After Panda and Penguin Updates: What Happens to Your Website?

Just when the SEO community thought it can heave a big sigh of relief after the last Panda and Penguin updates, Google has announced yet another Panda update. Matt Cutts (engineer at Google) seems to have been very busy as apart from the Panda update, you can also expect some changes in the Penguin algorithm. When the first Panda algorithm was released by Google in 2011, most of the SEO community was jittery and panicking, some even seriously though of switching jobs. However, that too has passed and the next salvo is ready.

Panda was last refreshed by Google just a couple of months back, in January, and resulted in a bit of confusion. You can expect more than a bit of confusion in the next few days and weeks as Panda gets to work and in case your website gets unusual traffic diversion, Panda will immediately smell something and get to work to disgrace you, or at least temporarily affect your page rank. You need to double check if you have done your SEO homework, though with Google’s Panda and Penguin, you can never be too sure.  The February update itself left many websites with drastically reduced traffic. However, going forward, Panda updates will happen as part of algorithm that is perpetual. Does this mean that the refreshes in future will not be as intense as they have been in the past? One can only wait to find out.

As far as the Penguin update is concerned, there is still a bit of ambiguity. However, according to Cutts, Google is busy fine tuning Penguin. The primary goal of Penguin when it was released in April was to try to do away with spam completely, and target websites that did not appear to be natural. The last refresh for Penguin was in October, so it appears it is time for the next refresh. According to Cutts, the next update will rock the SEO world and the effects can be so intense that the update will be the talked about thing in the concerned circles.

It appears that Google has already decided whom it is going to target and hopes to net a couple of very big fish in the next catch. This should happen within a month or so and the repercussions will be felt all over. Cutts probably hinted at merchant quality when he emphasized a very big change that was announced by Google earlier. Hence, online marketers, the SEO community, and websites that depend on blog owners and marketers for their existence should all be extra cautious as the ride is going to get rougher.

Panda will certainly look out for content that is irrelevant and lacking in originality. Content that is not created in-house and is purchased from people creating it for this very purpose will be what Panda is going to target. Websites that carry such content are simply wasting the precious time of users who are seriously looking for something. From Google’s point of view, they believe in creating a great search experience that throws up useful results and not just content that uses a lot of links for self promotion. Let’s wait a little longer to learn about what is in store.