Google Panda 4.2 Rolling Out

[netmeg]

According to Searchengineland:

Google has pushed out a Google Panda refresh this weekend, many of you may not have noticed, but this roll out is happening incredibly slowly. Google said the update can take months to fully roll out because it will slowly roll out through your site. The Panda algorithm is still indeed a site-wide algorithm but some of your web pages might not see a change immediately.

Emphasis by me, because WTF.

A Google spokesperson confirmed with us the update did being rolling out this past weekend. They also noted it can take months to fully roll out. Google did not share with us how large of an impact this was on their search results, but they did imply it was a fairly small impact.

I haven't seen any signs of it in any client sites yet, but maybe it'll be "months"

[searchengineland.com...]

[Mentat]

As I said before, after a two years of losing the fight and 75% of my traffic, I finally see some light on some of my sites +10-15% on visits and stable increasing.

What 've I done?
I've done a log analysis and I deleted ~ 75% of my pages, as I got no hits on them in the last six months!

Content since 2000 was piling up, but really ~ no traffic on them since 2012!

So, if you have old content -> noindex or delete and return 410 error.
Even evergreen content has been scraped like hell in the last years, so you need a fresh perspective.

It's not a guarantee winning strategy, but it was the last one.
You can try to improve things, but on what scale? It's very much about the % of the old/unused content!

[webmuppet]

Do you think the pages were getting no traffic because Google wasn't sending them any or because they were of low quality to the users?

As I said before, after a two years of losing the fight and 75% of my traffic, I finally see some light on some of my sites +10-15% on visits and stable increasing.

What 've I done?
I've done a log analysis and I deleted ~ 75% of my pages, as I got no hits on them in the last six months!

Content since 2000 was piling up, but really ~ no traffic on them since 2012!

So, if you have old content -> noindex or delete and return 410 error.
Even evergreen content has been scraped like hell in the last years, so you need a fresh perspective.

It's not a guarantee winning strategy, but it was the last one.
You can try to improve things, but on what scale? It's very much about the % of the old/unused content!

[Spiekerooger]

If you define Panda as an algo aimed at bringing more clicks to google ads on SERPs, I can confirm that Panda is doing well and - as a side note - that one of my small sites recovered in this Panda iteration by sending out 404s on ALL pages. Result: Ranking higher now with an nearly empty (one sentence) 404 page than ever before.

[Mentat]

Do you think the pages were getting no traffic because Google wasn't sending them any or because they were of low quality to the users?

It's a circular question.

The truth was that:
1. Those pages had no visits (organic, referrer or direct) => no $$$
2. Those pages were OLD and questionable quality.
3. In a "normal world", you could ignore/forget them.
4. In Google's world, those pages seems to be toxic!
A high enough percent of toxic pages it will lower your rankings.

As I said, it was the last resort. My normal traffic was 1.5 mil unique users/day, now I have ~ 30%...

[Martin Ice Web]

Okay, traffic came back yesterday for 1 site. But with traffic back, conversions hit rock bottom.
What a mess.
All this panda and penguin algo suck a lot.

[Nutterum]

@ Mentat - in our largest website we have the same policy. We basically assume an end date for our pages and a week or so after the event we post content for is over we automatically scrap the page. Many would argue that this will decrease the overall website traffic, but I saw no such thing. Keeping a page for the sake of squeezing 10-20 visitors for something already completed and forgotten is a bulletproof way of saying to Google - "Please punish me!"

[EditorialGuy]

Don't underestimate the value of evergreen pages (including archived pages). They're often useful to readers--and to researchers, for that matter. In my experience, Google is perfectly happy to index and send traffic to such pages.

[mrengine]

Don't underestimate the value of evergreen pages (including archived pages). They're often useful to readers--and to researchers, for that matter. In my experience, Google is perfectly happy to index and send traffic to such pages.

When it comes to ecommerce, we need buyers. A lack of buyers results in less sales and fewer jobs for people. I have two products on hold because the sales are just not there to support the last leg of R&D. This is how innovation gets stifled when search engines hoard all the traffic and direct it to their interests. I'm just a small manufacturer, but I can imagine what kind of massive negative impact this has on the overall economy when other manufacturers are facing the same dilemma. Oh well, hopefully when panda is fully rolled out months from now sales will increase. Until then shall we as employers layoff staff?

[goodoldweb]

mrengine i feel your pain.

I own three eCommerce sites (Australia). Electronics, Women fashion & accessories, USB Gadgets and an eBay store. They are basically all dead since about April this year. The only small amount of free traffic i now receive from google is only to the sites free information pages. Google now sends almost zero traffic to the cart/product pages. The only way to get some traffic to these pages now is via google shopping or adwords (paid traffic only!). Free Organics clicks are basically non existent to any of the commercial pages (buy now pages).

If this is not obstruction of trade and limiting choices to consumers then i don't know what is.

Sales are very bad to non existent (since about April this year) on all three web stores including my eBay store. Yes eBay has been affected by this crap quite severely too. Ask about any eBay seller "hows sales lately". I've had to fire two employees already and ready to fire one more by next week.

Google are simply killing our business and free choice to millions of consumers. Cant think of better way to put it.

[glakes]

The only way to get some traffic to these pages now is via google shopping or adwords (paid traffic only!).

I pay to advertise in Google's serps and shopping. Both are performing horribly, and I have the campaigns paused. It's as if Google users are so exhausted from a poor search experience that they are unwilling to open up their wallets. ATM all Google traffic is non-converting junk. Maybe they will fix this, but I would lay odds that this version of Panda was designed to wring even more money out of an internet economy that is already heavily manipulated by Google.

[goodoldweb]

True glakes.

Google paid traffic is quite expensive and the conversions of late are really bad.

We had to cut all click bidding to about 25% of what they once was. We need "some" traffic so we were left with no choice but to pay for it. But we are losing money now with adwords & shopping, its a given. The traffic is non converting junk!

[Nutterum]

Or maybe your markets shifted? Its not the first time where consumers decide to leave a sales vertical altogether for a period of time. It was the same thing in the late 90`s and the e-mail sales spam crap. Everyone was so eager to sell you something over your e-mail, that people disregarded the entire funnel, only to return in the late 2000`s when spam was brought down to a reasonable level via automated systems.

Same thing here really. People got sick of typing a generic product term only to get a "Buy Now!" sign shoved at their face. Google recognized this and decided to change SERPs in general, while making a smart move that would bring them even more billions of $$$. And everyone is happy.

When I consult e-commerce businesses and manufacturers complaining about their online business, I always ask them one question : "Have asked your clients how do they search your product type online?" - guess what ~ 80% of them said no. Well sorry if your blind operation failed. Now let me ask you where do you think the problem was?

I am not saying you guys are in the same boat. What I am saying is that even if you are not you are collateral of the toxic behaviour of the online businesses that were/are.

[goodoldweb]

^ the biggest load of nonsense i've heard in a very long time.

Your flawed theory "perfectly" explain why adwords, amzon, google shopping box and utube rule the SERPS for most commercial searches nowadays.

Give me a break!

Somone looks to buying a specific product should get exactly that, an unbiased choice of that product from as much suppliers as possible. A shopper looking to buy a specific "yellow italian made bag" online should be presented with exactly that... no one is "tired" of finding the exact product they've been looking for!....very silly to think otherwise actualy!

[toidi]

People got sick of typing a generic product term only to get a "Buy Now!" sign shoved at their face.

This is a big part of the problem, and i am speaking from my personal experience. After 25 years of enjoying shopping on the web, it has now become a nightmare. For the past 2 weeks i have been in need of a new fuser for my printer. I made several attempts at finding one but the garbage makes it frustrating, both on bing and goog.

If there was a store within driving range that had what i needed, my printer would already be up and running. Internet shopping has become a 2 drink endeavor. The internet sucks right now, and this is not sour grapes. My real estate sites are still generating buyers at a consistent rate.

[Martin Ice Web]

@glakes, some true words.

google is threatend by amazon and they try to keep some visitors with buying intentions on their site. In their fear to loose this game they gamble with the organics and PLAs. And they go a different way like amazon and give poeple only bad choices and big brands. No wonder that poeple go to other sources. And panda does not make it better.

Amazon does it the other way round. Give the information AND give brands and smaller resellers aside. Allthough amazons information are only scapped and manufacturer deployed.
I bet that 80% of brand searches are allready performed on amazon and not google anymore. Poeple are clicking on PLAs are only the very rest of buying poeple and this are very, very hard to convince to buy something.

And this explopsion of ads in the last time is realy annoying. You canīt watch a simple utube without having ads displayed. It sucks a lot.

@glakes, some true words.

[edited by: Martin_Ice_Web at 12:27 pm (utc) on Aug 6, 2015]

[Nutterum]

@goodoldweb - I am sorry that you strongly disagree with my statement. But I am also disheartened that you failed to grasp my point. I was not prosecuting anyone. What I was saying is Google backed online shops for years, until people evolved their search algorithms and started searching for amazon "product" instead. Once that took firm hold, Google changed the SERPs so that huge outlets like these would hold the top spots while the rest will be divided between generic "product info" pages and other nonsense, while promoting Google Product listings in a neat user experience friendly way.

Google is not supposed to care for your online business, nor should care about promoting it. What they do care is how the searchers view your business. If they like it a-lot, Google will find a way to make it profitable for both you and them. If they do not, then you better find out why.

[Nutterum]

@Martin Ice Web - If google was afraid of Amazon, they could just Penguinize them. Its not like Amazon is not getting away with it. What Google is worried about is that if there is no Amazon on the search results, then Google would not be able to syphon chunks of traffic towards their product listings. If there was no Amazon results on Google, people would just type amazon.com directly on the url field and not bother with Google at all. THAT is why Amazon is always on top. Because the users WANT it to be there and Google WANT to profit from it.

[Johan007]

Users use Google to search most sites these days. Often more reliable and familiar than the site-search contained in websites. But as a user we normally add the sites name to the search term so there is no need for brands to dominate like they do. Panda has really not touched big brands that's why they are so high. OK Panda has got rid of allot spam but the collateral damage is best described as depressing. Also forgotten by Google is that big brands also contain allot of rubbish and syndicated content. One such giant brand in the UK guilty of this is TalkTalk contains allot of syndicated content. Google will not touch them! Its not just Panda but Penguin that does not touch brands. For example what about all those affiliate links at the bottom of Amazon, iMDB etc...

[Martin Ice Web]

@nutterum, there u have it. google is just not able to make something on their won. They ALLWAYS use others to push their projects. In your example it is amazon. In other cases it is quite simply by scaping content from other sources (pages). google has to manipulate the serps to their own advantage as the sites they scrape from are simply better than theirs. And they sell it as a panda quality alogrithm.

[espaconline]

Any feedback on Brazil market?

[supercyberbob]

Yes. I once bought some fish at a market in Brazil, and it was yummy.

[EditorialGuy]

Panda has really not touched big brands that's why they are so high.

It has in my sector, ever since the May, 2014 Panda update (Panda 4.0). Megasites now longer dominate the top search results as they did before Google implemented the "subject authority" boost that Matt Cutts said was coming more than 18 months ago.

[seoskunk]

Yes. I once bought some fish at a market in Brazil, and it was yummy.

Was it red herring or is that just this update?

[Whitey]

Panda has really not touched big brands that's why they are so high.

It has in my sector, ever since the May, 2014 Panda update (Panda 4.0). Megasites now longer dominate the top search results as they did before Google implemented the "subject authority" boost that Matt Cutts said was coming more than 18 months ago.

Some observations backed up with some insider information :

1. Some big brands with zero quality content were hit previously [ e-commerce and business listings ]
2. A huge brand which converted to an affiliate recently seems to have sailed through, so far, unhurt [ but they are busy writing stacks of new "blah" "blah" low quality unique content ] - my hunch, they will survive. The industry is SEO/Google decimated and consolidating fast.
3. New players making forays into the sector look to be gun shy of SEO tactics. They have painful memories
4. Google assets with paid listings in key verticals in SERP's remain a bigger threat. Expect more.


If anyone can report sites coming back with new UI/UX and quality content additions - I think the community could do to be inspired.

For the record, I give zilch emphasis to SEO as a major channel now. If it happens, great.

Better to get you other channels and strategic goals in order rather than chasing after a dream that is outside your control long term. Technology and SEO are prone to such rapid change and really are unfaithful business partners. Best to focus on what you can control and rely on.

[Johan007]

Best to focus on what you can control and rely on.

That leaves us with Facebook! Twitter does not convert. Email ends up lost under the promotions filter.

SE positioning should show sites on merit and this Panda causes collateral damage (since 2011!). A few good sites being hit amongst the trash all for the greater good. We need a Panda resubmit option. I frankly think this slow Panda roll out is BS and the real reason is not technical but political or other. Personally I blame Bing and the others for doing very little and giving up on search to Google.

[supercyberbob]

So when's the next Panda update? :)

Several months after the several months this one will take to roll out. haha.

That'll be next July. Yup. You heard it here first.

[RedBar]

For the record, I give zilch emphasis to SEO as a major channel now. If it happens, great.

Unfortunately I have to agree with this unless one is a huge Google buddy with millions of $ venture funding.

[EditorialGuy]

So when's the next Panda update? :)

Several months after the several months this one will take to roll out. haha.

I think their goal is to have Panda running, in one way or another, all the time. Maybe this "slow rollout" update is a step toward that.

[webmuppet]

I think their goal is to have Panda running, in one way or another, all the time. Maybe this "slow rollout" update is a step toward that.

It would be nice if this was true but has there been any even vague information from Google to suggest this?

[Johan007]

There is no evidence of a slow roll out (other than what Google has said).