GoogleAlgorithmUnconfirmed
Austin
January 2004 follow-up to Florida that further targeted hidden text, meta-tag stuffing and other on-page manipulation.
What changed
Austin continued the cleanup Florida began, focusing on invisible text, meta-tag keyword stuffing and deceptive on-page techniques that had survived the November 2003 change. Sites that had partially recovered after Florida were hit again. Google never announced or named the update; only the month is documented, so the date here is set to the first of that month.
Not confirmed by the engine. This entry documents a change that was widely observed and reported, but never officially acknowledged. Treat the dates as approximate and the mechanism as inferred.
Timing
Rollout began 1 January 2004. No completion date was announced. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.