The Florida Update refers to an update by Google that had a negative effect on the ranking in December 2003. First the English digital world was affected, later it hit the Germans. The Florida Update was intended to prevent manipulations that were frequently carried out in the search results. Up to now, search results could be manipulated relatively easily. Different measures such as link exchanges, link farms and link buying enabled massive good ratings on Google. With the help of the changed algorithm, manipulated websites were devalued and topic-relevant links moved back into the foreground. However, this update also brought consequences. Previously well-positioned links were given a worse rating due to the update and in some cases even removed from the index. Since this incident, Google continues to try new adjustments for the algorithm in the search engine optimization world.
