How Google’s Panda Algorithm is changing the web

15 Replies Colleen Simpson

On April 11, 2011 Google announced on it’s Webmaster Central Blog sweeping changes to it’s search index. In an effort to promote high quality websites and eliminate websites that have poor content the algorithm was adjusted. This adjustment incorporated “feedback signals” which are expected to help Google users find better search results.

What started out as something small

What was described by Amit Singhal, Google fellow, as a “small” update, affected only 2% of US queries has turned out to radical. CNET describes the Google’s algorithm as “radical” and reports the websites that have been affected by reduced rankings.

Great websites drop in ranking

The British Medical Journal, the Cult of Mac, and WikiHow all dropped in visibility. Considered to be reputable sources, and not content farm, these reduction in rank show the algorithm still needs some fine tuning. Other websites that might be considered content farms have been dropped as well.

Facebook, Yelp & Twitter rise in rankings

Websites to increase in ranking are Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. These websites moving up begs a question though. Facebook already has over 500 million active users, of which, 50% log in each day. Does this website really not already appear “high” enough in the search engine. In addition, social media is changing Google search results with the adoption of the “Plus One” on Google and “Likes” on Bing.

Facebook increase in rankings and wikiHow decrease in rankings

Local Searches Soar

Despite the rise of social media websites and some news sources, many poor websites have fallen in ranking, as was expected from this Panda Algorithm shift.

Local searches have significantly improved, however, due to this shift in the algorithm. Websites of companies that are popular in the United States (David’s Bridal, Barnes and Nobles, Walgreens) all appear prominently in the US search index, but not in the UK index. This shift paves the way for a greater index in international search engine results. Improving international search results is a significant win for Google’s index.

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15 thoughts on “How Google’s Panda Algorithm is changing the web”

  1. Samantha Dermot

    Hi
    Your article was really nice to go through as some new things we got to know. Yes, there are both advantage and disadvantage of the new algorithm implemented by google. Hope to get more and more better results as it stands top in rank, “the biggest search engine” in the world of internet.
    Thanks for sharing such a nice article.

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      I agree with you on those points Samantha.

      I especially like this article, as it introduces the third author to this fledgling blog, in just it’s first week of being live!

      Thanks again for stopping by, you are the second most active commenter this month 😉
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      If I understand what you are saying Tony, it will have a big affect on many bloggers/webmasters. True to some extent, but smaller blog’s probably won’t feel that bad a hit 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by and becoming part of the community, hope to see you around again soon!
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
  3. Jakk @ Technology News

    Hey Christopher just checking up on your new website (haven’t had chance previously). I’ve designed you a new logo which you might like instead of the ‘T’ you have currently.

    I’ll email this to you within the next day or so, all the best.

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      Thanks for stopping by Jakk.

      I kind of like the logo, but I know there are a few flaws that my creative mind haven’t managed to address yet, so I look forward to your ideas!

      Thanks for becoming part of the community 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
  4. Travis@TradeTechSports

    Being a newbie blogger, Im still learning, but it seems like most of the “pros” all say the same thing with driving traffic and the new algo…as long as your content is good and your not spamming to every article directory, your traffic shouldn’t be hugely affected. Good info on the local searches 🙂

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      That is true Travis. If you have loads of great quality links to your site, fantastic content and update every so often, you should be safe from any major drop in rankings when a new algorithm comes into affect.

      Travis you mention that you are a newbie blogger, why not write a guest post here? You get a link on the our authors page + on the sidebar of every page, loads of great people reading your content on the blog, via email or through the social web, you get a link on the sidebar, but most importantly you can get known very quickly.

      Can you trust me – will it really help your blog? Well this blog is 10 days old tomorrow and it’s already had 35 comments (excluding this one I am writing) from 14 different people. The traffic has blown me away, (just check the Alexa ranking) and there have already been 3 guest bloggers posting!

      How have I done this? Well I hope to explain (without sounding to big headed!) in an article some time soon, but basically I know what needs to be done to build a successful blog.

      Think about it 🙂

      Thanks for the comment Travis 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
  5. SEO Gurgaon

    Interesting one of my sites that I wrote a lot of content for just fell off I had a few backlinks to it. I wondering if it was b/c I hadn’t added any new content for over three months?

    Reply
    • Christopher (admin team)

      It could be Harion. It could also be due to the introduction of a new algorithm…

      Thanks for taking the time to become part of the community 🙂
      Christopher – Admin Team

      Reply
  7. Amit

    I’ve already seen most people managed to get up after being slapped with Panda. Like you said, some great websites went down in ranking, but i believe they’re only going to get back up there slowly. No way Google will let them stay down there, there’s no reason for it.

    Reply
  8. Jarrod Frenzel@Carlton Woods

    I did notice the results that Google returns nowadays are not as good as expected. Bing, on teh other hand, is doing a great job with their search results. I know a lot of people who are seriously considering Bing as an alternative. This may be a big problem for Google. They are going to have to act fast.

    Reply
  9. Usman

    I think Panda update from Google has affected a lot of publishers and webmasters but it was made for improving quality. We can expect to have more quality content on top in the next few months..

    Reply

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