It was 11 years ago today that Google announced an algorithm update that had a massive and far-reaching impact on SEO for years to come. Here’s a complete history of the Google Panda algorithm update. What was the Google Panda update?Google Panda was a major algorithm update that impacted search rankings for 11.8% of queries in the U.S. Google said Panda was designed to reduce the rankings for low-quality sites (“ sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful”) and reward better rankings to high-quality sites (“ sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on”).The algorithm officially started rolling out on Feb. 23 but it wasn’t until Feb. 24 that we learned about it. Panda didn’t only impact content farms. Websites of all sizes, across industries, felt the wrath of Panda. There were multiple reports of companies going out of business because they had relied on Google traffic for years. Once that traffic was gone, so was their business. After its initial launch, Google announced several refreshes and updates to Panda on a near-monthly basis for the next two years (9 in 2011 and 14 in 2012). You will find a full timeline and our coverage of those updates at the bottom of this guide. Why was Google Panda launched?In 2011, Google was trying to find a solution for its content farm problem. In case you’re not familiar with the term, a “content farm” was a website that paid freelance writers (typically poorly) to pump out as much content as fast as possible. The sole goal for these companies was to rank extremely well in Google’s search results for high-traffic keywords. Article quality was typically low. Those high rankings meant these content farms got lots of traffic. And they monetized that traffic via display advertising (ironically, many of those sites were using Google AdSense.) Demand Media is probably the best example of the classic content farm model. Suite 101 was another big content farm. Interestingly, many of the content issues Google was trying to solve in 2010 had come about after the Caffeine Update. Google was now crawling content faster and its index grew quickly. But some of that content was “shallow” and it was ranking well. Business Insider even published an article with this rather blunt headline: Google’s Search Algorithm Has Been Ruined, Time To Move Back To Curation.” On TechCrunch, there was: “Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google.” Well, on Feb. 24, Google rocked the world of content farms – and the entire SEO industry. Why did Google name it Panda?In an interview with Wired, Amit Singhal revealed where the Panda name came from:
The full name of that Google engineer is Navneet Panda. However, the update wasn’t referred to as “Panda” outside of Google when it initially launched. Search Engine Land founder Danny Sullivan called it the “Farmer’ update – until the Panda name was revealed in Wired. So if you see the Farmer name pop up in any of our old coverage of Panda, that’s why. Google on ‘high-quality sites’On May 6, 2011, in an effort to help those who had been negatively impacted by Panda, Google published a list of 23 questions to provide guidance on how Google searches for high-quality sites:
Panda is part of Google’s core algorithmOn Jan. 12, 2016, we reported that Panda had become part of Google’s core algorithm. Google never confirmed an exact date when this changed. All we know with 100% certainty is that it happened at some point after Google’s last confirmed Panda update (4.2, July 17, 2015). So even though it’s been years since Google announced an update to Panda, Panda lives on. It continues to live on in the core algorithm, which means it is still impacting SEO, more than a decade later after its launch. The lasting impact of Google Panda todayGoogle Panda had an impact on SEO that lasts to this day. Here are just three big changes that came from Panda:
A complete Google Panda timelineBelow is the complete list of all 28 confirmed Panda updates and refreshes. Oh, and since we didn’t discuss that yet, an update meant Google actually changed the Panda algorithm in some way, while a refresh meant Google reapplied all the same signals from the most recent update. Here’s Search Engine Land’s coverage of Panda, from 2011 to 2016: Feb. 23, 2011: Panda Update 1.0
April 11, 2011: Google Panda Update 2.0May 9, 2011: Panda Update 2.1June 21, 2011: Panda Update 2.2
July 23, 2011: Panda Update 2.3Aug. 12, 2011: Panda Update 2.4Sept. 28, 2011: Panda Update 2.5Oct. 19, 2011: Panda Update 3.0Nov. 18, 2011: Panda Update 3.1Jan. 18, 2012: Panda Update 3.2Feb. 27, 2012: Panda Update 3.3March 23, 2012: Panda Update 3.4April 19, 2012: Panda Update 3.5April 27, 2012: Panda Update 3.6June 8, 2012: Panda Update 3.7June 25, 2012: Panda Update 3.8July 24, 2012: Panda Update 3.9Aug. 20, 2012: Panda Update 3.9.1Sept. 18, 2012: Panda Update 3.9.2Sept. 27, 2012: Panda Update #20Nov. 5, 2012: Panda Update #21Nov. 21, 2012: Panda Update #22Dec. 21, 2012: Panda Update #23Jan. 22, 2013: Panda Update #24March 14, 2013: Panda Update #25May 20, 2014: Panda Update 4.0Sept. 23, 2014: Panda Update 4.1July 17, 2015: Panda Update 4.2
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