Four months on from the release of Panda 4.0, the new Google Panda update is here. Announced via Google employee, Pierre Far, Panda 4.1 introduces an update to the algorithm designed to promote quality content search and get rid of the poor content. He further suggests the update rewards high quality small to medium sized sites, which is great news for site owners of SMBs who have found it harder to compete in the past.
SearchMetrics posted the winners and losers as a result of the update; from which it is clear the winners are sites offering news and content with the losers being sites focused on games, lyrics and some medical content. Does this mean we may see the introduction of Google lyrics? Maybe not just yet. So, what does this mean?
This update means anyone penalised by the last update may have a chance to resurrect, if they made the right changes. So, you may see an increase in traffic if you made the right changes to your site.
However, there may be some bad news for others as new sites not previously hit by Panda might be impacted. If you notice a sudden drop in traffic from Google since 26th September, the update may be to blame.
Our advice
We recommend cleaning up your existing content. If you have thin, irrelevant or out-dated content you need to add value to these pages by updating if necessary or bulking up with more relevant and interesting content for your readers. Or just delete them if they are no longer relevant and driving any relevant traffic. If sites with this kind of content don’t, then they will gradually begin to lose visibility over time until nothing is left. Panda proofing must be done!
What’s coming next?
This week, there may or may not be a refresh to the Penguin update. Google’s Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Search Quality Engineer, discussed any bad links that are removed or have been as of 2 weeks ago will likely be too late for this next Penguin refresh. The penguin update was originally launched to prevent people using black hat SEO techniques to increase their ranking such as buying links or obtaining them through link networks.
Want to learn more about Panda and other Google algorithm updates? Download our SEO guide and find out more:
