Google’s Panda update continues to surprise site owners and SEOs alike, with ‘Panda-related flux’ occurring for weeks after the most recent change. Google’s Matt Cutts warned site owners in a ‘weather report’ that the update’s ‘flux’ would continue on for some weeks.
The major update of the Panda algorithm, which occurred at the end of September, was expected to affect a larger number of results than usual. In the early October tweet, Cutts warned that site owners could expect some continued fluctuations. Cutts noted that the fluctuations were expected to affect only a small number of sites, around two percent.
Weeks after Panda 2.5 was released in the US, some sites still experienced fluctuations in their rankings, some experiencing a recovery briefly in early October only to fall back again a week later.
The series of updates is an unusual advance on other Panda changes. Previous updates have tended to comprise one major change with minor tweaks, leaving affected site owners time to recover. For 2.5, however, Google has made a series of changes, keeping search engine optimisation professionals on their toes to cope with clients’ rankings fluctuations. Google has confirmed that updates occurred on October 3 and 13.
Some fluctuation is always to be expected after a major algorithm update, and site owners are generally advised to stick to their current SEO plans. As Google continues to work on Panda, those in SEO careers continue to concentrate on the need for content quality, removing duplicated pages and generally tightening up site content.
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Well I’ve been banging on about it for years to anyone who will listen (not that many people actually!). Google (etc) have never made a secret of their goal to rank the best most relevant sites for users at the top of the results.