I feel like I have talked and written about the Google Farmer/Panda update way too much, but the truth is, about 40% of you were impacted by this update in a bad bad way and even though you are making changes none of you are really seeing any improvement in your rankings.
I have been monitoring the forums on a daily basis, looking for anyone claiming to have been rescued from the Farmer/Panda update. So far, not one person in the forums I track claimed they are back to seeing the same levels of traffic.
Only two publishers that I know of claimed they are back after being hit by Google's update. One is Cult Of Mac and the other is Digital Inspiration. Google's Matt Cutts specifically said Cult Of Mac was not impacted by the Farmer / Panda update because if they were, they would still not be ranking. So whatever hit Cult Of Mac, it was not this update and they are back in Google for other reasons.
But Digital Inspiration may be different. Amit Agarwal posted traffic data and what he did and when get started to see his rankings improve. It is just a bit shocking to see one site come out and no one else, especially since this is an algorithmic penalty.
But look at the stats he published:
As you can see, the site's traffic is back to normal.
Why? Three possible reasons:
(1) Google updated the Farmer/Panda algorithm and other sites are coming out as well but just not reporting it yet.
(2) His site was not hit by the Farmer/Panda update but rather something else at the same time of this update. This is very possible.
(3) Google added a whitelist for the Farmer/Panda update and they were included.
I am not sure what to believe, but I am thinking it was number two - since I do not see any larger signs of other sites reporting being rescued yet.
Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:
- When To Use 404, NoIndex & 301 Redirects In Farmer/Panda Fix
- 40% Of SEOs Say Farmer/Panda Hurt Their Sites In Google
- Google: Remove Low Quality Content If You Were Impacted By Farmer/Panda
- I'm Hit! Get Your Google Rankings Back After Farmer/Panda
- How to Regain Your Rankings After the Farmer Update
- SEOs Chew On Wired's Interview With Cutts & Singhal On Farmer Update
- What's Your Name? Farmer Or Panda?
- Was Google Too Hasty with the Farmer Update? SEO's Discuss Good & Bad
- Google Accidentally Label Your Site As A Content Farm? Get Help Here
- Shocking: Google To Tweak Content Farm Algorithm
- Poll: Were You Impacted By The Google Farmer Update?
- Google Farmer Update Support Groups
- Google's Farmer Update Live: 12% Of Google's Results Forever Changed
- Google Warns Of "Big Changes Here Very Shortly"
- Correction: Google's Scraper Algorithm Now Live, Not Content Farms
- Google's Content Farm Algorithm Harm You? Categorize Your Site To Fix It.
- Confirmed: Google's Content Farm Algorithm Live! Sites Are Dropping!
- Google's Next Target: Content Farms & On Page Spam
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and WebmasterWorld.
