Phantom Update: Faceless and Nameless

[rifat28dddd]

Fred isn't really a Google update in the traditional sense. Rather, it's a collective term for all quality-related algorithm updates that relate to the quality of websites and aren't otherwise identified by Google. Essentially, you could also call Fred another phantom update that just happened to have its own name.

The update owes its name to Google's Gary Illyes. He seems to name everything he doesn't know Fred: fish, people, updates... He received a request on Twitter to name the update, and lo and behold: Fred was born.

General core algorithm updates

There is no such thing as "the one" phantom update from Google. Especially malaysia cell phone number list between 2015 and 2017, there were repeated phantom updates. The term "phantom updates" simply refers to the uncertainty immediately following the update, as it's initially unclear which pages will be affected by the algorithm update.

Google's information policy was not necessarily transparent at the time, but the information released by Google employees, for example via Google+ or Twitter, is usually correct.

So, if you google "phantom update," you'll get a correspondingly diverse range of search results. In many cases, it will have been a core or quality update that was never officially confirmed. Nevertheless, many SEOs tried to sniff information out of Google employees like Gary Illyes.