The well-known Google Panda algorithm works differently from the base Google algorithm: Panda is manually run every month or two, when it looks for low quality or thin content sites and imposes the Panda algorithmic ranking penalty. Of course there is more than just Panda that can algorithmically penalize your site in the rankings, so the question becomes how to you know when your site has been affected by the Panda algorithm?
Fortunately, we know from observation (and the general outcry in the SEO world) when Panda has run, even though we have no idea when it will run next. You can just check out the Panda history and see if your site’s traffic plummeted one of the times that Panda was run. If so, it’s likely Panda that demoted your rankings. If your traffic tanked sometime that does not line up with a Panda update, then you know that something else is causing your rankings to drop.
Google Panda Dates Run
- February 24, 2011: Google Panda first deploys in the US, affecting an estimated 12% of queries.
- April 11, 2011
- May 10, 2011: Data about sites that have been blocked in large numbers by Google Chrome users is incorporated into this run of Panda.
- June 16, 2011
- July 23, 2011
- August 12, 2011: Panda is deployed globally across the world. Previously Panda was restricted to the US and English versions of Google.
- September 28, 2011
- October 13, 2011
- November 18, 2011
- January 18, 2012
- February 27, 2012
- March 23, 2012
- April 19th, 2012
- April 27th, 2012: Minor update not affecting that many sites.
Of course the fact that Panda doesn’t run continuously has a downside: if you make changes to your site, you may have to wait a month or more to find out if the changes were enough to free you from the Panda penalty. If you think your site has been impacted by Panda you can see our list of Panda SEO factors to see what might be triggering it.
Other Panda Related Posts:
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