Ranked

Your traffic just dropped. Was it Google, or was it you?

Every few months Google changes how it ranks the web, and some businesses lose a large share of their search traffic almost overnight. Ranked teaches managers and MBA students to treat these moments like any other platform risk: understand what changed, spot the signs in your own data, and know exactly what to do next.

This book walks through every major Google algorithm update from Panda in 2011 to the spam updates of 2026, covering the full 130-entry timeline. For each one you get a plain-language explanation of how it works, the symptoms that show it has hit you, and a practical recovery plan.

Inside you will find:

• Every major update explained: Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, RankBrain, BERT, Helpful Content, core and spam updates, and the rise of AI Overviews
• Symptoms and detection: how to tell a Google update from a bug, a seasonal dip or a competitor
• Step-by-step recovery playbooks and technical audit checklists
• Charts, data tables, mini-cases and discussion questions for classroom use
• Financial models that put a number on search risk
• A one-page update response protocol you can use on Monday morning