A Look at What We Know So Far About the Newest Panda Algorithm Update
Now that the Google Panda 4.2 has begun rolling out SEOs everywhere are speculating the damage Google’s newest update will cause. Originally released in February 2011, Google’s content driven algorithm update, Google Panda, crawls the entire web on a regular basis. So what is Panda’s goal? Essentially, to clean up the web by rewarding sites with unique quality content, while penalizing those with poor quality content.
Since the original Panda algorithm update the majority of savvy webmasters and SEOs have made strides to update and optimize their content in order to ensure their sites are safe from future updates. Although most SEOs who have followed this protocol and adhered to the Google Webmaster Guidelines are safe from future penalties the inevitable fear of a looming Panda update still strikes fear in their minds.
So What Can We Expect From the Panda 4.2 Algorithm Update?
Google has given very little information regarding the new Panda 4.2 Algorithm update, but some indications are that smaller content publishers and websites may be the ones that benefit the most from the Panda 4.2 update. According to experts Panda 4.2 has new signals to identify low-quality content more precisely. This will result in a greater diversity of high-quality small and medium sized sites ranking higher, which could be a game changer for smaller sites.
What Google has told us about Panda 4.2 is that it is a relatively small update only effecting two to three percent of English-language searches and that the algorithm will be rolled out slowly. Panda 4.1 took 8 weeks to completely roll out; we could be looking at a similar timeline or longer for its successor.
Although Panda 4.2 has officially begun to roll out, it is still hard to determine a clear pattern regarding the winners and losers in the rankings. Website owners need to keep checking their sites for any positive or negative movement as a result of the update. As the roll out seems to be happening slowly. This means that it could be months before the full effects of the update are known.
Surprisingly enough there are still so many naysayers, company owners, and webmasters continuing to build sites with thin content, ignoring duplicate content and using black hat optimization tactics. However now that Google has released yet another Panda update it is undoubtedly clear that it is important to focus on producing quality content in order to gain and keep tangible rankings in Google.