The new Panda Update is here. About 4 months after the release of Panda 4.0, Google has announced a new iteration of the algorithm update via the Google+-Profile of an employee on Thursday.
The rather “slow” rollout already started early this week and is supposed to last till the beginning of next. Depending on the region, the update affects about 3%-5% of search queries.
The data is already live in our Software. Check out Searchmetrics Suite – Winners / Losers to get the current data in detail.
“New” Signals to Detect Low-Quality Content
Panda Updates focus on content quality. They are supposed to remove redundant, irrelevant content and spam from Google’s index. So far, this is nothing new. The interesting thing about the current Panda generation is the fact that apparently smaller and medium high-quality websites are supposed to benefit from the update.
Google said, based on feedback from both users and webmasters they have “been able to discover a few more signals to help Panda identify low-quality content more precisely”.
Following the bigger Panda 4.0 update, the new Panda seems to be a rather “small“ iteration. That’s why Search Engine Land is calling the 27th update from the Panda family “Panda 4.1“.
Panda 4.1 Winners and Losers
Just a friendly reminder: The following data is based on the organic SEO Visibility for each domain for all researched keywords, compared to our last data point. The actual traffic by each domain – for example brand and/or direct traffic etc. – can vary with values given here. Also a win or loss doesn’t necessarily mean a causation with Panda. Sometimes it is based on simple technical issues or redirects like nokia.com.
Let’s take a look at the data.
Google.com – Panda 4.1 Losers in the U.S.
Here is a filtered overview of the losers (SEO Visibility) ordered by percentage:
| Domain – Loser | Before | After | Change in % |
| yellow.com | 16383 | 3413 | -79% |
| similarsites.com | 118771 | 25197 | -79% |
| free-coloring-pages.com | 12268 | 2960 | -76% |
| dwyer-inst.com | 13225 | 3229 | -76% |
| issitedownrightnow.com | 69354 | 18376 | -74% |
| updatestar.com | 13232 | 3788 | -71% |
| office365.com | 29365 | 8781 | -70% |
| findthebest.com | 30848 | 93937 | -70% |
| homewyse.com | 14161 | 4410 | -69% |
| adelaide.edu.au | 20351 | 6537 | -68% |
| pearltrees.com | 16769 | 5503 | -67% |
| ok.co.uk | 18226 | 5995 | -67% |
| socialcomments.org | 27476 | 9058 | -67% |
| mybillcom.com | 12258 | 4136 | -66% |
| tgiblackfriday.com | 10037 | 3420 | -66% |
| discountsstory.net | 20907 | 7337 | -65% |
| indyweek.com | 13373 | 4826 | -64% |
| zabasearch.com | 42679 | 15697 | -63% |
| exacttarget.com | 14849 | 5729 | -61% |
| okc.gov | 12547 | 4907 | -61% |
| no1reviews.com | 18403 | 7235 | -61% |
| mademan.com | 23006 | 9779 | -57% |
| studymode.com | 10756 | 4611 | -57% |
| thefair.com | 14067 | 6277 | -55% |
| appappeal.com | 11265 | 5149 | -54% |
| chronicle.com | 17244 | 8208 | -52% |
| lyricstranslations.com | 16944 | 8077 | -52% |
| onhealth.com | 118017 | 56735 | -52% |
| cherrybam.com | 20178 | 9736 | -52% |
| nerve.com | 17264 | 9016 | -48% |
| emedtv.com | 30739 | 16266 | -47% |
| hubpages.com | 30493 | 163548 | -46% |
| brothersoft.com | 25357 | 13969 | -45% |
| collider.com | 47733 | 26383 | -45% |
| 337.com | 21172 | 12141 | -43% |
| hypestat.com | 18047 | 10553 | -42% |
| telecomfile.com | 17652 | 10448 | -41% |
| discountednewspapers.com | 19472 | 11624 | -40% |
| bugmenot.com | 25339 | 15152 | -40% |
| medterms.com | 286956 | 172836 | -40% |
| translationcloud.com | 43295 | 2674 | -38% |
| archive.today | 48603 | 30085 | -38% |
| game-oldies.com | 47279 | 2932 | -38% |
| kxan.com | 26622 | 16609 | -38% |
| thinkbabynames.com | 22762 | 14246 | -37% |
| amtrakcalifornia.com | 18965 | 1192 | -37% |
| theepochtimes.com | 34385 | 21638 | -37% |
| addresses.com | 33042 | 21012 | -36% |
| hrblock.com | 24599 | 15775 | -36% |
| areacode.org | 33412 | 21799 | -35% |
| buzzle.com | 76279 | 50134 | -34% |
| militarycac.com | 30014 | 1977 | -34% |
| howstuffworks.com | 1251213 | 827093 | -34% |
| eprize.com | 42565 | 28358 | -33% |
| travelandleisure.com | 110818 | 74347 | -33% |
| webutations.info | 190251 | 127762 | -33% |
| appbrain.com | 59235 | 40254 | -32% |
| enjoygram.com | 28335 | 19322 | -32% |
| dailypuppy.com | 24775 | 1701 | -31% |
| oxforddictionaries.com | 383172 | 265208 | -31% |
| offers.com | 56036 | 39082 | -30% |
| guardianlv.com | 34268 | 24045 | -30% |
| thinkexist.com | 138435 | 97364 | -30% |
| hallmark.com | 61087 | 4381 | -28% |
| ehow.com | 101928 | 73157 | -28% |
| laws.com | 26208 | 18839 | -28% |
| greenwichmeantime.com | 45629 | 32906 | -28% |
| miamiherald.com | 99912 | 72274 | -28% |
| dubbed-scene.com | 26502 | 1926 | -27% |
| bobdylan.com | 27307 | 19881 | -27% |
| cardhub.com | 49508 | 36101 | -27% |
| mommysavesbig.com | 46118 | 33913 | -26% |
| healthcentral.com | 47799 | 35173 | -26% |
| appcrawlr.com | 29088 | 21595 | -26% |
Google.com – Panda 4.1 Winners in the U.S.
Here is a filtered overview of the winners (SEO Visibility) ordered by percentage:
| Domain – Winner | Before | After | Change in % |
| comdotgame.com | 2632 | 38231 | 1353% |
| hongkiat.com | 135 | 68372 | 406% |
| babble.com | 8963 | 42916 | 379% |
| rd.com | 17209 | 71434 | 315% |
| mediamass.net | 6839 | 27876 | 308% |
| hotelguides.com | 8563 | 32957 | 285% |
| yourtango.com | 30624 | 109148 | 256% |
| moreofit.com | 6431 | 22864 | 256% |
| celebrity-gossip.net | 10727 | 38068 | 255% |
| spoonful.com | 2813 | 89573 | 218% |
| ivillage.com | 11818 | 37065 | 214% |
| 800-numbers.net | 11809 | 34631 | 193% |
| thepiratebay.se | 2571 | 67457 | 162% |
| aceshowbiz.com | 21679 | 55059 | 154% |
| dummies.com | 42806 | 104764 | 145% |
| geekwire.com | 11606 | 28319 | 144% |
| ispot.tv | 12242 | 28062 | 129% |
| womansday.com | 11868 | 27195 | 129% |
| bncollege.com | 36738 | 76969 | 110% |
| afterdawn.com | 18519 | 38775 | 109% |
| allwomenstalk.com | 19836 | 41088 | 107% |
| livescience.com | 79499 | 164323 | 107% |
| savings.com | 25874 | 52886 | 104% |
| fastcodesign.com | 25303 | 50326 | 99% |
| mystore411.com | 24262 | 47482 | 96% |
| health.com | 120733 | 212827 | 76% |
| unblocksit.es | 23559 | 40897 | 74% |
| newseum.org | 36201 | 59205 | 64% |
| netdoctor.co.uk | 25973 | 41246 | 59% |
| celebdirtylaundry.com | 34511 | 53817 | 56% |
| digitaltrends.com | 137257 | 21076 | 54% |
| quickanddirtytips.com | 28288 | 43284 | 53% |
| tvtropes.org | 105715 | 160152 | 51% |
| simplyrecipes.com | 100684 | 149017 | 48% |
| glamour.com | 53907 | 77933 | 45% |
| astrologyzone.com | 45185 | 65237 | 44% |
| chow.com | 117933 | 168931 | 43% |
| arstechnica.com | 121742 | 171708 | 41% |
| parenting.com | 49936 | 70185 | 41% |
| realsimple.com | 180553 | 252922 | 40% |
| webopedia.com | 153512 | 213758 | 39% |
| healthgrades.com | 70386 | 97103 | 38% |
| laptopmag.com | 53221 | 73249 | 38% |
| dispatch.com | 44614 | 60412 | 35% |
| dealcatcher.com | 95757 | 128887 | 35% |
| businessdictionary.com | 104606 | 140213 | 34% |
| vice.com | 157693 | 208496 | 32% |
| smithsonianmag.com | 18069 | 238733 | 32% |
| thefreedictionary.com | 2124356 | 2774647 | 31% |
| internetslang.com | 50578 | 65093 | 29% |
Conclusion: News, Content Sites and Download Portals win – Games, Lyrics and some Medical Portals lose
The 4.1 iteration of Panda ties in with the preceding updates. Losers are often games or lyrics portals as well as websites dealing with medical issues and content – to cut it short (here I am repeating myself): in general, it hit pages with thin content. Aggregators do not provide unique and relevant content.
It doesn’t seem to be very relevant for Google to list (that is: aggregate information about) sites that are down at the moment. That was measurable already with Panda 4.0 and it is true for the current update as well:
On the other hand, sites with quality content won. Babble.com has been a loser of the Panda 4.0 update and has now recovered quite impressively. And there are even more losers of Panda 4.0 that recovered. Just to name a few: rd.com, Hotelguides.com, Yourtango.com, Spoonful.com or ivillage.com. Also, some quality sites with relevant topic content like Simplyrecipes.com or brands like Glamour.com have benefited from the update.