Google’s Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that they have released version 4.0 of
the Google Panda algorithm.
Google’s Panda algorithm is designed
to prevent sites with poor quality content from working their way into Google’s
top search results.
But didn’t Google stop updating us on Panda refreshes and updates
since they are monthly rolling updates? Yes, but this is a
bigger update.
Panda 4.0 must be a major update to
the actual algorithm versus just a data refresh. Meaning, Google has made
changes to how Panda identifies sites and has released a new version of the
algorithm today.
Is this the softer and gentler Panda algorithm? From talking
to Google, it sounds like this update will be gentler for some sites, and lay
the groundwork for future changes in that direction.
Google told us that Panda 4.0
affects different languages to different degrees. In English for example, the impact is ~7.5% of queries that are affected to a degree that a regular user
might notice.
Here are the previous confirmed
Panda updates, note, that we named them by each refresh and update, but 4.0 is
how Google named this specific update:
- Panda Update 1, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of
queries; announced; English in US only)
- Panda Update 2, April 11, 2011 (2% of
queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)
- Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change
given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change
given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change
given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of
queries in many non-English languages; announced)
- Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change
given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 8, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of
queries; belatedly confirmed)
- Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1%
of queries; announced)
- Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change
given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change
given; announced)
- Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6%
of queries impacted; announced)
- Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change
given; belatedly revealed)
- Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change
given; confirmed; first update within days of another)
- Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of
queries; belatedly announced)
- Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of
queries; announced)
- Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of
queries; announced)
- Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of
queries; belatedly announced)
- Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than
0.7% of queries; announced)
- Panda Update 20 , Sept. 27, 2012 (2.4%
English queries, impacted, belatedly announced
- Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of
English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of
English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of
English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
- Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of
English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
- Panda Update 25, March 15, 2013 (confirmed
as coming; not confirmed as having happened)
Source URL: http://goo.gl/1H7eAe