eBay PartnerNetwork Blog

What Does the Google “Panda” Update Mean to You?

June 30th, 2011 | Scott Parent

As you’re probably aware Google has been busy over the last few months making major updates to the way their search engine indexes and ranks websites. For some, these algorithmic updates, known as “Panda,” have improved their search rankings. For others, it has tanked their business overnight. We thought it would be helpful to shed some light on what these changes mean to you and outline some steps you can take to protect your business from taking a hit.

At our recent Affiliates Day event, eBay’s Director of Natural Search & SEO, Dennis Goedegebuure, had this to say:

“Based on the historical updates of Google’s algorithm, it seems it aims at various factors with a general focus on overall user experience. Focusing on the quality of UX might help to achieve a winning balance among the key differentiating factors for strong ranking sites. Historically the three major pillars are unique content, diverse & quality linking profile and domain authority.”

Since Dennis gave his presentation, Google has released Panda update 2.2. To address this most recent update Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz put together an informative video that dissects how the update works, what it means and how it fundamentally changed best practices for SEO overnight.

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You can get the full text transcription of the video over at the SEOmoz Blog.

What has the Panda update meant for you? Has it affected your business? What are you doing to course-correct going forward? We welcome your constructive comments below.

  • Affiliate

    It means nothing. My sites did not suffer at all in fact some were boosted. If you do things correctly from the start, you don’t have to worry about Google updates.

  • Creative9

    Agreed, we actually noticed no difference to any of the sites in our portfolio mainly because we were always building sites for real people anyway..

  • Scott

    Hey Great topic. I believe many webmasters are paranoid of any major changes like this. Sometimes decisiions made by the Google Search team don’t seem all that rational and penalizes sites that have been in existence for years, provideing worthwhile, unique content.

  • John

    Boloney…

    Every single one of my EPN sites were de-indexed OVERNIGHT. I went from 700$ per month to about 10 or 20. BAM !!!!

  • Alssoftware

    And the herd turns and runs in another direction…

  • Bob

    If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that Google has a secret SEO arm – because it would do very well each time there’s an update.

    Only every time there’s an update, the SEO guys must go ‘ker-ching’ with delight in their heads, as they get yet another opportunity to peddle supposition and guesswork in a pseudo-scientific but face-credible way.

  • Mark

    It meant a loss of ranking for all 2-word “top of page 1″ keyword rankings overnight. Those have evidently been given to big name sites.

  • Joey

    After more than 10 years in the #1 spot, I dropped to #3 in the March update. Panda brought me back up to #2.

  • Paul

    I have some comments on the principles that underlie the Panda Update as explained here, particularly with regard to what is desired from or constitutes a ‘good’ site.

    There is a basic underlying assumption in this that is akin to ‘all roads must go to the library, theatre, museum or art gallery”. Lofty informative and educational aspirations indeed.

    However people sometimes only want to buy replacement guitar strings or a bit for their bike. They know what they want and don’t want a chatty sales person filling their ear about the details of guitar string construction or the history of the pneumatic tyre.They want to know “is it available? how much is it? where do I pay?” Could you imagine having to undergo a lecture before you go to the checkout at all brick & mortar stores? your business would not survive in the real world.

    I do agree whole heartedly about improving user experiences with the aim of making it as easy as possible for them to accomplish whatever it is that they set out to do. But to insist that everything is framed against a background of mandatory ‘info-bloat’ assessed against some unknown standard is just going to force marketers to ‘bloat’ in a different way as they seek to do whatever it takes to bypass the panda gatekeeper.

    We all build sites to perform specific functions. If that function is to provide information then let that be excellent quality information. If it is to provide video then let it be slick and fast. But if it is to provide a clean simple niche shopfront, a specialist stall for ebay products for example, then the fact that it addresses that niche at all and a searcher came to it speaks more about the user’s level of existing understanding of the topic than some 200 words of forced google-approved content.

    As a metric why would a site have to have lots of type-in visitors to be any use?. more generalisation. For me I’m niche, off the beaten track by definition before I start. It’s a different thing and the above plan cannot apply, yet such sites still provide a useful service to their visitors, exactly what they wanted and fast! why would that be penalised? is that not what Google wants?

    Niche stores provide an important service to the ebay buying and selling communities and to ebay themselves. Information sites work as well but a shop front site is a product shelf in a store with a different purpose than to inform. To enforce the basic tenet that all sites ‘must be informative or die’ will just force a different type of nuisance to evolve. The shovel-selling IM ‘gurus’ will be rubbing their hands together & getting very creative I’m sure.

    For shoppers, a simple site can answer the customer’s main questions quickly and does not distract them with information they know already – “Is it available? HERE IT IS – How much is it? THIS MUCH – Where do I pay? PAY HERE.

    It’s purposely not complex. A happy customer has been created, their shopping time has been minimised to free them for their next task and we have used the web appropriately and effectively to everybody’s advantage.

    Unless we know how the Algo works, it’s all guesswork, whispers and half-truths. The entire world is not based around making information available or catering to the needs of the largest groups only whilst forgetting the specific needs of individuals or small groups of nerdy niche dwellers, sometimes we just need just a bit for our bike.

  • http://ebaypartnernetworkblog.com Scott Parent

    Great comments everyone. It’s interesting see that this has affected some of you, but not others. Hopefully Rand’s video pointed out a few tips that can help you adjust to these Panda changes.

  • HH

    Sandbox, then one week back in the index, then back into the sandbox, now already 3 weeks in the index, PR (again) at 3 -was 2 years at 2- instead of 2, no major changes.

  • Scottie

    I agree that Google gives Big Brands better ranking, because they believe that’s what visitors want to see, however I strongly disagree. If a customer wants to see products at Sears because it’s a store they trust or like, they would simply go to Sears.com. If customers wanted to see products on Amazon, Walmart, Sears, or what not, they would go to their domains directly. 9 times out of 10 if they didn’t go directly to Walmart.com to buy something, and are using the search engine, chances are they are looking for “new” sources for a product, not the same.

  • GB

    Brilliant Paul! Bravo. As a consumer that’s exactly what I want. On tghe other hand if I’m researching something and I land on a ‘shopfront’ I hit the back button. If I’m researching something and get to a shop front disguised with content to trick the Search Engines I probably waste 3-5 minutes reading regurgitated rubbish.

    I like my storefront sites. They have honesty and integrity – they are simply a store, no pretence of being more than that. You know instantly if you want to be on my site or not, I don’t want to trick you into being there, what’s the point?

  • Woody

    Panda Why you slap me?

    …overall not so bad but can’t be sure whether it was hacker or panda that slapped some of the network

  • Paul

    Nothing new really, good original content will always win in terms of Google. Google just works to keep away the spammers and spammers will always cheat and try and spin content etc because usually they are lazy.

  • Brad Camp

    I was just wondering if updating and constantly changing your webpages negatively effects your listing results??
    Thank-you

  • Chip

    Very good perspective and great overview of Panda by Rand, but traffic generated from SEO is continuing to decrease in the age of social media. I would like to see more topics on the use/role of social media to increase traffic to eBay.

  • Dave

    Very helpful, thank you !

  • Volker

    I could not tell any difference for my sites regarding panda

  • Randy

    I think a lot of webmasters spend way to much time worrying about what Google does. The truth is Google thinks they own the internet but they don’t. I never try to please Google with their never ending little quirks they apply to their search criteria. All of my sites were built to sell products and that’s what they do, including my doorway pages and they will continue to do so with or without Google

  • HH

    Just an update, since the july 12th I am (again) in the Land of Forgotten Websites.. Traffic down with around 50%.

  • Lana

    I am just now getting started and hope I can learn and improve to be able to be on a good list:) Thank you for explaining so well. Hopefully this will not keep my site from being better rated later on once I figure out how to build a better site.

  • http://ebaypartnernetworkblog.com Scott Parent

    Hi Lana – I think the main goals for any good site should be to be an expert in your field and try to get quality inbound links. If you follow those guidelines and update your site regularly, you should do OK in Google’s eyes.

    Best of luck.

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