A Guide to Panda and Penguin Updates

PENGUIN & PANDA

A GUIDE TO GOOGLE UPDATES



WHAT DO THEY TARGET?



Unnatural inbound links



High number of site-wide inbound links



Aggressive internal linking



LOW QUALITY LINKS



Excessive links from low quality sites



Low quality directory listing and article marketing



PENGUIN



Over use of exact match anchor text



Keyword stuffing in content



Low anchor text diversity



PANDA



Thin content



High ad-to-content ratio



LOW QUALITY CONTENT



Poor user experience



High bounce rates



Duplicate content



GOOGLE UPDATE TIMELINE



MAY DAY 2010

Large scale drops in long-tail traffic occurred in May 2010. Google confirmed an algorithm update targeting thin content, foreshadowing the Panda updates of 2011.



PANDA 1.0 24TH FEBRUARY 2011

Penguin update rolls out targeting content farms, thin content and ad heavy sites.

12% of queries impacted



11TH APRIC 2011 PANDA 2.0

Update rolled out Panda to all English queries worldwide.

2% of queries impacted.



PANDA 2.1 9TH MAY 2011

Minor tweaks to Panda 2.0. Google doesn't reveal impact data.



21ST JUNE 2011 PANDA 2.2

Unlike Panda 2.1, this update was officially acknowledged by Google.



PANDA 2.3 23RD JULY 2011

New signals introduced to differentiate between higher and lower quality sites.



12TH AUGUST 2011 PANDA 2.4

Panda goes international as it is rolled out both for English-language queries globally and non-English queries except for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

6-9% of queries impacted in affected countries



PANDA 2.5 28TH SEPTEMBER 2011

No data released by Google, but some sites report huge losses.



5TH OCTOBER 2011 PANDA "FLUX"

Matt Cutts reports: "expect some Panda-related flux in the next few weeks"

2% of queries impacted



QUERY ENCRYPTION 18TH OCTOBER 2011

Google announces it will now hide organic search referral data from users logged into Google. Keywords attributed as "not provided" in Google Analytics.



3RD NOVEMBER 2011 FRESHNESS UPDATE

Large scale update to reward freshness. Update focused mainly on time-sensitive results.

35% of queries impacted



PANDA 3.1 18TH NOVEMBER 2011

Panda 3.0 went unannounced but was though to rectify sites unfairly hit by previous updates. 3.1 was a minor update.

<1% of queries impacted



18TH JANUARY 2012 PANDA 3.2

Data refresh confirmed by Google. Some sites reported that they had recovered rankings to pre-Panda levels.



TOP HEAVY UPDATE 19TH JANUARY 2012

Google updates their page lay-out algorithms devaluing sites with a large number of ads above the fold.



27TH FEBRUARY 2012 VENICE

Google makes reference to an update named "Venice" which sees local results integrated more regularly into search results.



PANDA 3.3

Much like Panda 3.2, this was another data refresh.



23RD MARCH 2012 PANDA 3.4

Latest update announced by Google via Twitter.

1.6% of queries impacted



PANDA 3.5 19TH APRIL 2012

Anther routine update that appeared to have minimal impact.



24TH APRIL 2012 PENGUIN 1.0

Penguin update rolls out targeting web spam to decrease rankings of sites in breach of Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

3.1% of search queries in English impacted



PANDA 3.6 27TH APRIL 2012

Another minor update with a small impact on queries.



25TH MAY 2012 PENGUIN 1.1

First Penguin algorithm data refresh. A much smaller number of queries affected than the initial roll out.

<0.1% of search queries impacted



PANDA 3.7 8TH JUNE 2012

A larger Panda update than 3.5 & 3.6.

1% of search queries impacted



25TH JUNE 2012 PANDA 3.8

Another data refresh is rolled out but there are no apparent algorithm changes.



LINK WARNINGS 19TH JULY 2012

Google sends out unnatural link warnings via Google Webmaster Tools.



24TH JULY 2012 PANDA 3.9

Results fluctuated for 5-6 days before stabilising as Google rolled out the latest Panda update.

1% of search queries impacted PENGUIN O PANDA A GUIDE TO GOOGLE UPDATES WHAT DO THEY TARGET? PANDA Unnatural inbound links Thin content High number of site-wide inbound links Over use of exact match anchor text High ad-to-content ratio Aggressive internal linking LOW QUALITY LINKS Keyword stuffing in content LOW QUALITY CONTENT Poor user experience Excessive links from low quality sites Low anchor text diversity High bounce rates Low quality directory listing and article marketing Duplicate content PENGUIN GOOGLE UPDATE TIMELINE MAY DAY 2010 Large scale drops in long-tail traffic occured in May 2010. Google confirmed an algorithm update targeting thin content, foreshadowing the Panda updates of 2011. PANDA 1.0 Penguin update rolls out targeting content farms, thin content and ad heavy sites. 12% of queries impacted 24TH FEBRUARY 2011 PANDA 2.0 Update rolled out Panda to all English queries worldwide. 2% of queries impacted 11TH APRIL 2011 PANDA 2.1 Minor tweaks to Panda 2.0. Google doesn't reveal impact data. 9TH MAY 2011 PANDA 2.2 21ST JUNE 2011 Unlike Panda 2.1, this update was officially acknowledged by Google. PANDA 2.3 New signals introduced to differentiate between higher and lower quality sites. 23RD JULY 2011 PANDA 2.4 Panda goes international as it is rolled out both for English-language queries globally and non-English queries except for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. 6-9% of queries impacted in affected countries 12TH AUGUST 2011 PANDA 2.5 No data released by Google, but some sites report huge losses. 28TH SEPTEMBER 2011 PANDA “FLUX" 5TH OCTOBER 2011 Matt Cutts reports: "expect some Panda-related flux in the next few weeks" QUERY ENCRYPTION 2% of queries impacted Google announces it will now hide organic search referral data from users logged into Google. Keywords are attributed as "not prodived' in 18TH OCTOBER 2011 FRESHNESS UPDATE Google Analytics. Large scale update to reward freshness. Update focused mainly on time-sensitive results. 35% of queries impacted 3RD NOVEMBER 2011 PANDA 3.1 Panda 3.0 went unannounced but was thought to rectify sites unfairly hit by previous updates. 3.1 was a minor update. <1% of queries impacted 18TH NOVEMBER 2011 PANDA 3.2 Data refresh confirmed by Google. Some sites reported that they had recovered rankings to pre-Panda levels. 18TH JANUARY 2012 TOP HEAVY UPDATE Google updates their page lay-out algorithms devaluing sites with a large number of ads above the fold. 19TH JANUARY 2012 VENICE Google makes reference to an update named "Venice' which sees local results intergrated more regularly into search results. PANDA 3.3 27TH FEBRUARY 2012 Much like Panda 3.2, this was another data refresh. PANDA 3.4 23RD MARCH 2012 Latest update announced by Google via Twitter. 1.6% of queries impacted PANDA 3.5 Another routine update that appeared to have minimal impact. 19TH APRIL 2012 PENGUIN 1.0 Penguin update rolls out targeting web spam to decrease rankings of sites in breach of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. 24TH APRIL 2012 PANDA 3.6 3.1% of search queries in English impacted Another minor update with a small impact on queries. 27TH APRIL 2012 PENGUIN 1.1 First Penguin algorithm data refresh. A much smaller number of queries are affected than the initial roll out. <0.1% of search queries impacted 25TH MAY 2012 PANDA 3.7 A larger Panda update than 3.5 & 3.6. 1% of search queries impacted 8TH JUNE 2012 PANDA 3.8 Another data refresh is rolled out but there are no 25TH JUNE 2012 apparent algorithm changes. LINK WARNINGS Google sends Out unnatural link warnings via Google Webmaster Tools. 19TH JULY 2012 PANDA 3.9 Results fluctuated for 5-6 days before stabilising as Google rolled out the latest Panda update. 1% of search queries impacted 24TH JULY 2012