Google rolled out a Panda update late on Friday. Google announced the update on twitter saying:
Panda refresh rolling out now. Only ~1.6% of queries noticeably affected.
Looking into the wording on this tweet, we can learn a few things:
(1) 1.6% of the search queries were effected, which is small but large for those hit.
(2) This is specifically a "refresh" and thus it seems like no new signals or algorithm changes were made to this Panda update. In short, they simply reran the algorithm on their index.
Panda refresh rolling out now. Only ~1.6% of queries noticeably affected. Background on Panda: goo.gl/mTKCH
— A Googler (@google) March 23, 2012
There was speculation that this update was being rolled out earlier but I am not sure if it was specific Panda related or not.
The previous Panda update was 3.3 taking place on February 26th or so. Here is the timeline:
Past Panda Updates:
- 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
There is a lot of discussion around this announcement.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.
