Allegra Update

In February of 2005 there was a major update to Google's algorithm that caused significant ranking changes as well as major discussion in webmaster and SEO forums. This update was dubbed "The Allegra Update." The actual changes to Google's algorithm have not been known as Google does not publicly release that information, but it has been inferred from observations by webmasters that certain changes took place.

Link popularity was the focus of many observers due to drops in rankings of sites that participated in low-quality link exchanges. Allegra, along with the previous Florida Update, helped change popular link acquisition methods towards more natural and less spammy techniques. Sites that previously ranked well for certain keywords no longer appeared on the top pages; not even for their business name. Most of these sites found it took several months to regain positions after the Allegra Update.

It appeared that another crackdown on keyword-stuffed, or over-optimized, content happened after the Allegra Update. It has been a continuing trend in recent Google updates to penalize sites with content written for search engines instead of naturally-written content for visitors.