Google Panda Update 20 Released with Impact on 2.4% of English Queries

Google confirmed on Thursday, 27 September 2012, that they have released a Panda algorithm update. This is the 20th Panda update and thus it is named Panda 20. It is a fairly major Panda update that impacts 2.4% of English search queries and is still rolling out. Late Friday afternoon, Google announced a EMD (Exact Match Domain) update that removed the chances of a low-quality exact match domain from ranking well in Google. But over the weekend, many non-exact match domain site owners noticed their rankings dropped as well. What was it?

Google confirmed that they pushed out a new Panda algorithm update that is not just a data refresh but an algorithm update. Google told us this "affects about 2.4% of English queries to a degree that a regular user might notice." There is more to come with this update, where Google promises to roll out more to this Panda algorithm update over the next 3-4 days. Here is the comment Google's Matt Cutts sent us after asking about this update

Google began rolling out a new update of Panda on Thursday, 27 Sep 12. This is actually a Panda algorithm update, not just a data update. A lot of the most-visible differences went live Thursday, 27 September 2012, but the full roll-out is baking into our index and that process will continue for another 3-4 days or so. This update affects about 2.4% of English queries to a degree that a regular user might notice, with a smaller impact in other languages (0.5% in French and Spanish, for example). The sad part is that there are many sites affected by either this Panda update or the EMD update and it is hard to know which update you were hurt by.

Google extended Panda Search Algorithm update to English queries

Google has extended its Panda Update in search algorithm to English queries. Google had announced search algorithm change (known as "Farmer" or "Panda") in February 2011 for the US. Google Panda update has now been implemented on all English language queries. This includes both English speaking countries (such as searches on google.co.uk or google.com.au) and English queries in non-English countries (for instance, for a searcher using google.fr or google.de who's chosen English-language results).

The launch impacted nearly 12% of queries in the United States. The impact may be similar for English-speaking searchers across the world. Google claimed that they've gotten a lot of positive responses about the change: searchers are finding better results, and many great publishers are getting more traffic. Google said that based on testing, they've found the algorithm is very accurate at detecting site quality. Google has launched two ways for searchers to block particular sites from their search results recently. The first of these was a Chrome extension.

Google has now launched a block link directly in the search results that appears once a searcher has clicked from the results to a site and then return to the search results. Google said after the initial Panda launch, that they didn't use data about what sites searchers were blocking as a signal in the algorithm, but they did use the data as validation that the algorithm change was on target. Google found an 84% overlap in sites that were negatively impacted by Panda and sites that users had blocked with the Chrome extension.

Google are now using data about what searchers have blocked in "high confidence situations" as a secondary factor. With the initial launch of Panda Update, large sites were primarily affected, as the larger sites; with more pages, traffic, and links, have more signals available. By the latest update, smaller sites will see an impact. Amit Singhal, in charge of search quality at Google said: "this change also goes deeper into the "long tail" of low-quality websites to return higher-quality results where the algorithm might not have been able to make an assessment before".

References:
High-quality sites algorithm goes global, incorporates user feedback - Google Webmaster Central Blog
Panda 2.0: Google Rolls Out Panda Update Internationally & Incorporates Searcher Blocking Data - Search Engine Land

Google Panda Search Algorithm - Incorporated for Finding High-quality Sites in Search

Google has just modified its search algorithm and announced war on Content Farms. Amit Singhal (Google Fellow) and Matt Cutts (Principal Engineer) wrote in a blog post; the search upgrade, which will impact 11.8% of all Google search, "is developed to decrease positions for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for customers, duplicate content from other sites or sites that are just not very useful. Simultaneously, it will provide better positions for high-quality sites — sites with unique content and information such as research, in-depth reviews, careful research and so on."

Google can't launch a significant enhancement without impacting positions for many sites. Google is determined by the high-quality content developed by amazing sites around the world. Google has a liability to motivate a healthy web environment. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be paid, and that's exactly what this algorithm modification is all about. This means that some sites will move up and some will drop after this modification.

Google Panda update does not depend on the reviews that Google obtained from the Personal Blocklist Firefox expansion, which was released earlier last week. But it definitely features the Blocklist information for the evaluation with the sites determined by the algorithm modification. Google has released this modification in the U.S. only right now; and plans to throw it out elsewhere eventually.

For more information about algorithm change refer to the post on Google Blog by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer:
Finding more high-quality sites in search - Official Google Blog