Google Panda

Google Panda is a change to Google's search results ranking algorithm that was first released in 23 February 2011. The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites",^[1] and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising.^[2] This change reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 percent of all search results.^[3] Soon after the Panda rollout, many websites, including Google's webmaster forum, became filled with complaints of scrapers/copyright infringers getting better rankings than sites with original content. At one point, Google publicly asked for data points^[4] to help detect scrapers better. Google's Panda has received several updates since the original rollout in February 2011, and the effect went global in April 2011. To help affected publishers, Google published an advisory on its blog,^[5] thus giving some direction for self-evaluation of a website's quality. Google has provided a list of 23 bullet points on its blog answering the question of "What counts as a high-quality site?" that is supposed to help webmasters "step into Google's mindset".^[6]

Contents

• 1 The Panda process
• 2 Significant differences between Panda and previous algorithms
• 3 Panda recovery
• 4 Past Google Panda Updates
• 5 See also
• 6 References