Google released an update to its search engine algorithm yesterday with Panda 4.0. While this wasn't completely unexpected, it was a bit strange for it to be released just a few days after the Payday Loans algorithm update was. Industry professionals are speculating that Google did this to make it less clear what the effects of either were. Watch the Daily Brown Bag to learn about the Penguin 4.0 update and what it could mean for your rankings in Google's results.
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Welcome to the Daily Brown Bag. Today we're going to be talking about some breaking news in that Google Panda 4.0 is currently rolling out. I'm Chad Hill, and I'm joined by Adam Stetzer.
Good afternoon Chad. Welcome to the Brown Bag. We do have some news to cover today. Panda 4.0 began rolling out on Tuesday of this week. We also have confirmation that the Payday Loan 2.0 update started over the weekend. There's been a lot of chatter over the last few weeks, Chad, about these updates that were coming--people knew something was up, either some sort of Payday refresh, or Panda refresh, or something else.
Panda 4.0 confirmed by Matt Cutts
It turns out- we have confirmation from Google, specifically from Matt Cutts, via a tweet, that it began rolling out a Panda update, people are calling this 4.0 - yesterday. We also, know that the Payday Loan 2.0 update started over the weekend.
We know Google is always working on their algorithm. They're trying to improve the user experience, and they have code named their algorithm updates with these different - Fuzzy Bears, to both be cute, and keep things straight, as is often done in software releases. Panda is a big part of their strategy going back - way back Chad, 'til 2011 when they started looking at low quality content.
What can we surmise from the landscape of Panda 4.0 that started yesterday, that our folks in the SEO reseller community really need to know?
What is Panda 4.0 targeting?
Yeah, and it's that time of year, I think, it seems to be that right around this time of year we see these big changes from Google. This was one that was expected, because back- at conferencing it was Pubcon, actually, Matt Cutts talked about rolling out a new version of Panda that was, maybe, a little easier on small business. Everyone was thinking about, "What does that mean?"
Well, Panda was all about trying to ferret out low quality content that was just there for the search engines, and along the way many small businesses probably don't spend- have unlimited budgets for writing the deepest, richest content in the world. So some of their websites were inadvertently impacted by Panda 4.0. So what Matt Cutts, and Google have been trying to do is fine tune that. So that it doesn't have- isn't taking out the good with the bad.
So we're seeing that rolling out. I think, really, the main thing at this point is we don't know who's going to be impacted. We know that some of the services that keep track of the Bellator- their rankings are seeing big changes in the rankings. But you need to be aware of these dates, and then watch your rankings, and if something happens there is a good chance that it might have been related to Panda.
But, as I say that, there is a lot of chatter that Google is going to be rolling out some other algorithm updates and, Adam, you mentioned this Payday Loans 2.0 which goes after these really spammy pharmaceutical payday loan type queries, but there's also some other things that Google may have in the works. So as always we're left a little bit in the dark on what's going on. But I think the main thing is just stay calm, look at your rankings, look at your traffic, and make adjustments if you need to.
Check your rankings, focus and re-tune
Right, and few things we do know, and if you're looking at this closely. Is the Payday loan update is predicted to only hit about .2 percent of English language queries. So that is very, very targeted. But the Google Panda 4.0 update, according to Search Engine Land, is expected to hit 7.5 of English language queries, so that is expected to have a much broader impact.
Again, it started rolling out so there's a good chance, and we're seeing this in some hard data, and other's are reporting it, and the surfs have already moved. If there is an impact for you it's likely already happened. Take a look at your rankings, and as Chad said, always focus and re-tune to try to get back towards more quality content, more high quality content marketing, and PR and brand work. So that's the breaking news for today. Google Panda 4.0 rolling out. Thanks for joining our Brown Bag, we hope you'll subscribe to our YouTube channel, and we'll see you here tomorrow.