Google Panda Update #25 is rumored to have landed over the weekend. Did you notice? Maybe not.
In the past, Google Panda updates have all been announced officially. You were told that on date ‘X’, update number ‘Y’ was rolled out with ‘Z’ percent of the search queries being affected. That was more or less the case for the first 24 Panda updates… but now things are changing and the Panda is more stealthy. Now, Panda updates will be included in the regular algorithmic updates. A statement from Matt Cutts explained that further Google updates were not going be announced – that they would be integrated into more of a rolling update. In this case, Cutts explained that the update would roll out over a series of days.
So what does this translate to? Simply put, it’s going to be very difficult to analyze and confirm that an algorithmic alteration is a result of a Panda, Penguin or any other algorithm change. The changes themselves will be less apparent, but probably become more frequent.
To me this is better, and here’s why… Sure, all future updates are likely to appear less transparent and you may not know exactly when an update is hitting, but it should also have less of an immediate impact on your website. These large-scale updates that we’ve come to know, name and fear may become just a normal part of the algo updates that are rolled out over time and felt less where it matters… your traffic.
What about you, are you more stressed by the not knowing? Comment below and let us know how you’re feeling about all of this.
