The recently released Panda 4.0, the newest update in Google’s algorithm, is expected to have a considerable influence over many major domains and their rankings. This algorithm has been a major factor in the creation of SEO content for as far back as 2011, and, while new updates to it often cause controversy on the internet, they also do a lot of good in cleaning up and making the Web more accessible and more efficient to use for us all.
Different languages are said to be affected differently by Panda 4.0: for example, the impact on English language pages is only around 7.5% of queries. It is still too early to tell, but estimates so far have shown that high quality, original content writing is the clear winner, with pages that simply repost and reuse content losing out greatly in rankings.
While early rumors told of Panda 4.0 being a major, game-changing release, analysis so far has contradicted these speculations. It appears that the newest algorithm update is simply a platform for future changes, with the adjustments it makes itself being subtle. So far it is clear only that aggregator sites which do not feature original content will lose greatly in SERP rankings and online visibility.
Google’s Panda is an algorithm that focuses on analyzing, ranking and rewarding high quality creations, while punishing low quality or unoriginal content. As such, aggregators who simply reuse content from other sources are the biggest losers, whereas sites which feature only high-quality, original content creation are the clear winners.
But punishing websites that do the ‘wrong’ thing is not all that Panda 4.0 does; it appears that it has also done a great deal to increase the visibility of websites that, in the past, had little to no original content, but now have changed their ways and done the ‘right’ thing, learning from past mistakes. And, so, it seems that the Panda algorithm is one of the biggest factors in promoting original content on the web – to the benefit of us all.
