Panda Refresh in 2-4 Weeks - Finally after 6+ Months!

[SnowMan68]

After 6+ months we are finally going to see a Panda refresh in the next few weeks.

At SMX Advanced tonight, Google’s Gary Illyes announced that the next Panda update will happen in the upcoming weeks. He said he expects it in the next two to four weeks.

Illyes referred to it multiple times as a data refresh, not an algorithmic change. So sites that have been suffering from this algorithm may see a recovery in the near future. However, not all sites will see a recovery: Some may not recover, and new sites may also be hit by this data refresh.

[searchengineland.com ]

[imbckagn]

Lots of movement

[netmeg]

John Mueller Says Today’s Algo Google Changes Not Panda, But Panda Coming

[thesempost.com...]

[Robert Charlton]

Search Engine Journal also reported on the John Mueller hangout, suggesting that John Mueller confirmed that an algo update is rolling out, but that it's not Panda related.

I don't think that John even confirmed that an update is rolling out. As I heard it, he was being extremely evasive about what's happening now, but he eventually did seem to suggest that something Panda-related might happen in a couple of weeks. Here's a link to the hangout...

English Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout
Jun 17, 2015 - trt 58:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHy4MHhL8dI [youtube.com]

Where I heard (min:sec) comments on the churn that many are seeing...

- At c 10:55 into the hangout, John is asked directly about an update and he says he doesn't know anything specific, and if you're just seeing changes in the results, these are just changes that we make all the time. He doesn't think an update is happening.

- At c18:10 - When asked about Panda, he said essentially that he doesn't have anything specific to share with you guys, but maybe in the next couple of weeks

[Nutterum]

I think the massive change reported by the various SERP weather tools, relates to some shifts back and forth of the top 10 visited websites like amazon and wikipedia and some changes people see at the .co.uk and .de .

[denisl]

So this should be due by around now - any signs?

[jinxed]

I'm pretty sure something happened 2 days ago. Traffic nearly doubled from a site that had previous Panda issues.

[AndyD]

It might be unrelated, but I have seen a big jump in search positions for one of my own sites - like 50+ places for terms I wasn't really trying for and never really featured. Nothing done on the site.

[jinxed]

Could be. No change here either.

Ironically I am just about to release my shiny new version of the site with much improved content. Google obviously knew!

[webmuppet]

No change here, if anything things seemed to slip again a bit over the last week or two but specifically from before the weekend.

[denisl]

I am seeing some improvement (though it may not be significant) on a site hit by panda May last year. A fair amount of improvements have been made to the site since than, though not lately.

[engine]

denisl, that's interesting. Those improvments, were they the result of the "quality update?"
Please keep us updated.

[denisl]

The improvements I was refering to was changes I had made to the site - addressing low quality or thin pages (adding content or noindexing necessary but potentially thin pages).

[Johan007]

Looks like it will 5-6 weeks now. Today is a Holiday in the states. So expect next Thursday most likely or the week after.
Credible Sources:
[seroundtable.com...]

[RedBar]

I don't care what they obfuscate, something's already happened, my traffic has been destroyed this week and the SERPs replaced with utter garbage, not competitors, scraper trash, spam trash and more trash.

Google's www is no longer a place where my global industry can operate.

[silentneedle]

Our site got a huge search visibility bump in semrush today. Never seen such a big spike since years.

[Johan007]

I don't care what they obfuscate, something's already happened

@RedBar, well this thread is about a Panda refresh that effects already hit sites and enables them a chance to recover. So your post is off topic. If you think your site was hit by Panda last week you are extremely lucky as you have a chance to recover within a week. I have no sympathy... my site was hit by Panda in 2011 and only diagnosed Q4 of last year and fixed by March so here I am 5 months later.

As long as the improvements I have made help me to recover Panda was the best thing to happen to my site long term as the effort put in by our team was phenomenal!

[aristotle]

From the first post in this thread:

Gary Illyes announced that the next Panda update will happen in the upcoming weeks. He said he expects it in the next two to four weeks.

The date of that first post is June 3, 2015. Has anyone noticed that four weeks have already passed since then.

[RedBar]

So your post is off topic.

Huh?

If something has happened then something has happened, whether it be an improvement or a new penalty, I'm simply reporting observations.

[Johan007]

Huh?

@RedBar, No worries. Simply know there is no Panda this weekend (or last week) and is unrelated to your drop.

[denisl]

"this thread is about a Panda refresh that effects already hit sites"

Although those of us with sites hit by panda in the past hope a refresh will help us, I assume the refresh will also hit some new sites.

[EditorialGuy]

Although those of us with sites hit by panda in the past hope a refresh will help us, I assume the refresh will also hit some new sites.

Sure, if only because search rankings are a zero-sum game and one site's gain is another site's loss.

[Johan007]

Exactly EditorialGuy. This is not a Panda update as of the past but a refresh so that hit sites can recover and if enough sites recover it can overtake an "uninfected" site casing a drop. Apparently you can be hit by Panda in real time but I don't see this happening to big brands such as TalkTalk here in the UK who have syndicated content including movie reviews. IMO if a site has enough PR they are pretty much untouchable to these algorithms.

In my niche there are two sites I have seen take radical action and we all look amazing with improved UX and removal of press releases and other thin content. I do not think this would have happened if it was not for Panda.

I guestimate 70% chance of the refresh on Friday and 20% the weekend after and 10% later in July.

An authoritative article from SEM Post on this on Friday (3rd July):
[thesempost.com...]

[MrSavage]

Wow, that article link, the comments from Mueller are almost comical to me. I'm not sure why. It really sounds like it's not even worth thinking about right now because it's so vague. I'm not hoping or planning for anything at this point. I mean, if you have something to say, then say it. If you have no clue, then don't bring it up in the first place. I just think Cutts wouldn't be approaching this the same way.

[indyank]

seeing a sudden spike in a pandaed site today, not sure whether it will last :)

[edited by: indyank at 5:05 pm (utc) on Jul 6, 2015]

[indyank]

have to clarify that the spike is like 75-80% the avg. traffic per day it received over the past several months but nowhere near the pre-panda days traffic...

[OldFaces]

For what it's worth... noticing unusual traffic fluctuations 7/5 - 7/6 which are not related to the holiday.

Specifics: On 7/5 lower than usual by about 20%, then a complete reversal (20% uptick) beginning around 16:00 PST which lasted until 4:00 PST 7/6. For the last 5 hours now regular traffic in comparison to last week.

[Johan007]

75-80% is significant. Would presume 20% is insignificant. I would expect around 200%+ for my 2011 Panda effected site.

[OldFaces]

I mentioned simply because we've noticed around a 20% daily fluctuation for a week or so right before the last two Feb & May unnamed 'quality' updates. The concept that google throws traffic to gauge user experience before significants updates.

[Lorel]

I read somewhere recently that Google floats spam to the top just before a Panda update so they can spot it and tweak their algo to remove it. I hope so.

[Nutterum]

@Lorel , Yes this is something me and a couple of other webmasters have discussed recently in another thread. I am monitoring this more in detail and will report my findings. If you have the time and interest you can flag a couple of websites you believe are pre-Panda spam and check their SERP positions before and after. The more data we have the better.