My last blog post explained that Panda is now running in near-real-time and what that means for webmasters and business owners. Well, that was perfect timing as Panda just made another trip around the web as kids head back to school and the NFL kicks in.
I’ve seen multiple Panda clients see recovery starting on Friday 9/5. And some of the clients had been seriously impacted by our cute, black and white friend in the past. Two sites, in particular, saw drops of 60%+ from previous Panda updates.
Here are a few screenshots from companies seeing impact from the 9/5/14 Panda update:
Panda is Starting The School Year Out Right
Teachers always say that hard work can lead to success. And it seems the schoolyard Panda feels the same way. The clients seeing the biggest spikes in traffic have done a lot of hard work Panda-wise.
Over the past few months, massive Panda problems were uncovered from a content quality standpoint. That included finding thin content, duplicate content, low-quality content, scraped content, while also identifying ad problems and technical problems that were impacting content quality and user engagement.
The user experience across each site was poor to say the least and the changes they have made (and are actively implementing) are improving the overall quality of their websites. And that’s exactly what you need to do in order to see positive Panda movement.
A Note About Temporary Recoveries (or Tests)
I recently wrote a post about temporary Panda recoveries, which I have seen several of over the past month or so. It’s interesting to note that two sites that just bounced back had seen temporary Panda recoveries in the past month. Now, we don’t know if they were truly temporary recoveries or simply tests of a future Panda update that ended up getting rolled back. But since Friday 9/5, both of those sites have spiked again. Let’s hope these recoveries stick.
Beyond temporary recoveries, other websites battling Panda saw serious spikes in Google organic traffic starting on Friday 9/5. And like I said earlier, they had gotten hammered by Panda in the past. It’s awesome to see them bounce back.
For example, one site is up 85% and another is up 71%. Nice increases to say the least.
Summary – Everybody’s Working for the Weekend (Including Panda)
As I explained earlier, Panda is now near-real-time and the days of waiting for monthly Panda updates are gone. The fact of the matter is that you can see impact at any point during the month (or even multiple times per month). So, if you’ve been impacted by Panda in the past, then check your reporting now. Friday might have been a very good day for you. And on the flip side (for those facing the Panda music for the first time), you might see a frightening drop in Google organic traffic. One thing is for sure… with the mighty Panda roaming the web in near-real-time, it’s never been more important to keep a close eye on content quality. Panda sure is.
So get ready for the next update. I’m confident it’s not far away. Actually, it might be just around the corner.
GG
Hi Glenn!
Thank you for your post. I supposed that my site was affected by Panda, but you strengthen me.
I’ m a bit rtouble because I have a weather site, and I have mainly similar pages for 3000 town.
So I dont know what to to, maybe noindex most of these pages, altough It received a lot of traffiv for me.
Thanks Attila. I’m glad my post was helpful. Regarding your situation, I would have to see the site, pages, etc. in order to identify problems. But if you have thousands of pages that are very similar, then that could be extremely problematic Panda-wise. Were you impacted on 9/5 or by previous updates?
Hi Glenn, you confirmed my idea that one of my customers’ website has been hit by Panda on 9/6. I saw a big loss of organic traffic (about -60%) and I was thinking about other updates or problems, but your post clarified that It was Panda. Website is abcallenamento.it: can you confirm my hypothesis?
Unfortunately this website has a lot of similar contents and many other websites copy our posts… how can I fix it? Thanks
Hi Michael. Yes, it absolutely looks like the site was severely impacted by the 9/5 Panda update. I’m seeing the huge drop starting right around that time via third party tools.
I would have to analyze the site in order to understand why it’s being impacted by Panda. But you can read my previous posts about Panda here on my blog (and in my Search Engine Watch column) to learn what to look for.
Also, it looks like the site surged prior to the 9/5 update. That’s a common scenario I see with sites impacted by algo updates like Panda. You can read my post on SEW about the sinister surge. I hope that helps.
Hard to say without analyzing the specific site, but those factors could absolutely lead to poor user engagement, low trust, etc. And that can definitely lead to a Panda hit.
I’ve helped a number of Panda victims with similar problems. Note, Panda hits are almost never caused by one problem. There’s usually a combination of problems that impact user engagement. I hope that helps.
Hi Glenn, I’m the webmaster at http://furnituresingapore.net/, a resource site for furniture shoppers in Singapore. My site was significantly affected by Panda 4.1, and I’m really perplexed as to why I was penalised. My site does not have any low quality or thin content at all. I’ve read through your articles on SEW and this blog, thank you for writing them, they helped me shed some light on why I might have been penalised. At the moment, the primary reason I can think of is ‘Keyword Hoarding’, as detailed in your article – http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2348110/More-Panda-4.0-Findings-Syndication-User-Engagement-Indexation-Keyword-Hoarding.
I’d genuinely appreciate it if you could take a quick look at my site, and let me know your thoughts on why I got hit. Thank you Glenn.
Thanks for the comment, and I’m sorry to hear you were hit by Panda 4.1. I’ve been heavily analyzing the update and should have a blog post going live early this upcoming week with my findings. You should definitely check that out.
But I will check out your site as part of my P4.1 analysis and let you know what I think. If you can, email me via my contact page. Then I can reach out to you based on what I’m seeing. Thanks.
Hi Glenn, I’ll definitely keep a look out for your blog post.
Sure, I’ll get in contact with you via email, thank you for taking a look at my site, I appreciate your gesture.