Google has announced that the latest version of its Panda algorithm — a filter designed to penalize “thin” or poor content from ranking well — has been released.
Google said in a post on Google+ that a “slow rollout” began earlier this week and will continue into next week, before being complete. Google said that depending on location, about 3%-to-5% of search queries will be affected.
Anything different about this latest release? Google says it’s supposed to be more precise and will allow more high-quality small and medium-sized sites to rank better which is great news for our clients who have high quality content on their websites. (What is quality content?)
The rollout means anyone who was penalized by Panda in the last update has a chance to emerge, if they made the right changes. So if you were hit by Panda, made alterations to your site, you’ll know by the end of next week if those were good enough, if you see an increase in traffic.
The rollout also means that new sites not previously hit by Panda might get impacted. If you’ve seen a sudden traffic drop from Google this week, or note one in the coming days, then this latest Panda Update is likely to blame.
If you have any questions about this update, or about the content on your website and how it can affect your rankings, please contact us on 01202 677 277.