Making Sense of Panda 3.9 †What Does it Mean For Your Web Sites Content

A few days ago, Google tweeted that a new â€Å"data refresh† of Panda would begin rolling out that night. Dubbed Panda 3.9 because this is the ninth tweak to Panda, this update is expected to affect roughly 1 percent of all search results. With yet another announced Panda update, it’s easy to panic. After all, if your websites were hurt in previous updates, a sense of dread is sure to accompany each new change to Panda. But will recent Panda updates have the same bite as earlier ones? The Most Recent Panda Updates Since the beginning of the year, Google has tweaked Panda eight times. In the last two months, we saw three Panda updates: Panda 3.7, Panda 3.8, and Panda 3.9. Panda 3.7 rolled out as a â€Å"data refresh† on June 8th and was said to affect less than one percent of search results in the U.S. and about one percent of results around the world. A couple of weeks later, Panda 3.8 was released, again as a data refresh and again expected to affect about one percent of search engine results. Do you see a trend here? Panda 3.9, which just happened, was also labeled as a data refresh. It is also expected to affect approximately one percent of search results. What is a Data Refresh? In order to understand the potential impact of Panda 3.7, Panda 3.8, and Panda 3.9, you need to know what Google means when it calls a Panda update a â€Å"data refresh.† According to Matt Cutts’ blog post titled, Explaining Algorithm Updates and Data Refreshes, a data refresh occurs when data is refreshed within an existing algorithm such as an index update. What is an index update? This is when new Google index data is pushed to its data centers. In short, a data refresh isn’t a major change to the algorithm; it’s a change to the data that the algorithms work with. Imagine you run a telemarketing call center and use a combination of hardware and software (commonly called predictive dialers) to place phone calls. If you change the hardware and software used to make the calls so that calls are made only to males living in the 916 area code, that would be comparable to changing an algorithm. It would have a huge impact on operations as females and anyone living outside that area code would be effectively de-listed. On the other hand, if you update the list of phone numbers of prospects to call, that would be comparable to a data refresh and it would have a minimal impact. It would simply add newly discovered males in that area code or remove those who have moved away or opted out. Since the algorithm itself hasn’t been changed, just the data it looks at, the impact on search results is minimal with a data refresh. Hence, the repeated assurances that only about one percent of results will be affected. The Implications of Panda Data Refreshes If data refreshes are relatively minor, what’s the big deal about Panda 3.9 and its data refresh siblings? These updates reinforce Google’s commitment to improving its search results. When Google tweeted the most recent data refresh, it also included a link to its May 6, 2011 blog post, More Guidance on Building High-Quality Sites(be sure to check out our post explaining what this means. The inclusion of that particular link tells us this: Google is still focused on helping Google users find relevant, high-quality sites. The best way to ensure that future Panda updates won’t hurt you is to give Google and, more importantly, your website’s visitors, what they want: fresh, informative, and well-written unique content and articles. If you do this consistently, you’ll never have to fear the words Panda update again.