What is Panda Algorithm?
- Discover everything you need know about Google Panda. Check out why it was launched, what we know about the algorithm, and the full timeline.
- Google Panda is a search algorithm change that was implemented in February 2011 to improve search results by removing low-quality pages. The change is now integrated into Google’s core algorithm; however, it does not update in real time. Instead, it is utilized to assess a site’s quality when calculating its ranking.
- Fast forward to 2021, and you can see how crucial it was as Google’s initial step toward improving quality and user experience.
- Everything you need to know about Google Panda is provided here, including a timeline, information about the algorithm, and further details about why it was introduced.
Why Google Created Panda
- 2010 saw a surge in “content farm” business models and a decline in the quality of Google’s search results, which became popular topics.
- The “Caffeine” update in late 2009, which significantly accelerated Google’s capacity to index content quickly, also added “some not so good” content to their index, as Google’s Amit Singhal subsequently revealed to Wired at TED.
- Google’s Matt Cutts explained to Wired that this new content problem is more of a “What’s the bare minimum that I can do that’s not spam?” question than a true spam problem.
- A title that says it all appeared in January 2011 on Business Insider: “Google’s Search Algorithm Has Been Ruined: Time to Move Back to Curation.”
Google Panda Update Launches
- Panda was first introduced on February 23, 2011.
- Google said that they “launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking – a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries” in a blog post they released on February 24 regarding the update.
- Danny Sullivan, the founder of Search Engine Land, first called it the “Farmer” update. Google eventually disclosed, nevertheless, that the developer responsible for the initial algorithmic breakthrough was known internally as “Panda.”
- According to analyses of the “winners and losers” conducted by SearchMetrics, SISTRIX, and other organizations, the websites that suffered the most were well-known to those working in the SEO field at the time.
- Among these websites were articlebase.com, buzzle.com, hubpages.com, suite101.com, wisegeek.com, ezinearticles.com, and so on.
- Notably, following the upgrade, content farms wikiHow and eHow performed better. These more “acceptable” content farms would suffer from later revisions as well; Demand Media lost $6.4 million in Q4 of 2012.
- The most obvious shift in the SEO industry was the impact on “article marketing,” where SEO experts used to post low-quality articles on ezinearticles.com and other websites in an attempt to build links.
- Additionally, it was evident that the websites with the highest traffic had less appealing designs, more obtrusive advertisements, exaggerated word counts, lax editorial standards, repetitive language, faulty research, and an overall untrustworthy and unhelpful vibe.
What We Know About the Panda Algorithm
- In an interview with Wired, Singhal said that Google began the algorithm’s development by sending test documents to human quality raters and asking them questions such as “Would you feel comfortable providing your credit card on this site? Would you feel at ease giving your children medication that was given by this website?
- According to Cutts, the engineer had created “a stringent series of inquiries, ranging from ‘Do you think this website is reliable? Would a magazine publish this and be okay with it? Do these adverts on this website seem excessive?
- The interview states that they next created the algorithm by contrasting different rating signals with the ranks of human quality.
- Finding a plane in hyperspace that divides the excellent sites from the bad is how Singhal put it.
Singhal later released the following 23 questions as guiding questions the algorithm was based on:
- Do you think the details in this article are reliable?
- Is the author of this post a subject-matter expert or enthusiast, or is it written in a more superficial manner?
- Are there redundant, overlapping, or duplicate articles on the website covering the same or related subjects but using slightly different keyword variations?
- Would you feel at ease providing this website with the details of your credit card?
- Are there any factual, stylistic, or spelling mistakes in this article?
- Do readers’ actual interests inform the themes, or does the website produce content based on educated guesses about what might perform well in search engine optimization?
- Does the article offer unique information or substance, unique reporting, unique investigation, or unique analysis?
- When compared to other pages in search results, does the page offer a significant amount of value?
- How much content is subjected to quality control?
- Does the article present all relevant angles of a story?
- Is the website regarded as an authority on its subject?
- Is the content dispersed throughout a wide network of websites, mass-produced by or contracted out to a big number of authors, or both, so that specific pages or sites receive less care and attention than others?
- Does the piece look sloppy or hurriedly prepared, or was it properly edited?
- Would you trust this website’s information for a health-related question?
- In the event that this website was specifically identified, would you regard it as reputable?
- Does this article give a thorough or exhaustive explanation of the subject?
- Is there any intriguing information in this article that isn’t immediately apparent?
- Is this the kind of page you would like to recommend, share, or bookmark?
- Are there too many advertisements in this article that detract from or obstruct the core content?
- Is it likely that you will come across this piece in a book, encyclopedia, or printed magazine?
- Are the articles brief, superficial, or devoid of additional relevant details?
- Are the pages created with a lot of care and attention to detail, or not as much?
- If users saw pages from this site, would they be upset?
SEO By The Sea determined in March 2011 that Biswanath Panda was most likely the engineer responsible for the algorithm’s eponymous design.
In one research, Biswanath worked with the author to describe in detail how landing page user behavior may be accurately classified using machine learning techniques.
The author implies that Panda is a machine-learning algorithm even though the paper is not about the algorithm, given the topic matter and the involvement of the algorithm’s namesake.
The majority of people in the SEO business came to the conclusion that Panda functions by accurately predicting how people would rank the quality of content through machine learning. Less is known about the signals that would have been used by the machine learning system to distinguish between high-quality and low-quality websites.
Panda and Google E-A-T:
- Google included the E-A-T principles—Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness—into its search quality rules in 2014.
- Since 2018, marketers have been focusing more and more on these ideas.
- Similar to Panda, subsequent updates and fundamental algorithmic modifications prioritize content quality and user experience.
And like Panda, the focus is on avoiding:
- Thin, Lacking in Information.
- Absence of Reliable Sources.
- Dubious Links and Unreliable Content.
Google Panda Recovery
- Panda rehabilitation can be as simple or as difficult as you want it to be.
- The fix is to make your material more original and high-quality, as Panda enhances the performance of websites with content it deems to be of superior quality.
- Even while it’s easier said than done, recovery requires just this, as numerous studies have shown.
- Alan Bleiweiss assisted a website in its recovery by helping them rewrite 100 pages of content.
- By modifying their user-generated content standards to promote more precise, original bios rather than ones that were plagiarized from other websites, WiredSEO assisted a website in its Panda recovery.
- Before, users of the site had used bios from other websites. Nevertheless, WiredSEO urged them to modify the bio to include targeted queries, creating distinct bios that weren’t copies.
Google Panda Myths
Panda Isn’t About Duplicate Content
- The most widespread misconception regarding Panda is that it just affects duplicate material. John Mueller has made it clear that Panda has no control over duplicate content.
- Although Panda promotes original content, Google staff members emphasize that this goes beyond only preventing duplication. Panda seeks out material that is truly unique and offers exceptional value to its consumers.
- Mueller also advised a blogger to “think about what makes your website different compared to the absolute top site of your niche” rather than focusing on eliminating technical redundancies, saying that this was actually a very low priority.
- John Mueller of Google clarified in 2021 that duplicating material does not affect a page’s ranking.
Should You Delete Content to Resolve Panda Issues?
- “We don’t recommend removing content in general for Panda, rather add more HighQ stuff,” tweeted Google’s Gary Illyes in 2017.
- Google’s approach has consistently been to either enhance or no index information, never to remove it completely unless doing so would be in line with the company’s identity.
- Generally speaking, removing content shouldn’t be done just to get rid of a Panda penalty; rather, it should be thought of in terms of your site’s overall branding.
Panda & User-Generated Content
- Panda does not expressly target user-generated content. Panda can target user-generated content, although it mostly affects websites that generate low-quality content, including spam-filled forums or guest articles that are overflowing with spam.
- Never delete user-generated content from forums, blogs, or articles just because you’ve heard it’s “bad” or that it’s advertised as a “Panda proof” solution. Instead, consider it from a quality standpoint.
- Since a lot of well-ranked websites rely on user-generated material, many would suffer major traffic and ranking losses if they stopped using that kind of content.
- A blog post’s ranking and potential highlighted snippet might be influenced by comments left on it.
Word Count Isn’t a Factor
- Another Panda feature that SEO experts frequently miss is word count. Many websites make the error of only accepting content that exceeds a predetermined word count, typically 250 and 350 words.
- Google advises you to consider the minimum word count required for the content to be effective for the user.
- For instance, Google believes that many pages with very little primary material are of sufficient quality to warrant being presented as a result for the query.
- In one instance, the primary material amounted to just 63 words, and many writers would have struggled to create 350+ words on the same subject without coming across as spam. Thus, all you need is enough words to respond to the question.
- While 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 would seem to be the key changes to Panda’s algorithm, no update is referred to as 3.0, and 3.1 was not, in hindsight, a core update to Panda.
- As with software updates, data refreshes changed the search results but not the Panda algorithm itself. They were generally numbered 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, and so on.
- Nevertheless, version 3 of the algorithm required so many data refreshes that the industry temporarily abandoned this naming tradition and began referring to them by the total number of Panda updates (which included both refreshes and core updates).
- It’s still unclear whether all of the smaller Panda updates were simply data refreshes or if some of them included new signals as well, even after grasping this naming system.
Panda Today: 2021
- Since Panda is now deeply ingrained in Google’s machine learning algorithms, updates pertaining to Panda will no longer be considered stand-alone products.
- We no longer receive independent Panda updates because Panda is now a component of Google’s main algorithm. Theoretically, modifications to core algorithms that prioritize content and quality are “Panda” linked.
Moving Forward
- You should remember the fundamental ideas of Panda in 2021.
- Steer clear of spam links and black hat strategies in favor of high-quality content that enhances user experience. These guidelines still guide Google’s use of technology and machine learning.
- The Panda ideals hold true even in modern times, even though the word Panda may not be mentioned.
