Let’s clear things up: Google’s ‘Florida 2’ algorithm update is not related to original Florida update.
Not long after Google released a broad core algorithm update on March 12, some in the industry began calling it the “Florida 2 update.” However, the name has caused some confusion among SEOs who wonder if this release is related to the Florida update from November 2003. It is not. Here’s what you need to know.
Who named it Florida 2? The name came from Brett Tabke, the owner of WebmasterWorld forum and PubCon conference. He updated the WebmasterWorld discussion thread, giving the name “Florida 2” to the update. In the early days of SEO, Tabke and WebmasterWorld often named some of the Google updates, so it was nice to see him name a significant update again.
Why name it Florida 2? The original Florida update from November 2003 was named because Brett ran a PubCon conference in Florida at the time. This March 12 update happened a week after another PubCon conference in Florida. So Brett named it the Florida 2 update as a nod to the original Florida update from over a decade ago and also to highlight PubCon.
This is important: Florida 1 and Florida 2 are different. How Google updated its search ranking algorithm in 2003 is vastly different from how they conduct updates today. They are entirely different in structure, operation, and impact. Both the 2003 Florida update and the March 12 core update would be considered significant, but the characteristics of what happened in November 2003 should not be compared to what happened in March 2019.
What was the 3/12 update? We know this was a significant update. Google performs several large core updates per year, and Google confirmed this was one of those major broad core updates.
This update is more comparable to the updates seen on August 1 and other core search algorithm updates that Google confirmed. We need more data to understand what has changed. There are various theories about this update, from YMYL and EAT chatter to it being more related to Penguin. At this point, it is too early to determine what this update was precisely about, but we will continue to monitor the situation and update you when we know more. Right now, stop comparing it to Florida 1.
