Google finally released its newest Panda update a few months ago and it’s still rolling out. While this may have been the first change to Google Panda 4.1 since its release 10 months before that of Google Panda 4.2, Google has been quite busy. During that period, Google released two algorithms namely Quality Update and Mobilegeddon. Moving on, just what effect does Google Panda 4.2 have on content marketing? While this algorithm has a lot of takeaways, there are the most relevant ones for content marketers.
It will affect 2%-3% Searches
These percentages might appear negligible but when it comes to search engines and Google, no number is too small. Two to three percent is equivalent to 36 million searches, and you have to agree that that’s huge. Even so, these percentages are not as impressive as the previous versions of Google Panda. 4.1 affected about 7.5% of all search traffic while 4.1 affected 3%-5% of all searches. Looking further, however, 2%-3% is still a huge percentage.
The rollout will be slower than that of previous versions
Panda 4.2 was released on July 18, 2015 and it will take awhile for it to take effect. The last few updates have seen increased rollout times. The periods between individual roll outs are also longer. Sites hit by Panda 4.1 had 10 months to wallow in what seemed like a punishment and things don’t seem to be getting better with Panda 4.2. Content marketers will have to wait for the next update because regardless of what efforts they make to evade the slow rollouts, their sites will still be affected. That, however, does not mean that you can’t make any efforts to improve your site’s content. No one knows when the next update will be and everyone knows that a little effort helps tremendously. Slow rollouts mean that it’s harder to measure changes in search and ranking traffic. It’s also difficult to know when and how this will punish your site.
Creating the best content is the best response
The most obvious indication that Panda 4.2 has punished your site is declining traffic. In the event that this happens, it’s best to focus on creating quality content and hope that the next update will be released soon and that it will have better effects on your traffic. Content marketers make the mistake of concentrating on the quantity aspect of content rather than quality. The latter is what’s considered when it comes to SEO hence the emphasis. Quality of content is determined by originality, grammar as well as relevance to the topic.
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