Google Panda 4.2 Is Here; Slowly Rolling Out After Waiting Almost 10 Months

Google tells Search Engine Land that it pushed out a Google Panda refresh this weekend.

Many of you may not have noticed because this rollout is happening incredibly slowly. In fact, Google says the update can take months to fully roll out. That means that although the Panda algorithm is still site-wide, some of your Web pages might not see a change immediately.

The last time we had an official Panda refresh was almost 10 months ago: Panda 4.1 happened on September 25, 2014. That was the 28th update, but I would coin this the 29th or 30th update, since we saw small fluctuations in October 2014.

As far as I know, very few webmasters noticed a Google update this weekend. That is how it should be, since this Panda refresh is rolling out very slowly.

Google said this affected about 2%–3% of English language queries.

New Chance For Some, New Penalty For Others

The rollout means anyone who was penalized by Panda in the last update has a chance to emerge if they made the right changes. So if you were hit by Panda, you unfortunately won’t notice the full impact immediately but you should see changes in your organic rankings gradually over time.

This is not how many of the past Panda updates rolled out, where typically you’d see a significant increase or decline in your Google traffic more quickly.

For the record, here’s the list of confirmed Panda Updates, with some of the major changes called out with their AKA (also known as) names:

1. Panda Update 1, AKA Panda 1.0, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)
2. Panda Update 2, AKA Panda 2.0, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)
3. Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
4. Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
5. Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
6. Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6–9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)
7. Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
8. Panda Update 8 AKA Panda 3.0, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)
9. Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)
10. Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
11. Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)
12. Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)
13. Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)
14. Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)
15. Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)
16. Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)
17. Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)
18. Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)
19. Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)
20. Panda Update 20 , Sept. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announced
21. Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)
22. Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)
23. Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
24. Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
25. Panda Update 25, March 15, 2013 (confirmed as coming; not confirmed as having happened)
26. Panda Update 26, July 18, 2013 (confirmed, announced)
27. Panda Update 27 AKA Panda 4.0, May 20, 2014 (7.5% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
28. Panda Update 28 AKA Panda 4.1, Sept. 25, 2014 (3–5% of queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
29. Panda Update 30 AKA Panda 4.2, July 18, 2015 (2–3% of queries were affected; confirmed, announced)

Here Are the 7 Ways to Improve Google Rankings For Your Website

With increasing number of websites, the war of ranking higher or on the top three has become harder and harder. However, such tough competition can be won by following some simple rules as advice by the search engine giant Google.

1. Do not try to outsmart Google

Many developers think that they can fool Google by using some tricks to rank higher in Google search results. What they fail to understand is the fact that their trick might work for a few days but once Google catches them the page or website will either be penalized or will jump to the bottom. It is always better to follow the rules laid by Google and to create a website that not only meets all the ranking criteria’s but also standout amongst all the other web pages.

2. Keyword for ranking

Selecting or targeting the right keyword is the only way to achieve the desired result. While users can use the various available online tools, getting a keyword audit can also prove to be beneficial. Selecting through vast number of keywords can be tricky and optimizing the keyword another big hurdle while creating a website.

3. Design of the web page

The entire layout of the web page plays a very important role in the ranking of the page on search engine. Do not forget to appropriately use Title tags, SEO titles, meta descriptions, alt tags and Images and image naming conventions. Some other important things to pay attention to are ratio of text to HTML, Length of copy on pages, number of indexed pages, canonical URL structure, domain age and site loading speed.

4. Boost site security

Increasing number of cases of security breaches has made security protocols stricter and tougher. Breaches such as identity theft, Adware, Clickjacking and many others were in the news most recently. To curb such problems, Google ranks those sites higher which have security certification and HTTPS encryption.

5. Publish quality content frequently

Updating fresh and good quality content on a regular basis increases ranking in the search result. Quality of the content is measured on the parameters such as human engagement and algorithm predicts.

6. Do Strategic Link Building

Link building is one of the most important parts of ranking in Google’s search result page. However, linking to authentic website is what counts. It adds to the credibility of the site.

Buying links to get faster result might end-up penalizing the page if the sources are not legal.

7. Mobile-Friendly website

As mobile phones have taken the center stage, today websites that are mobile-friendly are counted amongst the top result during searches.