A long wait of an algorithm update is finally over! Gary Illyes of Google had said in June that the Panda refresh was going to come soon but, this had been delayed because of some technical reasons. Now, after ten months of waiting, Google has notified Search Engine Land that they have pushed out a Google Panda refresh this weekend on 18th July 2015.
A Google spokesperson said about Panda, “This past weekend we began a Panda update that will roll out over the coming months. As you know, we’re always working to improve Google so search results are of higher quality and more relevant for everyone and this is just one way we do that.”
This refresh known as Google Panda 4.2, was not noticed by many webmasters because this roll out is happening very slowly. This is not like the earlier Panda updates where a significant increase or decline was seen in Google’s traffic. It will take months for the update to completely roll out. Google has also stated that it is a site-wide algorithm update, but some pages will not show the change immediately. Thus, if you have been hit by this Panda update, you will not notice the full impact immediately but, you will be able to see changes in your organic rankings gradually over time.
This is the 30th Panda update since the first Panda Update that occurred on 24th Feb 2011 and the last one being on 25th Sep 2014. The first Panda update affected 11.8% queries, the last update affected 3-5% of search queries, while the recent 4.2 update affected only 2-3% of search queries. Affected search queries does not mean that they all saw loss of pages in search results because of the new refresh or updates. This percentage also includes those pages that made a return to the search engine results.
It is always seen that the refresh allows those who were penalized by Panda in the earlier update to return if they made the right changes. But, unfortunately, once Google begins rolling out the update, it is too late to apply changes that will have any effect during the rolling out phase. Updates have always had a cut-off date and any changes made after the date are applied to the next refresh or update. Thus, it is always better to keep updating your content. If you haven’t done anything like this lately, then make the necessary changes and wait for the next update to have an effect.
If you are one that has been hit by the Panda updates, then you need to get better content to help you get back to the search engine results pages when the next update or refresh takes place. For any kind of assistance on content writing or SEO, you can get in touch with Jain Technosoft, one of the leading SEO companies in Bangalore.
Since this update is rolling out slowly, we will have to wait at least for a few weeks to see the exact effect of this algorithm refresh.
