The Panda Update

Launched in February 2011, the Panda Update was a major algorithm change aimed at lowering the rank of “low-quality sites” or “thin sites”, and returning higher-quality sites near the top of search results. This update was named after Google engineer Navneet Panda, who developed the technology.

 

Fallouts and Highlights from the Update

The Panda Update caused significant upheaval in the SEO world, affecting an estimated 12% of all search results. Many content farms, which had previously dominated search results with mass-produced, low-quality content, saw their traffic plummet overnight.

One of the most high-profile casualties was Demand Media, the company behind eHow.com, which reportedly lost 66% of its search visibility. Other well-known sites like Mahalo and Associated Content also saw dramatic drops in traffic and rankings.

The update sparked intense debate in the SEO community about what constituted “quality” content. Many webmasters who believed they were producing valuable content found themselves penalised, leading to confusion and frustration.

Google’s then-head of webspam, Matt Cutts, along with Amit Singhal, published a blog post outlining 23 questions that site owners should ask themselves about the quality of their content. This became a crucial resource for SEOs trying to understand and recover from Panda penalties.

The update was initially rolled out in the US, but was soon expanded globally, causing waves of ranking changes as it hit different regions. Google also confirmed that Panda would be periodically refreshed, leading to the term “Panda Dance” to describe the regular fluctuations in rankings that followed.

 

Strategy Evolution

The Panda Update forced SEO professionals to dramatically rethink their content strategies:

1. Increased focus on creating high-quality, original content
2. Greater emphasis on user experience and engagement metrics
3. More attention to on-site quality signals like grammar, spelling, and factual accuracy
4. Development of strategies to identify and improve or remove low-quality content
5. Shift away from quantity-based content strategies towards quality-focused approaches

 

This update marked a significant shift in SEO thinking, moving beyond traditional on-page optimisation to consider broader aspects of content quality and user experience. It encouraged SEO professionals to work more closely with content creators and UX designers to ensure that websites were providing genuine value to users.

For many sites, this meant conducting comprehensive content audits, removing or improving low-quality pages, and developing more stringent editorial processes. It also led to a greater focus on creating in-depth, authoritative content that could demonstrate expertise and credibility in specific topic areas.

The Panda Update essentially raised the bar for what constituted “good” content in Google’s eyes, pushing the entire web towards higher standards of quality and user value.