2011: The Year of the Panda

I attended Pub­Con in Las Vegas in Novem­ber 2010.  I was intrigued by a num­ber of com­ments (hints) that Google’s Matt Cutts had men­tioned in var­i­ous ses­sions.  He kept com­ment­ing on the fact that the Google web­spam team had regrouped and would be tak­ing some dis­tinct action against web­spam and things such as dupli­cate con­tent.  Lit­tle did we know that within about sixty days these com­ments seemed haunt­ingly accu­rate. On Jan­u­ary 26th Google launched their “Farmer Update” an algo­rithm change that focused on con­tent, scraped con­tent and such.  High qual­ity con­tent sites would be rewarded while low qual­ity sites began to be devalued.

• Panda Update 1.0: Feb. 24, 2011
• Panda Update 2.0: April 11, 2011
• Panda Update 2.1: May 10, 2011
• Panda Update 2.2: June 16, 2011
• Panda Update 2.3: July 23, 2011
• Panda Update 2.4: August 12, 2011
• Panda Update 2.5: Sep­tem­ber 28, 2011

There have also been some minor tweaks as well:

• Panda Tweak: Octo­ber 3, 2011
• Panda Tweak: Octo­ber 13, 2011
• Panda Tweak: Novem­ber 18, 2011

The Panda updates along with the orig­i­nal update have had more impact than any other updates that we have seen (even more that the Florida update from 2003).  So big in fact that it has been stated that Panda is an algo­rithm unto itself. Google has com­mu­ni­cated that we can expect to see reg­u­lar Panda updates from here on.  Here are some key facts about Google Panda:

• the update was focused on pro­mot­ing high qual­ity con­tent and devalu­ing con­tent of lower quality
• the Panda update works in con­junc­tion with other Google algo­rithm changes such as the Google Vince Update (where brands were given a boost in the results)
• Panda is a site-wide assess­ment so even your high qual­ity pages can be impacted
• recur­ring Panda updates are due (in part) to new sig­nals being incor­po­rated into the Panda algorithm
• some Panda related updates are based on recal­cu­la­tions of how sites per­form within the Panda algorithms

Keep in mind that this is just Panda.  Google has been rolling out addi­tional algo­rithm updates includ­ing the recent “Fresh­ness Update” whereby as Google states the new fresh­ness algo­rithm “…bet­ter deter­mines when to give you more up-to-date rel­e­vant results for these vary­ing degrees of fresh­ness.”  The pur­pose of this update which is based off Google’s Caf­feine infra­struc­ture is to pri­or­i­tize “recent” & “timely” results. The goal is to sur­face more recently pub­lished con­tent in the results relat­ing to cer­tain types of queries.

What Do These Algo­rithm Changes Mean for You?

Algo­rithm updates are not going away, in fact expect to see more of them.  For bet­ter or worse, these algo­rithm changes have had an impact on a num­ber of sites.  Whether Google’s search results have improved remains to be seen, but at the end of the day Google is sim­ply try­ing to pro­vide the best search results pos­si­ble and we can­not fault them for that.  It’s a daunt­ing task and Google being the pre­mier player means that the search results have under­gone and will con­tinue to undergo change like never before.  Just because you have vis­i­bil­ity for <insert key phrase here> in the top spot in Google today does not mean that you will have this vis­i­bil­ity tomor­row (even if you have ranked num­ber one for years).  Organic search means that we are at the mercy of the algo­rithms, there are sim­ply some things that are out of our con­trol and we just have to let the algo­rithms run their course.  How­ever there are some things that you as online mar­keters, web­mas­ters, site own­ers and SEOs can do to keep on top of the algo­rithm updates.

How to Pre­pare for 2012

Accord­ing to some prophets and the Mayan cal­en­dar [http://www.december2012endofworld.com/mayan-calendar-2012], some say that the world is com­ing to an end in Decem­ber 2012.  Well I fully expect to be using Google in Jan­u­ary 2013 and beyond and will expect to be deal­ing with even more algo­rithm changes mov­ing for­ward.  So what will you need to do in 2012 and beyond to effec­tively drive your online and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing efforts while deal­ing with search engine algo­rithm updates?  Here are a few items that will help you pre­pare for cur­rent and future algo­rithm updates

1. Be aware of the algo­rithm updates – pay atten­tion to when Google releases/announces an algo­rithm change or update.  Google is get­ting bet­ter at com­mu­ni­cat­ing these announce­ments via their Inside Search or Offi­cial Google Blogs.
2. Cre­ate a Year-over-Year (YOY) Google Traf­fic Com­par­i­son – com­pare your monthly organic traf­fic in Google between 2010 and 2011.  Was your site in fact impacted by Google algo­rithm changes?  Or was is sim­ply a result of your own site errors?  Google tends (but not always) to release algo­rithm updates in the first quar­ter (Jan-Mar) and in Octo­ber.  Pay atten­tion to your traf­fic trends in these months.
3. Clean up dupli­cate con­tent – this is a prob­lem with almost every site that we see.  Dupli­cate con­tent can be caused indi­rectly where you may not even be aware that you have dupli­cate con­tent on your site.  Take inven­tory of your con­tent and make intel­li­gent deci­sions about how to syn­di­cate your con­tent.  Look for future Google algo­rithms to be tak­ing a harder look at dupli­cate con­tent.  Address this now so that you are not impacted in a neg­a­tive man­ner later.
4. Work on improv­ing usabil­ity and site engage­ment – cre­ate a site that peo­ple will not only want to visit, but will want to stay on once they arrive there.  Cre­ate a site where peo­ple will want to share your con­tent, link to your con­tent and return to your content.
5. Cre­ate high qual­ity con­tent – for­get about push­ing out those lame arti­cles just for the sake of adding con­tent to your site.  Cre­ate con­tent that helps your site become the author­ity on your sub­ject mat­ter.  Con­tent is the secret to your suc­cess.  More specif­i­cally highly engag­ing, high qual­ity con­tent will serve you well.  Cre­ate a new con­tent devel­op­ment and con­tent pro­mo­tion strat­egy for 2012.

Google has been aggres­sive with their algo­rithm changes and updates in 2011.  There is no indi­ca­tion that this will change in 2012.  While we are all at the mercy of the mighty algo­rithms, we can take solace in the fact that if we pro­duce high qual­ity con­tent and cre­ate a highly engag­ing site expe­ri­ence, regard­less of Google algo­rithm changes, we will expe­ri­ence suc­cess in our dig­i­tal and online efforts.


Biography / Resume : Jody has been specializing in organic search for the better part of the past decade. Having spent seven years with Mediative (formerly Enquiro), Jody has dealt with some of the largest brands in the world reviewing sites, providing insightful analysis and mapping online strategies for our clients. Jody has contributed articles to leading industry resources such as Search Engine Guide, Web Pro News Canada, Search Engine Journal and his own blog Marketing-Jive.com. Jody has created and developed SEO for Website Redesign solutions, has prepared numerous SEO best practices and is an advocate of continuous improvement. Jody plays a key role in helping Mediative deliver cutting edge search strategies, assisting clients with adapting to the ever-changing online universe.