Google algorithm updates have continued to change the SEO landscape over the years. A significant one has been the Google Panda Update. This article delves into the history of the Google Panda update, its purpose, how it affected websites, and how to recover from its penalties.
Initial Release Date and Purpose
In Feb 2011, Google introduced Panda, a major algorithmic update that redefined the landscape of organic search engine results. The algorithm is named after the Google engineer Navneet Panda. He devised the technology that helped Google to create and use the algorithm.
Panda aimed at enhancing user experience by improving the quality of search results. This update focused on promoting high-quality websites while penalizing the low-quality ones.
Google Panda Update evaluated websites based on a variety of factors. These factors include –
- Content originality and relevance
- User Experience on that site
- Use of manipulative or spammy tactics
Before the Panda Update, Google saw a fall in the quality of search results. Also, distractive business models like content farms were on the rise. Content farms are organizations or companies that publish huge amounts of low-quality content and strategically place keywords to rank them at the top.
With the implementation of the Panda Algorithm, Google managed to remove the content farms. In January 2016, Google officially absorbed Panda into its core algorithm.
Google Panda Update History
Initially named ‘Farmer,’ Google Panda Update was released over several months. This initial release affected 12 percent of the English language search results. There have been numerous updates to Panda since its launch. Moz’s blog, Google Algorithm Update History, has tracked 28 data updates to Panda between 2011 and 2015.
Each update has added something to the algorithm and worked on enhancing the Google search experience for users.
Here are the major Google Panda Update release dates and version numbers –
- Panda 1.0: February 23, 2011 – The update was rolled out on Feb 23. It boosted high-quality content, penalizing low-quality ones.
- Panda 2.0: April 11, 2011 – First update to the Panda Algorithm. It increased its range, further affecting low-quality content. In addition to signals, sites are already blocked by Google users.
- Panda 2.1: May 9, 2011 – Industry initially called it 3.0. Google clarified that its purpose was to refresh data.
- Panda 2.2: June 21, 2011 – Additional improvements to address issues like excessive advertising and scraper sites.
- Panda 2.3: July 23, 2011 – Further enhanced to improve detection of low-quality content and reduce false positives.
- Panda 2.4 International – August 12, 2011 – Google Panda Update – Introduction of Google Panda update to all English-speaking and non-English-speaking users. Countries exempted were Japan, China, and Korea.
- Panda 2.5: September 28, 2011 – Improvements for further detecting low-quality websites and content farms.
- Panda “Flux”: October 5, 2011 – Fluctuations in search rankings.
- Panda 3.0: October 19, 2011 – New signals were added to Panda Update. It recalculated how the algorithm impacted web pages.
- Panda 3.1: November 18, 2011 – Refined Panda’s algorithm to determine website relevance and quality.
- Panda 3.2: January 18, 2012 – Data refresh happened.
- Panda 3.3: February 23/27, 2012 – Improvement in accurately determining low-quality content.
- Panda 3.4: March 23, 2012 – Improved Panda’s ability to target low-quality websites and improve user experience.
- Panda 3.5: April 19, 2012 – Polished its ability to identify and penalize low-quality sites and content.
- Panda 3.6: April 27, 2012 – Screened out websites with low quality, user generated content.
- Panda 3.7: June 8, 2012 – Further targeted low-quality sites and content.
- Panda 3.8: June 25, 2012 – Honed its ability to locate and demote low-quality sites.
- Panda 3.9: July 24, 2012 – More improvements related to content farms and low-quality pages.
- Panda 3.9.1: August 20, 2012 – Beginning of a new naming convention by industry.
- Panda 4.0: May 20, 2014 – Major Panda update (impacted 7.5% of queries). It aimed to reward high quality websites and an improved user experience.
- Panda 4.1: September 23, 2014 – Another major panda update (this time impacted 3-5% queries). Further improvements to Google Panda’s ability to identify and penalize low quality content.
- Panda 4.2: July 17, 2015 – this was the final confirmed Panda update but it had a slower rollout of updates compared to previous ones. There are a few ambiguities about this Google Panda Update’s exact date and effect.
- Core Algorithm Absorption: January 11, 2016 – Google confirmed the absorption of Panda Algorithm into its main set of algorithms, rather than just acting as a filter.
Factors Influencing Search in Google Panda Updates
Listed below are the factors that influence Google Panda Updates –
Content Quality and Relevance:
Panda values and pushes high quality content that is relevant to its websites. On the other hand, it penalizes low quality, thin, and irrelevant content that doesn’t add value to its website.
Marketers must ensure that they do not stuff the website’s contents with keywords. Google’s algorithm is designed to detect content that is stuffed with keywords to make it rank higher in the Google search engine. It penalizes such content.
Unique and Original Content:
Google favors unique and original content to rank sites with enhanced user experience. Websites with multiple pages featuring the same content would fall under the plagiarized category.
For instance, XYZ firm provides technological services to multiple states in the US. And on their website, they have made separate pages for each state.
On one page, they wrote, ‘We run technological services for New York.’ In another, they wrote, ‘We run technological services in California.’ While in another, they wrote, “We run technological services in New York’.
They have written the same content on every page but just changed the state’s name. Such a case would fall under plagiarized content as the webpages are all similar and don’t provide new information.
Authority and Credibility:
Panda favors websites with a strong and credible online presence. Google follows the E-E-A-T Criteria (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) under its Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
Other factors that are considered include the quality of the backlinks, brand reputation, and social signals.
The quality of a website’s link is a very important factor to focus on. One way of determining the credibility and authority of a website is through links. Through its enhanced algorithm, Google Panda Update penalizes websites with low-quality or spammy links.
If a website’s link is present in a high quality website, then that website would rank well.
Advertising and User Experience:
Above everything else, Google values user experience the most. For that, through Panda Update, Google roots out sites that use excessive ads and disrupt the viewing experience.
Pages with a high ad-to-content ratio and those that strive to present users with the most relevant and useful results rank higher after Google Panda Ranking Updates. For that, it considers the presence and placement of ads and pop-ups.
However, websites with too many intrusive or disruptive ads will be penalized by Google.
Mobile Friendliness:
With the increase in the use of mobile devices, the Panda algorithm prioritizes mobile-optimized sites with responsive design.
Site Architecture and Navigation:
Google Panda Update considers a website’s architecture and the ease of navigation for users. The overall user experience is considered better with clear navigation, well-organized content, higher readability, and a visually appealing design.
User Engagement:
Websites with high levels of user engagement are likely to see a boost in their rankings. Google Panda Update looks at user engagement metrics like bounce rate, time on site, number of shares and backlinks, and pages per visit.
Ways to Recover from Google Panda Penalties
Here are some ways websites can rework content and site parameters- to get back a good ranking in the Google Panda algorithm update–
Content Review
The first step to recovering from Panda’s penalty is to review the website’s content. If they find redundant, plagiarized, or weak content, they must either delete it or immediately redo it.
Content Optimization
Creating high quality content is one of the best ways to recover from a Google Panda Update penalty.
Discussed below are some of the attributes of content that Panda will rank higher –
Add depth to content:
Websites should provide in-depth information to users. This makes users stay on a single site longer than browsing multiple sites. This helps Google to mark the site as trustworthy.
Address user needs:
Content should be user-focused and written for a website’s target audience, answering their queries. This helps to improve user engagement and satisfaction and enhances a website’s search engine rankings.
Incorporate relevant keywords naturally:
Marketers must avoid keyword stuffing. They should include relevant keywords in their content naturally and organically. It helps the keyword to flow well with the rest of the content.
Focus on creating comprehensive, informative, and well-structured content:
The content needs to be:
- Well-researched
- Well-written
- Well-structured
This establishes their website as a valuable source of resources. In the long run, it improves a website’s search engine rankings through improved user engagement.
Tackling Duplicate Content
It’s important to note that each website page must offer unique value. It shouldn’t duplicate content from other sources, including its own other sites.
Marketers can take certain key steps to ensure the elimination of duplicate content. Firstly, instances of duplicate content must be identified using tools like Copyscape or Siteliner. These tools help to identify pages with identical or similar content.
Once duplicate content has been identified, it’s important to remove or canonicalize those pages. This can involve the deletion of entire pages. Or canonical tags can indicate which version of a page is the primary source of content.
However, not all instances of duplicate content will necessarily result in a Google Panda penalty. In 2021, Google clarified that duplicate content is independent of Panda. Moreover, it is not considered as a negative ranking factor.
But, even after all this, duplicate content still impacts the website’s user experience and lowers the overall ranking. So, it’s still essential to rectify instances of duplicate content present in a website.
Generally, the key to escape from a Google Panda penalty is to create unique and high-quality content. This helps to provide exceptional value to users. Through this, marketers can demonstrate to Google that their site is a valuable and trustworthy source of information. It can improve a website’s rankings and traffic in the long run.
Handling Weak or Spammy Backlinks
Google Panda Update can rank sites lower because of the quality of their backlinks.
According to Google Algorithm, the presence of a high number of low-quality or spammy backlinks marks the website as having low-quality content.
Case Study
MadeLoud.com, an Indie music site, was hit twice by Google’s Panda Update. This saw a decrease in their organic search traffic.
To recover from the Google Panda Update 4.0, they focused on two major factors –
- Reducing indexed pages
- Ensuring all pages offered unique value
The site was facing an issue related to index bloat. Google indexed 359,000 pages in May 2012.
To solve this case, they took certain measures. These include –
- Using 301 redirects,
- Resolving some pages to 404 errors, and
- Added No Index, Follow, and canonical tags where appropriate
- Submission of extra sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools
- Using their URL Removal tool frequently.
- Made sure that all pages provided unique value to the users.
- Replaced fill-it-in Bio sections with specific questions
- Encouraged user comments
Due to all these efforts, the site’s organic traffic increased by 150%—this increased keyword ranking across the board.
MadeLoud.com significantly improved its site by reducing indexed pages and ensuring unique value to all pages. This resulted in a successful recovery from Google’s Panda 4.0 update.
Google Panda Now
Panda has developed with time and been replaced by Coati, another animal in the black and white category. Panda has been absorbed into the more extensive core ranking algorithm with time. Coati is an evolved version of this algorithm. According to Google, Coati is a new update that is the successor to the Panda algorithm.
It must be kept in mind that Coati is not a core update. Both Panda and Coati are part of the core ranking algorithm.
As per industry experts, these updates may affect website rankings and their overall performance in search results.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Google Panda Update has significantly impacted how SEO works. Google Panda focused on improving user experience. It did so by rewarding high-quality content and penalizing the low-quality ones.
It has undergone several updates over the years. This enhanced its ability to detect low-quality articles, adding to the overall user experience.
With the absorption of Google Panda into Google’s core algorithm, the entire Google search algorithm will now work on Panda’s requirements for good content.
Marketers and writers will need to follow the style laid down by the Panda update for the foreseeable future.
