A Look on Google Panda Update 2.3,2.4 and Update 2.5 with Tweaks

Here we are continuing our discussion on Google Panda Updates. We have discussed the Google Panda update 2.1 and 2.2 in our last blog “Google Panda Update 2.1 and 2.2 –started to hit”. Let’s take a brief overview of it first. Google Panda update 2.2 was a minor update released on May 10^th, 2011 to get strengthens the algorithm to find and identify the scraper sites. Another update that is Google Panda update 2.2 released on June 16^th 2011. Relevancy of keywords and the content are the main parameters of this update 2.2.

Google Panda Update 2.3

Let’s focus on next Panda Updates 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 in this blog.  It is said that Google makes roughly 500 changes in algorithm each year. Official word from Google suggested that Panda update 2.3 was a minor update pushed out manually approximately on 23^rdJuly 2011 (After 5 weeks of previous Panda Update 2.2). This Panda update has incorporated some new signals to differentiate low quality and high quality websites. The expert people of SEO industry always track the effects to find important changes made by Google in algorithm. According to their tracking reports, The Panda Update 2.3 has become little controversial. Few experts in the industry blamed on Google that by this update some of the small websites had lost their traffic and Google has favored the big giants of different fields. Apparently doing this, Google has disappointed small and new websites. However, Google had not given any official statement against this. Apart from these, few experts have felt that fresh and regularly updated content prioritized. You will get boost in ranking If your website’s content updates regularly according to latest events, changes, inventions and news of respective industry

Google Panda Update 2.4

Google confirmed Panda Update 2.4 on 12^th August, 2011 after 3 weeks gap from the previous update. According to this update Panda algorithm implemented for all other non-English language algorithms. After applying Panda update on English queries, Google decided to apply it for all language queries except Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages. According to official words, Panda Update 2.4 has affected 6-9% on non-English queries, which is less than the 12% queries affected in English. The other minor change tracked by the experts is related to the pages of your website which describe the same thing in a different way. When this is done, user start getting bored and your website will be affected. Thus it is advisable to have single page for each product and service. Just include one page for each product or service and explore it completely in that page only. It doesn’t matter if your website has few pages, but the pages should be having good quality.

Google Panda update 2.5

Google Panda Update 2.5 was confirmed on 28^th September, 2011. This Panda Update was followed by few more tweaks with minor updates. Named as Panda update 2.5.1 which was released on 10^th October, Panda update 2.5.2 which wasreleased on 13^thOctober and Update 2.5.3 which was released on 19^th October.

This Panda Update has affected about 2% queries according to states. Google has warned this as “flux”. Now, here is a question about flux, what is the meaning of flux? Flux means Google reiterated all sites in its index. The website which was penalized by earlier Panda Update was checked again. If penalized websites are changed by the webmasters and improved in quality as per the Google Panda, Google has indexed them again. Google has strengthened its algorithm to catch the low quality websites. Now very few websites are still penalized having low quality.

Google Panda Update 2.5 was major with respect to the traffic (gain or drop) point of view. Many websites lost their traffic and on the contradictory many websites gained traffic those were restructured according to Panda quality guidelines. Some of the biggest losers of this update are named as consumer affairs.com, starpulse.com, aceshowbiz.com etc. On the other side, major gainers were youtube.com, tv.com, ign.com etc.

I would like to discuss a strange case of hubpages.com with you related these updates. It is penalized by earlier Panda Update and after Update 2.5 it gained more traffic then it was getting before Panda Updates.

Here we recommend to webmasters, not losing your confidence if you are penalized by Panda Update. Try to follow Panda guidelines and correct the things that Panda doesn’t like. You will get reward when the next Panda flux will come.

You have the option of consulting a good SEO firm having excellent SEO specialist to handle your website to overcome the consequences and will gain the traffic back.

Feel free to contact us at [email protected] for your queries related to the problem in your SEO or your client’s websites which were affected due to these updates. We will be happy to help you for the same.