Panda 3.9 Rolling out 7/24/2012

[netmeg]

Tweeted by Google:

New data refresh of Panda starts rolling out tonight. ~1% of search results change enough to notice. More context: [goo.gl...]
[searchengineland.com...]

[Shaddows]

Interesting that they chose to lower the rankings of low-quality sites versus improving the rankings of high-quality sites.

Improving the ranking of good sites is their bread-and-butter. That's the main algo.

The negative scoring* parts target the people who "fake" quality.

For the sake of sanity, I won't reopen the debate whether Panda is purely negative

[randle]

Improving the ranking of good sites is their bread-and-butter. That's the main algo.

Thats true when looked at over a long period of time, but for the past 18 months the changes implemented have been primarily about identifying sites with a couple of attributes Google felt were inherently negative, (devoid of quality) but were providing in many cases a ranking boost, (perceived quality) and demoting them. (put where they should have been all along prior to this correction? or punished for this behavior? take your pick)

You can say its a matter of semantics but its not - The sites that displayed these attributes (shallow content and then suspect back link profiles) were demoted. Some rather dramatically so.

[tedster]

Improving the ranking of good sites is their bread-and-butter. That's the main algo. The negative scoring* parts target the people who "fake" quality.

Shaddows, you da man! This is an essential point that makes a huge difference when you appreciate it in your gut. A second key point IMO is gaining a sense of the SCALE that Google operates at.

If you don't wrap your mind around those two factors, then you take everything way too personally. Then instead of being effective you spend too much time bemoaning your current fate.

By the way, the total algorithm isn't even Matt Cutts' territory, he's just a public communicator who also heads the anti-spam team. Amit Singhal is the main algorithm guy (as well as a senior VP.)

[ErnestHemingway]

Very fascinating update. Current rankings are a mess but Google Adwords Ads are so sharp exactly what I am looking for.

[SnowMan68]

Very fascinating update. Current rankings are a mess but Google Adwords Ads are so sharp exactly what I am looking for.

Lol

[mhansen]

What we have seen over the last few days is this:

US based info site, baseline of last 6 months. Never effected by any previous updates.

- Monday, 07/23 - +400% traffic increase, (5k to 20k daily) high converting terms, movement up of 4-5 positions in serps for several high volume phrases. Highest quality traffic in months.

- Tuesday, 07/24 - Same +400% traffic increase as Monday. Same quality, etc.

[Tuesday night note of fresh panda update]

- Weds, 07/25 - Traffic back to normal levels, conversions back to normal levels. Serps back to previous positions, etc.

On a side note to this site, our GoogleUK (I mentioned we are US based) serps are much higher than ever before, and those serps have stayed high where the us serps dropped back to normal. We're hoping the USA rollout is just working its way through data-centers over the next few days, and Monday/tuesday results come back to us.

Another note - A site we manage (different server, different topic, owner, everything) that was bit by the April 24 Penguin, also saw a similar rise in traffic and conversions over Monday and Tuesday, so we're thinking there is a much closer relationship between the two, than we previously thought.

[robert76]

This is the least amount of discussion about a Panda update (refresh) ever. Has it really rolled out?

[getcooking]

This is the least amount of discussion about a Panda update (refresh) ever

No kidding!

It looks like we have about a 3-5% increase from the data refresh. Better than taking a hit but I was hoping it'd be a little bit more with all the improvements we've made. Still have a long way to go, so maybe it's all we deserve at this point. I'm ok with that.

[indyank]

so we're thinking there is a much closer relationship between the two, than we previously thought.

exactly, that is the reason for my new thread on this relationship...

[gehrlekrona]

Maybe we have to go the the black hatters web sites to see what this update was about since I don't see anybody up in arms over this one. Maybe it hasn't hit us yet, but I saw an upswing starting Sunday so I am hoping that whatever I have done with the site over the last 2 months has been for the good, but who knows. It seems like people here are getting better stats but maybe it is the calm before the storm?

[tedster]

It's a data refresh, not an algorithm update. If the data Google measures about your site is essentially the same as it was on June 25, then you wouldn't see any movement up or down.

[varun21]

My site recovered 80% more on Tuesday but returned back the next day. I always thought I was penguinised. Have I been pandalised (since traffic recovered while the Panda data was being refreshed)?

[Whitey]

Not sure if this is Panda related, or something else, or if it's even recent - but I'm putting it out here.

Does anybody see a complete bias with e-commerce on branded products to reviews?

I think I'm seeing that the only thing that counts in ranking are the high volumes of reviews. The more reviews, the higher the site - more or less. Naturally, the brand is at the top.

[webmasterworld.com...]
Doesn't seem like a good user experience as there is insufficient variety on other quality elements, like supporting information and UI. Seems to conflict with the intentions of Panda.

[sid786]

I have to say this: one of my site has a slight movement in the positive direction. Let's say 20% increase in traffic. But yeah, I will have to give it some more time, as it has been only a day so far.

[rango]

Well, after much tidying this past month, it appears we've just made ourselves more disagreeable to Panda. US traffic down 15-20% today. At a time of year when traffic is generally up. So depressing.

Time to sharpen that knife and take another stab in the dark.

[Martin Ice Web]

@mhansen,

is this second site about the same topic?

[muzza64]

Nothing noticeable to report here either. We lost 10% after the shuffle on Friday (some minor ranking changes, some up, some down) but that coincided with schools breaking up and summer arriving here in the UK, so difficult to say for sure. But no change for us from this refresh, unless it actually started kicking in last Friday.

We've been making big changes in the last 5 weeks, removing lots of low value pages initially, then improving what was left. We went at it quite aggressively and have seen lots of signs of improvements in our stats. Maybe it's too soon or perhaps we've been too conservative. There is still plenty of room for improvement.

[zeus]

I have made a total redesign, the images are the same, but new urls, a little text to every image, redirecting old to new pages, droped some banners..... we got hit april 2011, lost 80% of traffic. Im now done with all the changes, if we dont get a move this update or the next, the site is closed, at our peak we had 60.000 visits a day, now 3000.

[garyr_h]

@zeus I'm in the same boat as you. Huge, huge difference. I think I know what the problem is (it has nothing to do with actual content). So I've been making changes, but from my understanding it takes two refreshes to make a difference. I'm not sure what to think.

Is the update over with or is it still going on?

[mhansen]

@Martin Ice Web

is this second site about the same topic?

No. It's not on the same topic, but it could definitely be considered a lateral topic. Well up the ladder, they would each fall into home improvement.

MH

[rango]

@garyr_h Hadn't heard the "two refreshes" mentioned before. That might give me a bit of hope. Interested to know what your theories are on a cure, if not the content.

[EyesForTech]

crossing my finger as well

[realmaverick]

When I was hit by Panda in January, it wasn't until 11pm GMT on the 20th I belive it was. It was a day and a half after the algo started rolling out. So I suspect this update won't have settled just yet.

[petehall]

In my opinion the Panda 'update' was already over on announcement. Rolling out is simply the new data moving to all datacentres.

@garyr_h I believe it depends on the size of your site / extent of the damage.

I've had one come out of Panda with two refreshes and improve further on the third. Another site is waiting... waiting... but has many more pages and was allowed to drop for a significant time period.

Once Google has actually picked up all of your changes, dropped any duplicate pages and these can be seen with the site: command, then I expect you will start to recover on the next refresh and improve with each one after that.

[zeus]

petehall - panda has nothing to do with duplicated pages

[muzza64]

petehall, I tend to agree with you that Panda is already over by the time the announcement comes. When our site was hit by the 11th April 2011 release our traffic had already started falling on the 6th (about 10%) escalating to 50% by Monday the 11th, and any gains/losses we've made since then all started happening days before any announcement.

We started losing traffic last Friday when many people here noticed changes, with some reporting recoveries for Panda hit sites.

I've also heard from people who have recovered that it can take 2-3 months for changes to start showing some impact. Unfortunately that may mean the losses we suffered this time round are a reflection of changes made in April/May.

[realmaverick]

Panda is definitely not over by the time the announcement comes.

[petehall]

@zeus I respect your opinion, however in my experience pages with a high percentage of similar content cause a considerable issue to Panda.

In fact I'd go as far as to say repeat your content anywhere and prepare feel the wrath of Panda!

Might I ask what your opinion is, other than that I am incorrect?

[alvin123]

According to Alexa, panda affected sites askthebuilder.com and daniweb.com have made huge comebacks over the last few days. If you look at daniweb traffic chart, click on max, then click search %, it is a very impressive move, up 150 percent.

Google took a lot of heat when these high quality sites were hit by panda, it doesn't surprise me they adjusted their algorithm to accommodate pandalized sites that receive a lot media attention.

[zeus]

petehall - Matt Cutts said that Panda has nothing to do with duplicated content in a video, but what you mention I would not say its duplicated, its just pure content.