Minor Panda update Oct 13 - per Matt Cutts

[sid786]

Matt Cutts responds on Twitter that they have applied a minor algorithmic update last late night.

Link: http://twitter.com/#!/mattcutts/status/124905069748559872 [twitter.com]

Have your websites been affected with this update? My site's traffic is stable, but I was expecting a positive bump.

[Mod's note: Fixed link so it would display, as the WebmasterWorld link redirect script will break it in most browsers. Copy and paste url into your browser if hyperlink doesn't go to Matt's tweet.]

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 9:54 pm (utc) on Oct 14, 2011]
[edit reason] fixed link display [/edit]

[walkman]

...@mattcutts Was that a minor Panda Update today?
....
@mattcutts
@maheshhari late last night, yes.

Link doesn't always work due to the #

[g1smd]

You can remove the #! from Twitter URLs and the link still works.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Good, now someone ask him daily if that was an update yesterday since they don't publish update dates.

My pandalized site got hit even worse with the minor update since the changes I made after the last one have not had time to fully filter through google results yet.

I have robots.txt exclusions in place where Google still has many pages indexed for example.

An idea - perhaps Google can publish a date to warn us when Panda will happen next, or perhaps an option in our webmaster tools saying "Panda update required within x days, can we process your site now?"

I bet the mini-update delays the next big update, just my luck. I REALLY dislike what Google's turned into now as it's costing me time I could be spending doing more rewarding things.

[mobilegame]

I noticed that my competitor had a slight recovery last night, I did not know it was because of this minor update then though.

[turbocharged]

I equate Panda to giving a blind man a gun, in a crowded gun range, spinning him around and asking him to hit the target. Panda is about as accurate as that blind man would be and certainly has left many innocent victims on the floor bleeding.

From everything I've seen Panda is a guise for snuffing out the small players, especially in time for the holiday shopping season. Preference is given to brand, or at least they have been given immunity from flagrant and unexpected Panda penalties.

[minnapple]

For a minor update, I have seen a considerable amount of up and down movement of entire sites.

[kd454]

I am seeing the big brands gaining more traction on this one no big news.

[MrSavage]

Minor update my ass. I'm part of the unlucky 12% I guess. Or is it just 5% with this latest update? Yes, spoken in the greatest of sarcasm.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Minor update my ass. I'm part of the unlucky 12% I guess. Or is it just 5% with this latest update? Yes, spoken in the greatest of sarcasm.

Hey, did you earn ANY money with your site(s)? If so the churn isn't done yet! Non big brand sites that earn money are evil lately, if you believe the Google gospel.

Panda helps big sites thinking they are getting it right but it's the flavor small sites bring that make the internet interesting. I still have hope they'll figure it out and put panda to sleep, not anytime soon but still.

[Lesedar]

[google.com...] - 3 results out of 10 from tripadvisor

[google.com...] - first 3 results from tripadvisor again

Maybe next time I'm searching hotels anywhere I will use tripadvisor instead of Google :))

This results are total crap!

[shankarmd]

My SERP also went down. What Changes they Made? 80% of Traffic down. All crap sites only showing in Top

[asusplay]

Same here. was hit on sept27th, recovered fully on october 4th, had a spike of traffic on october 13th and was hit around 11m uk time on the 14th. 80% drop. Thanks google.

This is ridiculous.

[tristanperry]

Not a minor update when plenty of people see traffic drop 80% overnight :)

Oh Matt Cutts, you're a good guy - but don't bother lying. When it's a major update, don't call it a minor one.

[tangor]

Google Accounting...

20 big boys = 20 large
200,000,000 shrimps = 800 large

Cost to maintain...
20 big boys, mill or two
200,000,000, zero

Where's the downside?

Our bottom line is not theirs. Never has been.

The ridiculous is that we continue to play the game. :) (that's a smilie, an attempt at humor, which I doubt many feel, but is totally accurate)

[davedm]

asusplay - same has happened to our website too, really unpredictable at the moment (although thankfully as yet the loss isn't quite so severe).

It really does feel like they are just throwing mud at the wall and hoping to stumble upon a good set of results.

Yet again in my niche the winners in this update seem to be Google's own properties and spammy, poor quality sites.

[dertyfern]

my site, which has been around for 10+ years, has killer content, and authoritative one-way links got whacked yesterday...hard. replaced by large corporate owned websites or spammy sites.

[gyppo]

I had a small recovery overnight, similar to what happened with the 2.5 update, which we lost for a week then back again last night.

[kawen]

hit from Jan to Sep, traffic down over 60%,
big recovery yestday,

[harbs]

7+ year old info site. As of yesterday, 50% haircut. Site actually had improved traffic during Panda. Heavy crawling still by Gbot. I wonder if it's time to dust off the ole resume.

[andy_boyd]

@kawen - Care to share what you did, if anything, to your website?

[arikgub]

"Minor" ? Out of the few dozens websites I am monitoring, about 1/3 were hit significantly

[turbocharged]

When you are an 800lb gorilla that controls 65% of search traffic, with quarterly earnings just under ten billion, just about everything is minor.

[kawen]

to andy_boyd :
I do nothing on Sep, but I do some work before, remove some small articles, update some articles.

[trendsetter]

< moved from another location >

I manage information rich websites with 100% original content, nowhere else you will find on the net.

Was never hit in February or the Sept 27th Panda updates... However on Oct 13th, lost 80% of my traffic. I don't compete with any E-Commerce websites, don't sell anything.

This looks awful.

[edited by: tedster at 2:12 pm (utc) on Oct 15, 2011]

[reseller]

The title of this thread reads: Minor Panda update Oct 13 - per Matt Cutts

I just wonder whats the definition of a "Minor Panda Update"?

Does it mean for example: affected sites less than 10% , or less than 5% or less than 2% of total indexed sites?

OR does it mean for example: affected sites would notice minor gain/lose in ranking and accordingly minor gain/lose in Google organic traffic?

Thoughts?

[MrSavage]

Is this like getting a pink slip just before the Christmas holidays from your boss? Seems like it. I haven't read stories here the past 2 days about gains. Only loses. That's it. It will get more interesting when people use their smartphones more and more. Google has 97% market share of mobile search. Passing that along for those looking for long term planning.

[arikgub]

I haven't read stories here the past 2 days about gains. Only loses.

that's because the gains went to mega retailers and other mega corporate sites. they do not post here :)

[indyank]

1) Gainers
2) Losers
3) and a third category - "No changes" - my sites :)

[indyank]

well, in my case, they were not immune. I just meant that this iteration and the previous few iterations did not affect them.