Google’s announced that another Panda
Update is being unleashed on its results, one that it says will impact
0.7% of queries. We’re calling it Panda 3.92, through we’re wondering if
it’s time to declare Panda 4.0 upon us.
Here’s the official news from Google:
Panda refresh is rolling out—expect some flux over the next few days. Fewer than 0.7% of queries noticeably affected: http://goo.gl/woSU3
The link leads to Google’s official announcement of the first Panda Update back in 2011.
Panda Update History
We’ve had a string of updates since then, as follows, along with the percentage of queries Google said would be impacted:
- Panda Update 1.0, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)
- Panda Update 2.0, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)
- Panda Update 2.1, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 2.2, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 2.3, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 2.4, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)
- Panda Update 2.5, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 3.0, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)
- Panda Update 3.1, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)
- Panda Update 3.2, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
- Panda Update 3.3, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)
- Panda Update 3.4, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)
- Panda Update 3.5, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)
- Panda Update 3.6, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)
- Panda Update 3.7, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)
- Panda Update 3.8, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)
- Panda Update 3.9, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)
- Panda Update 3.91, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)
- Panda Update 3.92, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)
Numbering Panda: From Panda 1 to Panda 2
Google
doesn’t always announce these updates. Sometimes, we get reports of
ranking changes being noticed, and then after the fact, we get a Google
confirmation. Sometimes Google does announce them, either the day the go
live (as is the case today) or shortly after the fact)
When
Google announces or confirms and update, sometimes it explains how much
of an impact it is expected to have on the search results. The very
first Panda Update was huge, estimated by Google to have an impact on
11.8 percent of all queries done on Google in the US. In contrast,
today’s announced update is said to have an impact on less than 1% of
queries globally.
Google doesn’t number
these updates. We began doing that when the second Panda Update
happened. Since it was the second, we called it Panda 2.0. At times,
people from Google have occasionally used our numbers, as have others
(notably on SEOmoz’s excellent chart of Google algorithm changes).
From Panda 2 To Panda 3
When
the third Panda release happened, we were ready to call it Panda 3.0.
But Google itself said that this wouldn’t be right, that it was a minor
update that wasn’t worthy of a full increase in number. That’s why we
dubbed it Panda 2.1.
Following updates were all minor, so we carried along with the “point” naming, in other words, Panda 2.2, Panda 2.3 and so on.
In
hindsight, we probably should have dubbed Panda 2.4 to be Panda 3.0,
because it was such a major change in that Panda rolled out beyond the
English language (except for Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages).
Still, perhaps we’re to be forgiven given what happened when we finally
did get to Panda 3.0.
You see, Panda 2.5
came and went, yet another minor update. Then we had a warning of
“Panda Flux” get issued, which made it sound like the schedule of Panda
Updates happening every few weeks was changing to an ongoing update.
Instead,
Google belatedly said that one of the updates we numbered as minor
should have been tagged as major (and thus warranting a 3.0 figure). We
did the best we could to figure out which one that was, which is why the
October 19 update became Panda 3.0.
Getting To Panda 4.0
When
do we finally get Panda 4.0? I suppose it’s whenever we want to declare
it. Potentially, it happened in March. I say that because March is the
last time Google said the impact on queries would be above 1%.
In
hindsight, this seems an obvious metric to use, how big an update is as
given by Google. But as I’ve explained, Google doesn’t always give that
estimate. In fact, with Panda Update 3.5, no one even knew that a Panda
Update had happened. Because it came around the time of the Penguin
Update, all the ranking changes that normally signal an Panda Update
were masked by Penguin Update changes. Only Google itself commenting
that a Panda Update had also happened alerted everyone.
As
the updates kept coming, we hit something unexpected. We were running
out of point numbers. That’s why we ended up with Panda 3.91 last month
and Panda 3.92 today.
Panda 20, Anyone?
We
could go back and say that Panda Update 3.4 is being renamed to Panda
4.0, which would bring today to Panda 3.7. But there’s no guarantee
we’ll have another major-enough Panda Update to get us away from having a
Panda 3.98 or Panda 3.933 or … well, you get the point.
I’m
against going back and renaming things, because people get used to a
name, so changing adds to confusion, rather than clarifies it. Instead,
I’d be curious to hear comments from others on how you’d like to see
Panda naming (or numbering) go forward.
One
thought is to lose the entire point system that started with Panda 2.1.
If we’d ignored Google’s advice and just made Panda 2.1 into Panda 3,
regardless of how “major” it was, we’d be at Panda 19 right now.
That
leads me to think the next Panda update should be called Panda 20,
regardless of how big it is, then going forward we simple increase the
number by one.
There’s no doubt we’re
going to keep having them. Google said to expect Panda Updates on a
roughly monthly basis. So Panda 20? Stay tuned for October.
Related Entries
- Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Panda” Algorithm Update
- Hit By Panda Update? Google Has 23 Questions To Ask Yourself To Improve
- Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update
- Info graphic: The Google Panda Update, One Year Later
- The Penguin Update: Google’s Web spam Algorithm Gets Official Name
- Google: Further Penguin Update “Jolts” To Come; Panda Is Smoother & Monthly
Source: http://searchengineland.com/panda-update-3-92-rolling-out-or-is-it-panda-4-0-time-133607
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