2 February 2016
Google announced last week that the standalone “Panda” algorithm is no more and has now been included instead as part of the core ranking algorithm that underlies all of Google’s search operation across all countries that Google operates in.
What does this mean for search?
Panda, originally released Feb 2011, was aimed at reducing the amount of “low quality” content on the web, and as part of that, the amount of sites with “thin” content (such as sites with multiple pages focused around different but similar keywords, written specifically for search engines and not users). Initial reports upon launch of Panda were not favourable as “scraper” sites (sites with content taken from other, legitimate sources) were ranking higher than the originals themselves, and as such Panda has received no less than 8 updates in 2011 alone! In the (almost) 5 years since, Panda has received many more updates, finishing in 2015 with Panda 4.2.
So, with Panda now part of the core ranking algorithm (a change that was first hinted at in 2013 by Google’s head of webspam Matt Cutts), what does this mean for us? Well, obviously Google have taken a move to ensure that the rules that Panda applies to certain websites are in place across the board, so if you’re still producing content that is “thin” or “scraped” and have gotten away with until now, this is the time to stop! The Profit key appreciate that it is highly unlikely Google will now notify the world when they update it, so whereas before we did get a little bit of notice to make changes to content strategy, now we all need to ensure we’re doing it right, first time!
What else? Keep an eye on your rankings! If you see any changes then you’ll know you might have been affected, and can make changes accordingly to either up the quality and frequency of your content, or if you’ve seen improvements, do more of the same! Bear in mind though that no strategy is 100% perfect and you should always be evolving your content to keep it fresh and unique, in the same way Google is continually evolving its ranking algorithms! Panda has always historically affected whole domains rather than individual pages, so if you are hit, you’ll definitely know about it!
Best practice for Panda performance
This has been written on the web many times by many different webmasters and experts, but The Profit Keys best practice “rules” for playing the Panda game are:
- Keep your content fresh and unique; don’t copy, scrape or take content off other websites to use on your own
- If you have a news feed that you know is used by other websites, and want to keep it for your customers, take measures to stop Google indexing it. Whilst keeping your website updated is important, it’s less important that having Google penalise you for duplicate content!
- Maintain your own news section, such as a blog, where you write your own content
- Keep up with your social media, and share your unique content to your followers
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Google_Panda_Update_drdiscount_02.png
