Thread: Google Panda 2.6 Update? 13 October 2011

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I'm curious to see if Hubpages continues to be "recovered" using the sub-domains. They have gone through at least 2 Panda runs since reporting such (post sub-domain conversion of existing content). That content was not penalized in October (and has not undergone significant revision).

Problem is needing more info on what was targeted on Oct 13/14. I have seen 0 negative impacts from the Nov 3 update (so far).
Interesting times I reckon.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

So, here's a Panda question for ya....at what point do you move an entire domain to a new domain or subdomain and 301 all of the old there? Down for 2 Panda cycles? 3? Seems to have done the trick for Hubpages, but haven't seen any other good examples of it working. Acking its different if you have "Brand Investment" but if you don't....

Interesting article Panda DNA: Algorithm Tests on the Google Panda Update - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)


Based on 250 tests, the sites that gradually increase quality eventually came back.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

The big thing with Panda is that they are going after duplicate content and poor quality content.

Panda has expanded on the duplicate content filter to penalize for shades of duplicate content including similiar content on the same website, re-writes, spun content and unoriginal content. Tough to say what defines poor quality content. Most likely an algorithm that does a small and grammar check. Possibly some kind of comparison to industry lingo.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Problem is needing more info on what was targeted on Oct 13/14. I have seen 0 negative impacts from the Nov 3 update (so far).
Interesting times I reckon.

I have a feeling that certain kinds of inbound links were devauled.

From the SEW article:

The threshold isn’t the same for each domain. Links seem to cause some difference.

The link issue has been the same for almost every Google update over the past five years. Lots of quality links appears to overcome the threat of penalties.

We ended up with 50 separate domains. None of them could be linked to each other through signals like ownership, hosting, Google accounts, or link partners.

Wow! This was not a simple test.

It is also interesting that they observed that a page was either hit by Panda or it was not. There weren't any "degrees" of penalty applied.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

The link issue has been the same for almost every Google update over the past five years. Lots of quality links appears to overcome the threat of penalties.

Panda isn't aimed at links but as you said lots of quality links overcome a penalty.

Another thing that may cause a ranking drop is a secondary Panda impact where all the links from shallow sites are devalued. I'm of the mind that many of the sites that dropped on the Oct 13/14 update went penalized. Rather the sites had a lot of incoming links devalued.

I've been noticing some flux the last few days and came across a weather report that Panda 2.6 is in progress. It seems that Google needs to run Panda for a data refresh. As well, there's some coincidence that there's usually a PR update before a new Panda refresh.

Tiny weather report: Minor Panda algorithm data refresh (affects <1% of searches).


Twitter

Panda Update Timeline


Panda Update 2.5 September 28th 2011
Panda 2.5.1 October 9th
Panda 2.5.2 October 13th
Panda 2.5.3 October 20th


Panda 2.6 November 18th

pandas are rough, I've lost a lot of traffic on my main sites, this is quite shocking! Trying to figure out a strategy on how to analyze all my content now and remove/improve fix it. I mean what are the criterias even? How would you explain someone which content should be considered bad and which is good?

Looks like no site is safe any more. Not just the $1-2 cheap Indian/Philippino articles, but the sites with quality articles written by native writers were affected also

Originally Posted by DomainMagnate

pandas are rough, I've lost a lot of traffic on my main sites, this is quite shocking! Trying to figure out a strategy on how to analyze all my content now and remove/improve fix it. I mean what are the criterias even? How would you explain someone which content should be considered bad and which is good?

Looks like no site is safe any more. Not just the $1-2 cheap Indian/Philippino articles, but the sites with quality articles written by native writers were affected also

A big issue is that Panda is an update. So even making positive changes will not show an improvement until there's a new Panda data refresh. The last one was Nov 18th. What I can say is that whatever got you Panda-ized, you will need to do at least double the quality to get yourself out of the hole.

As a side note, I suggest to check for duplicate content. I just found 10 sites copying the content of one of my sites. The site had some drop in Panda. I would if this could have been the cause?

Originally Posted by bogart

A big issue is that Panda is an update. So even making positive changes will not show an improvement until there's a new Panda data refresh. The last one was Nov 18th. What I can say is that whatever got you Panda-ized, you will need to do at least double the quality to get yourself out of the hole.

As a side note, I suggest to check for duplicate content. I just found 10 sites copying the content of one of my sites. The site had some drop in Panda. I would if this could have been the cause?

Restructuring will take a while, but I'm thinking long term here too. These are sites that I had for many years bringing stable income and now suddenly they dropped.

yea this could definitely be one of the causes, I checked for dups through copyscape also, but haven't found much. If you find sites that copied a big chunk of your content I'd try to report them and send them a threatening C&D asap to get it removed.

Originally Posted by DomainMagnate

Restructuring will take a while, but I'm thinking long term here too. These are sites that I had for many years bringing stable income and now suddenly they dropped.

Panda 2.5.2 mostly hit affiliate marketers and publishers. Seems to me to have been collateral damage due the common linking strategies in the IM industry. So, the sites that were supplying you links got devalued and consequently the links to you are devauled which causes your site to drop. Most people think that there's something wrong with there sites. But, what they really need is more quality links.

Originally Posted by DomainMagnate

yea this could definitely be one of the causes, I checked for dups through copyscape also, but haven't found much. If you find sites that copied a big chunk of your content I'd try to report them and send them a threatening C&D asap to get it removed.

This is a big issue. I actually found 10 sites copying my content. Most of them are US businesses. I called a few yesterday morning and requested that they remove the content. One site actually actually copied my entire site and a set a take down notice to their webhost.