It seems like Google can’t go more than a few months without putting out a new update named after a cuddly endangered animal. Way back in September of last year, Google rolled out the Panda 4.1 update that changed some rankings. While some sites saw their rankings take a dip, others were unaffected.
The new changes will be the 29th such update in Google’s short history. The good news is that it will take some time to be fully implemented, so you may not see changes to your rankings for quite some time. According to Google, so far 2-3% of queries have been affected – a relatively small number in comparison to last time. This number is expected to grow, however.
Second Chances for Everyone
One really good thing about this update is that people who were heavily affected by the last change now have a chance to redeem themselves. You won’t notice any changes in your organic rankings right away, but you should over time. This has been the general trend in Google updates. The last incarnation of Panda affected around 5% of all searches, so in the end we can expect about the same from this one if it is already at 2-3%.
What Panda 4.1 Taught Us
More good news is that 4.2 is technically a “refresh” and not an update. That means it is just reapplying the changes of 4.1. So basically, 4.1 was launched and messed with a lot of rankings, the dust settled and people figured out why they had been heavily affected.
Now, Google is giving those lost souls a chance at redemption by applying the update so any changes they’ve made to their sites can take effect and their rankings be restored, with the obvious major factors being quality of content and the nature of inbound links. If you have high-quality references from other parts of the web and top-notch content, you need not worry. If you don’t, then it’s time to get it fixed.
The bad news for webmasters is that this new refresh will catch you if you still haven’t made any updates to your website to comply with Panda, and you will see you rankings fall. The good news is that if you updated your site, this refresh will give you a chance at redemption. The New Panda refresh will take place slowly, so don’t expect anything too good or bad yet, but make no mistake – you need to be ready no matter what happens. In the new world of Google, content has been dethroned, and its cousin quality-content has been seated as the new king of the search engine.
To ensure your website maintains a high ranking on Google, contact the SEO experts at BlueHat Marketing.
