(25)
Today is a day no SEO and many webmasters will never forget, it is the day Google launched their Panda algorithm. On February 24, 2011, three years ago today, Google changed the SEO space forever by building an algorithm that would downgrade low-value content.
Panda had a larger impact on Google's search results than most, if not all, search quality related algorithms in Google's history. SEOs may argue that Penguin was felt more, and it likely was by SEOs, especially after Panda, but Panda probably had a wider imprint.
Since then, we had about 25 Panda refreshes and updates, here are some:
- Panda #25 on March 15, 2013
- Panda #24 on January 22, 2013
- Panda #23 on December 21, 2012
- Panda #22 on November 21st
- Panda #22 on November 21st
- Panda #21 on November 5th
- Panda #20 on September 27th
- Panda 3.9.2 on September 18th
- Panda 3.9.1 on August 20th
- Panda 3.9 on July 24th
- Panda 3.8 on June 25th
- Panda 3.7 on June 9th
- Panda 3.6 on April 27th
- Panda 3.5 on April 19th
- Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
- Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
- Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
- Panda 3.1 on November 18th
- Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
- Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
- Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
- Panda 2.5 on September 28th
- Panda 2.4 in August
- Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
- Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
- Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
- Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
- Panda 1.0 on February 24th
Google stopped confirming Panda updates last year and then started doing rolling updates but that doesn't mean they haven't done work on fine tuning the algo. They softened it recently and there have been refreshes monthly, some larger than others but it is hard to know if it was Panda or something else.
Anyway, Panda is a significant update that is still felt today throughout our space.
Forum discussion at Google+.
Comments:
Michael Martinez
02/24/2014 02:26 pm
Nonsense. There is nothing different about search engine optimization today from four years ago. It's just not as easy for people to get by with suboptimal practices, which includes what Panda was targeting.
Barry Schwartz
02/24/2014 02:27 pm
Depends on what type of SEO company you were 3 years ago. Many have changed a lot of what they’ve done compared to three years ago.
StevenLockey
02/24/2014 04:57 pm
Well, Link building 4-5 years ago was more 'shotgun', now its pretty much non-existent. The focus is certainly on content more than gaming the system now for any legit SEO.
Tian_Mian
02/24/2014 05:03 pm
Why would you react to Mr. Nonsense's nonsense? Even my dog's crap knows more about SEO than that guy.
James
02/24/2014 05:17 pm
Nonsense. 4 years ago, so-called SEOs could trick Google into ranking sites with poor, thin content, using shady backlinks. That crap no longer works, thankfully.
Sandeep Mishra
02/24/2014 06:06 pm
I am much effected this post. But i tell one thing if and updation are not effect the work of best SEO expert. i really like your post sir thanks...
Michael Martinez
02/24/2014 07:46 pm
If what you did 4 years isn't working today it was not OPTIMAL and if it was not optimal IT WAS NOT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. All the miserable tactics people call "SEO" don't mean they were optimizing for search. It just means they never understood what SEO was all about. So, no, it does not depend on "what type of SEO company you were 3 years ago" because if you got nailed you were NOT doing SEO. Period. Q.E.D. Leave it at that (but you guys won't).
osman musa
02/24/2014 10:57 pm
Less is more now. Even natural link building will get u negative effect like what happened to me when I just recently got penalized for having a natural dofollow pr8 back link from Microsoft.com
Ñehko
02/24/2014 11:09 pm
3 years of leaving collateral victims behind, and making miserable other people's life.
sonuparashar
02/25/2014 07:15 am
Happy B'day Google Panda
Matty
02/25/2014 12:36 pm
How do you know you got a penalty from that link? just curious
Patti Paz
02/25/2014 12:51 pm
Does anyone truly think that the search results on Google is better TODAY than they were three years ago?? I, for one, do not!! Let's just hope that Google goes the way of those other once king of the hill companies like Kodak, IBU, GM, and so on.
I-love-those-adwords-Im-stupid
02/25/2014 01:09 pm
But.... the Adwords are MUCH MUCH MUCH better and because of that, the general public are happy being fooled clicking on those.
Mutt-Cats-Loves-Links
02/25/2014 01:15 pm
But Mutt Cats said that the SERPS look a hell of a lot worse without links being taken into consideration. So links still beat content. If you have crap links for instance, your content can be the best in the world and you won´t get a look in. On the other hand, your content can be complete crap but if you have good links backing it up, you are golden.
PM Fiorini
02/25/2014 04:01 pm
It appears only *YOU* are capable of really understanding SEO.
barbua
02/25/2014 05:03 pm
google quality now = more money and no any quality. at future it will even more stupid.
osman musa
02/25/2014 08:47 pm
It started like right after I got it and noticed referral traffic arriving from the site in analytics and I suspect it is a penalty because my traffic was all of a sudden reduced by 60% and some search terms I am still on top of page 1. If they are gonna penalize me why don't they just do it all the way and totally get rid of me? This half punishment thing makes no sense.
osman musa
02/25/2014 09:05 pm
No they are not better. Proof is if u Google HTC One pros and Cons. One of those authors onfirst page results doesn't know what a pro and con means.
osman musa
02/25/2014 09:07 pm
Oh I forgot to mention I was making a nice $600 a month and after penalty its down to 200 a month. I will study and analyze why lots of my articles are top page while others are nowhere to be found.
Michael Martinez
02/25/2014 09:31 pm
"It appears only *YOU* are capable of really understanding SEO." Only YOU can make that true.
Haggie
02/26/2014 02:16 am
Three years ago, I ran the sales organization for a tech company that generated 75% of its business from Google AdWords. Immediately after Panda, our sales collapsed and no amount of SEO could resuscitate it. The company never recovered. I left a few months ago after a growing dynamic company of 25 employees was whittled down to a skeleton crew of five.
StevenLockey
02/27/2014 02:01 pm
Pure BS. There is a lot more too it and I think you know it. Its a combination of 200+ factors, links are an important factor but by no means the sole deciding factor. Thats been shown many many times.
PM Fiorini
02/28/2014 05:14 pm
LOL! Just giving you a hard time.
Gracious Store
03/01/2014 12:59 am
Three years since the face of SE was changed by panda, besides the vague phrase "quality conetent" is the new face of SEO well articulated and understaood by SEO companies and webmasters?
Michael LaHatte
03/01/2014 03:06 am
Google's search results are very poor these days. Bing seems to have better quality search results... But Google is definitely forcing Adwords on everyone...