Marketing Resources

Trouble for Business Websites as Google Unveils “Panda”

By April Lopez

You may want to rethink your online content strategy if you don’t update your business website very often.

Google has unveiled Panda, a search algorithm that puts a higher priority on high-quality content and aims to provide users with “the most up-to-date results.

According to Google, the algorithm will figure out if a result from a week ago about a website or news is recent or too old.

The company says the latest update is likely to affect as much as 35 percent of all searches on Google.

Businesses immediately scrambled to maintain their search rankings as the Panda update was said to affect 12 percent of searches.

Recent events or hot topics, regularly occurring events, and searches for information that changes often but isn’t necessarily a trending topic or recurring event will have the most impact.

A Google spokesperson says the change better determines the level of freshness needed for each query and promotes fresher results accordingly.

Matt McGee, executive news editor at SEO-focused news site Search Engine Land, says in some industries, it will be near impossible to get visibility with a small, rarely-updated website.

Blogs have always been great SEO weapons and the update seems to emphasize the value of publishing quality content on a regular basis, he adds.