Google probably makes over 600 changes per year at this point, and if we only focus on the ones they name, we're letting them control the conversation. Collect your own data, draw your own conclusions, and remember that not every dangerous animal is a Panda or a Penguin.
Mozcast is awesome, no doubt. Only thing I'd add to the site is a comment section, that way conversations can be had from day to day. For instance, if one day there's an unusually high temperature people can share information they may have seen/heard, and the community may get wind of these things quicker than normal.
Definitely will lead to some misreporting, but I think it'd be interesting to have those speculative conversations on a day to day basis.
Thanks Dr Peter. You've churned down the entire year in a single capsule. It's insightful, enlightening and awesome!
Best!
Maria
Pete -
Thanks for letting CopyPress help pull the amazing data you have compiled together. I think this is a great resource for SEOs to parallel Mozcast temperatures and algo-updates.
Keep creating this awesome insight, so those of us that are lazy don't have to.
Thanks for all of your team's work on this, Dave!
Infographic of Google Updates in 2014 & 2015...Awesome Ideas Hats off for the creativity Dr, Peter.... Thanks for Sharing the innovative infographic and all Updates at one place, Happy Holidays to All Moz Staffs & Thanks in Advance for 2016 MozCast's Year.... :)
Here is 2015 US Search trend By Google https://goo.gl/UBrcmw
At last all the data for the whole year, thanks!
Yours infographics are very interesting. I have to read this more patiently, is a post to analyze with calm.
A very nice and detailed infographic about the SERPS volatility, I would say that year 2015 is far stabler then 2014. There is no sign of Penguin yet and the over hyped 'Mobilegeddon did not influence a lot of queries either.
waiting for penguin update of 2015. let see when they start rolling it.
I love these infographics, very interting and very good presentated...
MozCast rocks. Thanks for the annual recap, Pete!
All the data for a year in a nice infographic !
Great post....I really liked it & i appreciate such knowledgeable blogging to share with the world.....I would also like to share a blog you will love to read....
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June 16th 2015 looks nuts.... What happened? Pre-Panda poking?
Looks like Google did an Algo update on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I wonder what will happen this year on those days? Few more days to go, I guess we'll see.
The statistical probability of getting hit by an update is so low that we shouldn't even worry about it. If you're reading this site, you shouldn't worry about it - you're probably doing everything right!
I remember this spring some of the "experts" coming out and saying how worried we should all be. Boy, did they look silly. Now the talk is that the next Penguin could be in March. That's after we were told to expect it this year.
Maybe we should just stop guessing and keep our mouths shut until it passes, eh? Again, these things hardly affect anyone anyways.
I'm going to respectfully disagree, for a couple of reasons. First, I think that our reality is more that we're all hit by dozens (of the hundreds) of algo changes a year, some directly and some indirectly. Now, many of those are small, but those changes do affect us all, and awareness is valuable. If you add up dozens or hundreds of low-probability events, the chance of something happening to you can still be dangerously high.
Second, a lot of the value of MozCast that people have expressed has come post-update, which I didn't originally expect. In other words, when someone's traffic from search or their rankings rise or fall and they don't know why, they can look at the temps and say "Was that everyone, or just me?" This can help not only calm down bosses and clients, but provides explanatory power. Was it something Google did or something I did?
Third, I think the problem with low probability events is that probability needs context. I'll give you an example. Let's say you're going to see Star Wars tonight, and I tell you one of these two things:
(1) If you go to the movie, there's a 5% chance you'll stub your toe.
(2) If you go to the movie, there's a 5% chance you'll explode.
(not to be morbid - I genuinely hope no one explodes)
The probability of a bad outcome is exactly the same in both cases, and the probability of that outcome not happening is very high - 95%. Nevertheless, I'd argue that these situations are wildly different. You wouldn't stay home because you had a 5% chance of stubbing your toe. However, a 5% chance of exploding is a lot - that 95% chance of not-exploding is little comfort, especially when you're talking about the trade-off of missing a movie.
This is how I see updates like Penguin (which requires a data refresh to fix that can take months) - if your risk is "only" 5% and you know you're pushing the envelope, that 5% is huge, IMO, because the consequences are disastrous. So, I think low-probability events can be very important, in some situations.
95% of people aren't affected by updates. It's actually closer to 97%, according to most of the articles we saw around the April update.
The truth is that they affect the few out of the many. I know this bothers people in the SEO industry that make their money giving advice about SEO, but I"m sorry, you said so yourself - they affect few.
Awesome recap. Thanks Dr. Pete!
Thank you for this article that presents some analysis on infographic Google Updates in 2014 and 2015, which I find very encouraging and more with fluctuations that can provide further opportunities for users with big wish for excellent progress full of best wishes for great accomplishments and achievements of success.
Mozcast is result of great job done by your's team.
Well, geat info-graphic. Thanks for this :).
This is why I like December month very much, because the whole year changes and updates in SEO are summarized in this month by Moz Team. Thanks Dr. Peter.
Awesome infographic :)