Google, the search engine giant, updates its search engine algorithm by introducing Panda 4.0. Google's latest change has made marketers, webmasters and business owners wonder how it'll impact their websites and SEO efforts.
Panda is updated from time-to-time. When this happens, sites that were previously hit may escape, if they've made the right changes. Each Panda updates may also catch sites that escaped the previous versions.
For the first two years, Google Panda updates were rolled out about once a month. But in March 2013, Google stated that its future updates would be integrated into the core algorithm and, therefore, less noticeable and continuous.
Thee Panda 4.0, just like its previous versions, emphasizes high-quality websites and contents. The algorithm is built from the original Panda algorithm that was aimed at ensuring low-quality websites with scraped or copied content to not perform well in the search results. With the new algorithm, Google continues to make this a priority.
Panda 4.0, which Google and Matt Cutts confirmed began rolling out on May 21st, 2014, has definitely caused some waves in the search results. Cutts said that this update impacts about 7.5 percent of English queries. This might be a small number, but with Google's massive number of queries computed in its servers, the update can be noticeable to even regular users.
The news didn't stop there. The Panda 4.0 is also caused a wreaking havoc with some major brands on the web. On May 20th, 80 percent of eBay's prime search result listings had been banished from the first Google results page. Ask.com, Biography.com and History.com have all seen their search results decimated.
Meanwhile, some other websites have gained significant boost after the Panda 4.0 update. The most notable ones are Glassdoor.com, Emedicinehealth.com and Buzzfeed.com.
Fresh and Quality Contents
The Panda 4.0 update further emphasizes people to post high-quality content more frequently, beside than just a simple refresh or just regularly updating pages. Fresh and quality contents are most welcomed by Google. When the original Panda made low-quality websites to rank lower, the Panda 4.0 improves it to a further step.
With Panda 4.0, Google is pushing marketers, webmasters and business owners to regularly publish quality contents more often. Websites may do this by creating a blog, but a blog that is rarely updated won't help the site at all.
Posted contents should be unique, relevant and stands out to both search engines and human visitors. These contents can be an informative article, a list, video, how-to articles, and others that are related to ones' specific niche or industry. If the marketer, webmaster or the business owner don't have the time to create these fresh and high-quality content on a regular basis, they should find a solution to provide this for them.
Modern Website Structure
Content is the biggest part that makes a quality website. Beside than giving fresh and high-quality contents, there are other factors that comes to today's SEO. Quality of a website also comes from the user experience, such as its structure, meta data, user-friendly content and navigation.
As mobile devices come to play, having a website that is mobile-optimized can further impact how a site is getting indexed by search engines and found by its target audience.
Many small websites from small businesses don't have these necessary elements. Regardless of the Panda 4.0 update, these websites should be redesigned to make sure that they meet Google's recommendations.
Conclusion
The Panda 4.0 is meant to move low-quality websites down in the search results. For websites that can prove that they are useful to consumers by delivering fresh and high-quality content, the Google Panda 4.0 update is in favor for them.
