Google Panda Expalined

What is Google Panda?

Google Panda is an updation to Google’s search algorithms, which was first released in Feb’2011. 

This updation aimed at lowering the rank of thin site or lower quality sites and results high quality sites with original & regularly updated content at top of search results. (What are thin sites? Thin sites are those that have content with no added value to the customers this may be either by providing repetitive content, copied content or multiple links (called Thin links) which have no added value for the reader.)

Hear Matt Cutts what are thins sites Mat Cutts explain Thin sites

Google panda affects the rating of the entire site or major sections rather than individual pages. It access the following questions in determining weather your site may be considered a high quality deep site or a thin shallow site. (These are not definitive questions / actual signal of algorithms, but rather a general guiding principal to help you access your sites content).

• Can you trust the content of this site
• Is it written by an expert or an enthusiast on the topic, or is a shallow/copied content?
• Can you trust with providing your credit card information on the site?
• Does the site have duplicate/ similar content, with slightly different variation in keywords?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

One should ask this questions while developing their website & please remember that since Panda affects the entire ranking of your website rather than a particular page so your repetitive/no-value/shallow content on one or few pages can bring down your entire website.

While it was launched to target content farms, it s side effect was on small business owners/sites of local business which are less authoritative regardless of whether they have stellar, original or poor content.

Local business started getting effected as a result as they were not able to compete with large/national brands even if they offered better service or offer in the local area. Since its initial launch Panda has various updates. This info graphic from singlegrains sums them up

Panda Update 1, AKA
Panda 1.0, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)

Panda Update 2, AKA
Panda 2.0, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)

Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)

Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 8 AKA
Panda 3.0, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)

Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)

Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)

Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)

Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)

Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)

Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)

Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)

Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)

Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)

Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)

Panda Update 20 , Sept. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announced

Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)

Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)

Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)

Panda Update 25, March 15, 2013 (confirmed as coming; not confirmed as having happened)

Google Panda Updates

Latest Update of Google Panda

The latest update for Panda from Google was Panda 4.1 which was rolled out in October’ 14. It is expected that this update will help local business & smaller sites with original content rank better. Here it what Google said in a statement “Based on user (and webmaster!) Feedback, we’ve been able to discover a few more signals to help Panda identify low-quality content more precisely. This results in a greater diversity of high-quality small- and medium-sized sites ranking higher, which is nice.”