A Google Update Brewing?

Filed Under Google PageRank & Algorithm Updates

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has a nice uptick in chatter this weekend starting 

around Saturday but staying strong throughout Sunday on ranking changes and traffic changes.

It looks like the changes started later Friday when member, backdraft7, said:

Looks like somebody tripped on the network cable on our server again. NO traffic for long periods today. 20 and 30 minute periods of absolutely NOTHING! Well, at least it can't get any worse that zero? Can it? Come on what gives? I'm still in the serps, but ZERO? Did every on the planet die?

Several SEOs and webmasters also noticed major changes afterwards.

Another SEO added, "Traffic STOPPED completely 30 minutes or so ago. WOW is all I can say..."

Like all ranking fluctuations discussed in these threads, it doesn't mean there was a global update or anything. It can be site specific or even a bug with the site or Google.

One other Webmaster added:

We saw similar patterns yesterday. Not "zero" traffic, but huge drops in traffic at times during the day. Mostly in the afternoon as the morning started off normal (Central time zone). I kept checking the news to see if some disaster had struck that was taking everyone's attention away because like you, our SERPS hadn't changed so it made no sense.

Honestly, I don't think this will be a major update like anything Penguin or Panda related. But I'll stay on top of it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's Panda Update Graduates To Rolling Update

Filed Under Google PageRank & Algorithm Updates

Last night at SMX West, Google's Matt Cutts announced that the Panda algorithm will be more of a rolling update, as opposed to what it has been as a manually pushed out update.

I am not sure what I am going to do with my time now. I am no longer going to be able to get confirmations from Google about Panda updates. The updates are going to be less transparent to webmasters and SEOs. They will likely happen more frequently and have less of an impact on the overall search results. At least that is my take.

I posted the audio file of Matt saying this at Search Engine Land:

Rather than having some huge change that happens on a given day. You are more likely in the future to see Panda deployed gradually as we rebuild the index. So you are less likely to see these large scale sorts of changes.

So the update that is rolling out over the weekend might not be that noticeable to you and I.

I should note, we asked in the past if Panda was a rolling update and it wasn't. So it looks like now it is.

Here are the past Panda updates:

• Panda #24 on January 22, 2013
• Panda #23 on December 21, 2012
• Panda #22 on November 21st
• Panda #22 on November 21st
• Panda #21 on November 5th
• Panda #20 on September 27th
• Panda 3.9.2 on September 18th
• Panda 3.9.1 on August 20th
• Panda 3.9 on July 24th
• Panda 3.8 on June 25th
• Panda 3.7 on June 9th
• Panda 3.6 on April 27th
• Panda 3.5 on April 19th
• Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
• Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
• Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
• Panda 3.1 on November 18th
• Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
• Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
• Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
• Panda 2.5 on September 28th
• Panda 2.4 in August
• Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
• Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
• Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
• Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
• Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at Google+.

Google’s Matt Cutts On Upcoming Penguin, Panda & Link Networks Updates

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced new updates with Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithms and new link network targets in 2013. Matt announced this during the SMX West panel, The Search Police.

Significant Penguin Update

Matt said that there will be a large Penguin update in 2013 that he thinks will be one of the more talked about Google algorithm updates this year. Google’s search quality team is working on a major update to the Penguin algorithm, which Cutts called very significant.

The last Penguin update we have on record was Penguin 3 in October 2012. Before that, we had Penguin 2 in May 2012 and the initial release in April.

So, expect a major Penguin release that may send ripples through the SEO industry this year.

A Panda Update Coming This Friday Or Monday

Matt also announced there will be a Panda algorithm update this coming Friday (March 15th) or Monday (March 18th). The last Panda update was version 24 on January 22nd, which is one of the longer spans of time between Panda refreshes we’ve seen in a long time.

Another Link Network Targeted

Matt Cutts confirmed that Google targeted a link network a couple weeks ago, and said Google will go after more in 2013. In fact, Matt said that they will release another update in the next week or two that specifically targets another large link network.

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About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here.See more articles by Barry Schwartz