After the controversial yet undoubtedly successful series of Google Panda updates, there are expected to be many more in the coming years attributed with the same title. The Panda improvements are centered around quality control within the search engine results pages (SERP’s), notably original vs. duplicate content. Read below our interpretation of the updates 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and July’s 2.3 manual roll-out.
GOOGLE PANDA 1.0 UPDATE FEBRUARY 24TH 2011
The very first version of Panda didn’t make a stir like the 2.0 content U-turn (see below). It was a kind of light testing beta version of 2.0, geared towards gauging how the spam team could put a stop to content farming and ‘Scraping’ of content.
GOOGLE PANDA 2.0 UPDATE APRIL 11TH 2011
This was the original roll-out date for the all new element to the famous Google Algorithm. The single biggest update to the way websites are ranked, it caused a tidal wave of opinion both good and bad. Inevitably there were thousands of high profile losers, such as article distribution and content sharing platforms.
So why all the International press coverage for Panda 2.0? The e-retailers and affiliates who lost out is the simple answer. Never before have we seen a free search provider cull the marketing income of big US organisations, practically making people redundant over night.
Of course the update was wholly legal, ethical and with good intention. The spam team at Google Inc. work tirelessly to make sure they maintain their market share by way of providing the best user experience.
Knee-jerk comments and reaction we all witnessed (in the few weeks post-Panda 2.0) from some CEO’s was bordering on desperate. Being completely at the mercy of an otherwise minor policy change on content publishing, named after a cute black and white animal, left some company officials fuming at the un-announced change.
You can’t say that webmasters weren’t warned. For years Matt Cutts has publicly video-blogged about the importance of original content and giving an impression of authority. How former mega-sites like ShopSafe, Ciao and CompareStorePrices could ignore the advice and duplicate millions of product descriptions is beyond me. Original vs. duplicate content on these websites was so low they were doomed.
GOOGLE PANDA 2.2 UPDATE JUNE 2011
The latest Panda (not named 3.0 but 2.2) focus is again on content, this time concentrating more on the aptly named Scraping. Not being able to fill a website with duplicated text, spammers are currently taking advantage of instant Google indexing and scraping content from elsewhere.
In a situation where information is primarily located on a scrapers website, it could be seen as unique and genuine by Googlebots; disadvantages for the real content author are possible penalties being applied as the content is later discovered on their URL. This is extremely problematic for the search giant, as they are championing uniqueness.
GOOGLE PANDA 2.3 UPDATE JULY 2011
In what has been seen as a cynical move by many, the 2.3 Panda has again been confirmed as a manual roll-out as oppose to rolling changes. The key implications seem to be on the continuing U-turn away from consistent and unique content updates; quality score is now focusing on a more level blend of new unique content vs link score for that content.
What’s that mean in real-terms for everyday SEO? Add content but expose it as best possible. Random volumes of text is being punished, despite the uniqueness. I guess this could mean a quality against quantity approach is now visible from Google, but the emphasis remains on both elements.
Explaining products and services with fantastic copy is still paramount, including blog, but getting the message out to search engines that you offer valuable information is key. Link build the new content, bookmark it, make sure people +1 it, Facebook like it, Tweet it etc.
In summation, it just got a whole lot harder for those with less resources to compete, and SEO needs to be a fine tuned balance of on and off-page optimisation.
