With Google’s algorithm for ranking search results receiving a new update with a slow-rolling release from September 21st, Panda 4.1 is already having a huge impact on the visibility and search engine rankings of thousands of pages online. It affects around 3-5% of search results, meaning that it’s a significant change for many sites to think about.
Google have noted on their main page that the update recognises more signals to indicate low-quality content, with the overall aim to have more high-quality small- and medium-sized sites ranking higher. It should therefore reward smaller websites with good content that is original and new, and penalise sites with repetitive and out-of-date material. It can also give sites a chance to redeem themselves by making these changes.
The winners
So, has Google’s plan to help smaller websites rank higher worked? A quick glance at the initial statistics shows that big name sites like wired.com and vanityfair.com have gone up in the analytic ratings in the UK – these sites continually provide strong and rich content on their pages, often through blogs and articles designed to provide informative content in a very specific field. Google is recognising this content as high quality, and some sites have gained up to 40% on their organic traffic. Considering the smaller websites making these same gains, they tend to belong to the news technology industries, as these two sectors are constantly evolving and changing. Stories are ‘born’ every minute of the day and there are multiple ways of reporting on the same story. Google sees original and creative content and these sites are rocketing up the rankings when it comes to visibility as a result.
The losers
Some websites are suffering after the Panda 4.1 update because their content is quite short in comparison to larger sites – therefore, the algorithm system sees this as lower quality and lowers the ranking. For example, Search Engine Roundtable – one of the largest groups in the SEO industry – have reported a 30% decrease in organic traffic since the launch, and this is because their knowledgeable and astute articles are only around 100-200 words in length. The same can be said about lyric websites, whose relevant content can be found across thousands of websites online. Some medical websites have also seen decreases in traffic, but these tend to be sites who generally tend to stick to the same approved advice about illnesses and treatment. Because the content has been repeated on other sites, Google will therefore rank these sites lower, even though they have relevant and engaging content.
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