Google Panda Update History

The last Panda update was on September 25, 2014, which affected between three to five percent of search queries. Websites which were heavily effected by update 4.1 were mostly news sharing sites, download portals, online games, lyric databases and medical websites. Let’s take a view through history to learn about the past Google Panda updates and refreshes:

• Panda 1.0 – was launched on Feb 24, 2011. It impacted 12 percent of total search queries and it mainly targeted duplicated, shallow content. It reduced the visibility of content farms like Ezinearticles and other low quality web content.
• Panda 2.0 – Was rolled out after two months from Panda 1.0 on April 11, 2011 to all English queries. It added on a new signal to identify users’ site blocking data.
• Panda 2.1 .. 2.5 – These updates had minor changes and did not impact many queries, but they affected sites having scrap content. They were running in almost all languages.
• Panda 3.1 – This was a data refresh, which affected less than one percent of search queries.
• Panda 3.2 .. 3.9.2 – These were also minor adjustments and called data refreshes by the Googlers.
• Panda #20 .. #26 – From September 2012 through July 2013, these were all of the small changes made in updates and data refreshes. 
• Panda 4.0 – A major update launched on May 19, 2014, which affected 7.5 percent of search queries, including mega sites like ebay.com. 
• Panda 4.1 – Last update so far on Sept 25, 2014. It was targeted to “thin content,” unlike news websites that try to bait clicks from SERP. This affected three to five percent of search queries.
• Panda 4.2 – It’s likely going to be a data refresh because major changes have been covered by in the previous Google Panda 4.1 and 4.0 updates. It will be good news for sites who have cleaned up their site content, internal links, and site structures for a better user experience. 

Now, with the upcoming data refresh for Google Panda, you can expect that the search engine will kill every website with poor content quality. To keep your website healthy and safe from future Panda changes, you should:

1. Use Quality Content

Use fresh, useful, and informative content for your website visitors, not for Google. It’s really as simple as providing a unique perspective on a topic that interests your targeted audience. Keep making engaging posts to keep your site safe sound.

2. Build Better User Experience

Google checks the trust of websites based on overall user experience. If you have very low dwell times,  and high bounce rates, then that’s a clear signal that your site offers little to no valuable information for users. This makes it nearly impossible to rank on SERPs for any related queries. Keep your content engaging and improve social shares to obtain better user experience.

3. Follow On-Page SEO Practices

On-page SEO factors are essential to keep your website safe from penalties or exclusions. Pay close attention to your site’s structure, ease of navigation, content, and internal links in accordance with general on-page guidelines. Having a well-maintained site for user experience will always get boosted by Google Panda.