Things to Know About Google Panda & Penguin Updates

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From last few years, Google is continuously working on their search algorithms to provide useful information. Whenever Google rolled out a new algorithm, it's acknowledged as “Update”. Google Panda & Google Penguin are two major updates which reflect the ranking.

Each update deals with a certain number of ranking factors. For example, Google Penguin update deals with the backlinks or web spam.

Since most of the major updates in the past years have been focused on Penguin and Panda, many webmasters are left doubting what the real differences between Google Panda and Google Penguin are. Here is an analysis:

Google Panda:

Google Panda, the update was first released in the month of February 2011. The update was designed to penalize the websites that are offering low-quality content or duplicate content which is not useful for the users. The update affected approx. 12% of all search results. This also helped the websites that are having high-quality and original content on their web pages.

Google Panda Update mainly penalized the content farms where users could publish low-quality, keyword stuffed content that provides no value to the readers. Panda is site wide penalty which can penalize your entire website.

Here is a breakdown of all the Google Panda updates and their roll out dates. If your website’s traffic took a major hit around these times there is a chance it was penalized by Panda:

1. Google Panda / Farmer Update Rolled Out on February 23,2011

2. Panda 2.0 Update Rolled Out on April 11,2011

3. Panda 2.1 Rolled Out on May 9, 2011

4. Panda 2.2 Rolled Out on June 21,2011

5. Panda 2.3 Rolled Out on July 23,2011

6. Panda 2.4 Rolled Out on August 12,2011 (English as well as Non-English Queries)

7. Panda 2.5 Rolled Out on September 28, 2011

8. Panda aka Flux Rolled out on October 5, 2011

9. Panda 3.1 Rolled Out on November 18, 2011

10. Panda 3.2 Rolled Out on January 18, 2012

11. Panda 3.3 Rolled Out on February 27, 2012

12. Panda 3.4 Rolled out on March 23, 2012

13. Panda 3.5 Rolled Out on April 19, 2012

14. Panda 3.6 Rolled Out on April 27, 2012

15. Panda 3.7 Rolled Out on June 8, 2012

16. Panda 3.8 Rolled Out on June 25, 2012

17. Panda 3.9 Rolled Out on July 24, 2012

18. Panda 3.9.1 Rolled Out on August 20, 2012

19. Panda 3.9.2 Rolled Out on September 18, 2012

20. Panda #20 Rolled out on September 27, 2012 (Overlapping the EMD update)

21. Panda #21 Rolled Out on November 5, 2012

22. Panda #22 Rolled Out on November 21, 2012

23. Panda #23 Rolled Out on December 21, 2012

24. Panda #24 Rolled Out on January 22, 2013

25. Panda #25 Rolled Out on March 14, 2013

26. Panda Dance Rolled Out on June 11, 2013

27. Panda Recovery Rolled Out on July 18, 2013

28. Panda 4.0 Rolled Out on May 19, 2014

29. Panda 4.1 Rolled Out on September 23, 2014

30. Panda 4.2 Rolled Out on July 17, 2015

Many of the webmasters complained that even after making suggested changes to their websites to be more “Google Panda Friendly” , they didn’t recover from the penalty.

Google Panda update doesn’t roll out at regular intervals and Google’s algorithm doesn’t re-index every website each time so sometimes webmasters face low traffic from several months until Google re-index their website.

Google Penguin:

For the first time, Google rolled out Penguin update on 24th April, 2011. The algorithm was targeted at webspam. According to Google, Penguin update is designed to decrease the ranking of the websites that are violating the Google’s Quality guidelines. This update has affected approx. 3.1% of search queries.

This update mainly targets the websites that have been over-optimized and using low-quality link building techniques to increase the search engine rankings.

Penguin deals especially with backlink quality. Websites that have pay for the links or have acquired low-quality links through places like low-quality directories, blog spam, and infographics.

It’s essential to remember that Google Panda is an algorithm update, not a manual penalty like Penguin. If you do think you have some sort of penalty on your website, it’s recommended to contact your SEO service provider to help or start troubleshooting.

Here is a breakdown of all the Google Penguin updates and their roll out dates:

1. Google Penguin Rolled Out on April 24, 2012

2. Penguin 1.1 Rolled Out on May 25, 2012

3. Penguin #3 Rolled Out on October 5, 2012

4. Penguin 2.0 Rolled Out on May 22, 2013

5. Penguin 2.1 Rolled Out on October 4, 2013

6. Penguin 3.0 Rolled Out on October 17, 2014 (Penguin Refresh)

7. Penguin Everflux Rolled Out on December 10, 2014

8. Penguin 4.0 Rolled Out on September 23, 2016 (A Real Time Penguin Update)