Algorithm Updates
August 2025 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do
Google's August 2025 spam update ran just under 27 days from 26 August to 22 September 2025 and applied globally and to all languages.
Link building, backlinks and anchor text
What Link building means
Link building is the work of earning links from other websites to your pages. Search engines treat links as a signal of discovery and authority, weighed by the linking page and its anchor text. Google's spam policies prohibit buying links or exchanging them to manipulate rankings, so sustainable link building relies on content and digital PR others choose to cite.
Algorithm Updates
December 2022 link spam update: dates, what changed and what to do
Google's December 2022 link spam update ran 29 days from 14 December 2022 to 12 January 2023 and used SpamBrain to neutralize unnatural links.
Algorithm Updates
December 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do
Google's December 2024 spam update ran 7 days from 19 to 26 December 2024, starting the day after the December 2024 core update finished.
Algorithm Updates
Jagger update (2005): what changed and what it means now
Jagger was a three-part Google update from October 2005 that Matt Cutts tracked on his blog. The industry named it; Google asked for spam reports.
Algorithm Updates
July 2021 link spam update: dates, what changed and what to do
Google's link spam update ran from 26 July to 24 August 2021, nullifying link spam across languages. What Google said about affiliate and guest post links.
Algorithm Updates
June 2024 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do
Google's June 2024 spam update ran 7 days from 20 to 27 June 2024. Google gave no figures; sites that dropped should review its spam policies.
Algorithm Updates
November 2021 spam update: dates, what changed and what to do
Google's November 2021 spam update ran from 3 to 11 November 2021. What Google confirmed, what it did not, and what spam policies say to do.
Algorithm Updates
PageRank paid links update (2007): what changed and what it means now
In October 2007 Google confirmed it was lowering toolbar PageRank for some sites that sold links passing PageRank.
Algorithm Updates
Payday loan update (2013): what it changed and what it means now
Google's June 2013 ranking update for spammy queries such as payday loans, which the industry named the Payday loan update. What applies today.
Algorithm Updates
Penguin 2.0 (2013): the next generation of Google's link spam fix
Google rolled out Penguin 2.0 on 22 May 2013, an updated webspam algorithm that affected about 2.3% of English-US queries. What changed and what it means.
Algorithm Updates
Penguin 3.0 (2014): the link spam refresh and what it means now
Google confirmed a Penguin refresh on 17 October 2014, affecting less than 1% of English queries. Search Engine Land numbered it Penguin 3.0.
Algorithm Updates
Penguin 4.0 (2016): real-time link spam and what it means now
Google's Penguin 4.0 launched on 23 September 2016, made Penguin real-time and more granular, and folded it into Google's core ranking systems.
Algorithm Updates
Penguin update (2012): what it changed and what it means now
Google's Penguin update launched on 24 April 2012 to demote webspam such as link schemes and keyword stuffing. What changed and what applies today.
Reports
Pages with no backlinks and Google traffic: Ahrefs' 14B-page data
Ahrefs found ~20 million indexed pages with no referring domains, and only 2,997 of them earn over 1K monthly search visits.
Studies
Digital PR case: 12 links, 143k visits in 6 weeks, per OneLittleWeb
OneLittleWeb reports a six-week Canadian digital PR campaign earned a finance blog 12+ editorial links and 143k+ new organic visits. What the case shows.
Research
Does anchor text type actually correlate with Google rankings?
Ahrefs' 384,614-page study isolated exact, phrase, partial and random-match anchor text and found every correlation with rank was weak.
Research
Does faster backlink growth move rankings faster?
Ahrefs tracked backlink growth for 200,000 pages across 10,000 keywords and found no observable link between acquisition pace and ranking movement.
Tools
Anchor text ratio and diversity calculator
Anchor text ratio calculator: sort backlink anchors into exact, partial, branded, generic, naked URL and other, with shares. Free, runs in your browser.
Research
Do backlinks still correlate with rankings in 2026?
Backlinko's 11.8M-result study and Ahrefs' 1M-keyword study both find a positive link between referring domains and rank, but the coefficient is weak.