All that you wanted to know about Google Panda 4.2 Rollover

Google Panda is a famous search engine algorithm from Google. With its latest version of Google Panda 4.2, it brings out some improved features. A lot of people might be having all kinds of doubts regarding this latest update from Google. Well, this article will try to brief out on all the doubts that you might have.

So, what is new with Panda?

This rollout from Google is one of the slowest. It has taken several months, instead of just a few days.

What is causing so much of delay in the rollout?

It looks like there are some technical reasons for the delay. If the rollout happens fast, it will end up confusing the webmasters and the SEOs. Google has been trying to improve their infrastructure, and have been trying to shift it towards a more continuous change, incorporating it with their core ranking algorithms. And, this is what is causing the delay?

What pages will get affected?

Well, some of the pages might drop, and some might not drop. The pages which are hit by Panda, might show different impacts during different times, when the rollout happens. This is due to the fact that the rollout is happening on a page-by-page basis.

Does Panda apply to the entire site?

Even though, Panda update is an action applying to the entire site, it might actually not affect all the pages in the site, in the same way. While some pages might get affected, others might not. So, some of the pages might end up suffering more than the others.

The ranking of the searches involves more than 200 signals. And, Panda is only one of these signals. If the site ranking changes, it is not totally because of Panda. There are various other factors, coming into play. For example, if a page is hit by Panda, but it has other positive signals, there might not be a significant drop in the rankings, as compared to the other pages, which have less number of positive signals. So, it totally depends upon the page level signals.

Are you affected by the Panda?

Well, to find out whether you are affected by Panda 4.2 update, you might have to wait for some months, till the complete rollout is finished. Once that is done, you might again have to wait till Google completes its next update in 2016.

As per Google, their aim is to integrate the Panda algorithm with the other core ranking algorithms. So, this change is continuous, without being real-time. So, when Google does this integration, the web publishers might be able to see a more continuous change in Panda, and that too, at a faster rate. And, if it doesn’t happen, then, we might have to wait till 2016 for another Panda refresh.

If you wish to find out whether you have escaped the Panda update, then, you should watch out for your analytics, and isolate the organic traffic coming from Google. Observe whether you are getting any large swings. Once you have checked that out, you can check the community to find out whether Google has confirmed any updates.