Updated January 13, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutesCuteness or Cutthroat?
Panda 4.1 is making SEO headlines. No, this isn’t about the Panda triplets born two months ago in China (although they are awfully cute). It’s the latest attempt for the search algorithm to help smaller websites — those with quality content — to organically rank. Learn why it’s good news for small business and the dust is still settling.
Impacting 3-5% Queries
Believe it or not, when an algorithm is expected to impact nearly 5% of searches it’s considered major. Pierre Far announced Panda 4.1 on his Google+ page on Thursday, September 25. Industry experts say that the rollout is now complete. Hmmm. We predict it will take some time for website to figure out if they’ve been affected and to fix any issues (e.g., thin content). This announcement is also hot on the heels of Google squashing Private Blog Networks, a spammy-content tactic.
Panda 4.1 Purpose & Ramifications
Overall, Panda is a part of Google’s search algorithm that relates to content. In essence it rewards content that helps searchers find answers to their questions. And, Panda 4.1 is supposed to:
- Improve the algo’s signals to ferret out low-quality and thin content
- Help with greater diversity of high quality small- and medium-sized websites so they appear in organic search
- Impact 3-5% search queries (actual results depend upon locale)
Interestingly MozCast showed a spike in temperature on September 28; 9/24 and 9/25 (predicted dates when Panda 4.1 was unleashed) were pretty temperate.
Same Ole Message
Whenever one of these algorithm changes make headlines, we share the same advice:
- Create a website that reflects your business.
- Demonstrate expertise and knowledge.
- Answer questions.
- Encourage quality conversations.
- Provide advice so visitors naturally want to convert into customers.
- Write deep content that people actually enjoy reading and sharing.
- Slow and steady SEO wins the race.
- Always follow the quality guidelines set forth for Webmasters.
Your website traffic will see fluctuations. That’s inevitable. Sorry, folks. There’s no quick, magic bullet when it comes to SEO. If you chase after the latest shiny fad, you might see a rise… but it will most likely be short-lived. And it can bite you in the end. That’s why we’re firmly White Hat SEO practitioners.
What are you seeing with Panda 4.1?