Last week Google rolled out the latest iteration of its “Panda” (aka “Farmer”) update, which has caused some site owners to panic.
At first glance, the general consensus is this update favored big brand sites with a large amount of direct traffic, sites with a lot of video content, and Google properties. Those who immediately appeared to come out the losers were sites with a low amount of video content or those seen as competing with or having been “less agreeable” with Google.
These are the top 10 “winners” in the immediate aftermath of the update:
YouTube.com
Hulu.com
Mtv.com
Wikipedia.org
Reelz.com
Tv.com
Fox.xom
Gamespot.com
Nbc.com
Ign.com
The top 10 “losing” sites following Panda 2.5 were:
Myspace.com
Consumeraffairs.com
Starpulse.com
Amazon.com
Aceshowbiz.com
Savings.com
Bettermedicine.com
Prnewswire.com
Faqs.org
Comcast.net
Because of the drastic changes in traffic volume to these sites, many people in the industry or those on the “losing” list began to panic. However, it is possible that Google itself thought the changes went overboard a little because many sites seemed to “bounce back” into previous traffic levels a few days later. Whether or not this “bounce back” was due to Google retweaking Panda 2.5, or just a natural week-over-week traffic volume change, it is too early to tell. These new numbers should be a source of encouragement to the Panda “losers”, however, and as Google has yet to comment, online marketers should avoid any drastic changes to their site to compensate for any losses in traffic.
If industry experts are correct that Google is, indeed, favoring video content, businesses may want to consider adding the video where appropriate. If you have any questions about how video can affect or improve your site’s content and rankings, contact your SEO agency today.