40% Of SEOs Say Farmer/Panda Hurt Their Sites In Google

Mar 11, 2011 • 8:30 am | comments (18) by twitter Google+ | Filed Under Google Search Engine Optimization
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Google Farmer Panda Poll ResultsOn February 24th, the Google Farmer Update touched down and it changed 12% of Google's search results. Sounds big, doesn't it? But how many of the readers here, a good sampling of SEOs, did it impact overall?

I ran a poll about five days after Farmer/Panda was rolled out asking how did this update impact you. We had 313 responses to date, which isn't a bad sampling size. Of course, you have to consider those who were impacted are more likely to respond, but anyway, let me share the results with you.

  • 40% said Less Google Traffic (Negative Impact) (128)
  • 25% said Same Google Traffic (No Impact) (80)
  • 18% said More Google Traffic (Positive Impact) (56)
  • 14% said Don't Know Yet (44)
  • 1.6% said an Other answer... (5)

I certainly hope you are not part of that 40% but if you are, we do have some actionable advice from Google. Google said if you were hit then you need to remove the low quality content from your web site. Once you do that and Google notices the change, you should start ranking normally again.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion continued at Sphinn.

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Comments:

Michael Thomson

03/11/2011 01:33 pm

Only Google US affected so far, right? Maybe run again when rest of world is impacted. Sure us Brits will be fine (on his knee's with hands together).

Barry Schwartz

03/11/2011 01:36 pm

Correct.

Ryan Bradley

03/11/2011 02:46 pm

Most of my older sites were affected a little bit. My newer sites not so much since I've been working on branding related links. Luckily I didn't drop off the face of the Earth, I've had many colleagues who say they were hurt badly by this update.

Nick Stamoulis

03/11/2011 03:31 pm

This is a good example of why you can't just rely on the search engines for traffic. If Google shut down tomorrow, my site would probably lose about 30% of its traffic. But I have a lot of other activities going to make sure they I don't completely disappear. You can't put all your traffic eggs in one basket.

Robert Kirk

03/11/2011 04:45 pm

Hi Barry Any ideas when you think this will hit UK?

Barry Schwartz

03/11/2011 04:46 pm

I'd guess a couple more weeks.

Robert Kirk

03/11/2011 04:54 pm

Hopefully the sooner the better :) so I can see if any of my or client websites are affected.

Andrew Hallinan

03/11/2011 05:26 pm

Why are people so surprised that their rankings have fallen? If you'd have been doing the right types of marketing - IE providing value to the consumer... Google would have "known" that and not penalized you. I can't wait until black hat SEOs are unable to compete and need to go work at McDonalds.

Stupidscript

03/11/2011 09:45 pm

Basically agreeing with A.Hallinan ... since most professional SEOs are in business to essentially game the system, it comes as no surprise that their sites are affected when Google pushes back. In addition, I would bet that most pro SEOs have a few black/grey hat "tricks" that they use to differentiate themselves from their competition, and it is those "tricks" that contribute to their sites' rank changes. Then again, they could just be making noises so their bosses don't recognize poor workmanship, because Google is soooo easy to blame ... i.e. "Boss, our rankings have fallen, AGAIN! That darn Google update is unfairly punishing us!!" (shakes fist) I've seen it countless times.

Stockbridge Truslow

03/12/2011 12:17 am

I always feel like questions like this are a bit sideways. Google is there to provide search for searchers. Shouldn't the question be, "How did Farmer/Panda affect your ability to find what you were looking for?" ;)

CloudhostingUK

03/12/2011 10:20 am

But websites doesn't have a chance to speak about the changes they just again have to improve their selves to make good business again.

Jonathon Hewitt

03/12/2011 02:16 pm

My website had no impact.

Webnauts

03/12/2011 08:16 pm

Well, looks like not myself and none of my customers have been hit! Am I probably doing something right? LOL

Cheap Cars For Sale

03/12/2011 09:43 pm

How Classifieds ads sites can play with the farmer.panda update ?? Classifieds ads sites aren't about good or quality content. According to the parameters Google is using to penalize sites, classifieds sites should disappear soon, I guess. ¿@-@?

Jared Stevens

03/14/2011 12:15 am

People complaining about google remind me of women complaining about men in a relationship. Typically, men are simple creatures that only need a couple of things to be happy and don't need a complicated explanation. Google is the same way. Quality content quality content quality content. That's all they've ever wanted! Yet people continue to try and game them and this is what happens. It's not really a mystery, it's simply what happens when people try to work the search engines instead if letting them work.

Aluminium Kozijnen

03/14/2011 09:00 am

I think this is correct.. Aluminium Kozijnen

Randy Pickard

03/14/2011 05:21 pm

In a couple of categories I follow closely, the major rejiggering of the rankings that occurred with the Farmer update has been followed with rankings that have become very static with little movement. I have not noticed any of the sites that were demoted regain their rankings.

Deen Jsp

04/10/2011 12:41 pm

maybe i was one of the unsure.. :-) anyway thanks for updating us about this Google panda

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