What is your hypothesis why Panda/Penguin recoveries happen over months after an algorithm update rather than over night?
-
We have experienced many scenarios were ranking recoveries from clear Panda and Penguin penalties on our sites don't necessarily happen with the launch of a Panda/Penguin update but instead trickle back in over weeks and months after a confirmed algo update. A good example is shown in the image which shows a panda recovery for a high volume keyword. What is your theory why these ranking recoveries happen over weeks vs instantly?
-
Thank you for your input, your hypothesis that the initial increase to page 2 or 3 allowed the site to get traffic and gain traction through improved user engagement is an interesting one; however the traffic to those sites has been so minimal with the non top 10 rankings that I don't think it can be a key contributor.
I continue to wonder why these recoveries happen so gradually; I also noticed that the higher the keyword volume for a key word the slower the recovery.
-
Interesting graphic. It looks like that keyword plummeted in May of 2014. I'm assuming it must have been around May 20 when Panda updated? And then it made a comeback starting in the fall of 2015.
There were some potential Panda "tremors" in late 2015. (https://www.mariehaynes.com/algo-changes-and-more/). As Google doesn't announce each time they adjust Panda any more, we can often have Panda movement on days that aren't officially in the Moz list of Panda updates and refreshes. For example, on October 14/15, 2015 there were a lot of sites that were previously hit with Panda that saw some sort of improvement on that day.
I think it's quite possible that this is what happened for your site. It improved to page 2 or 3 or so and then, now that it had some kind of visibility had the chance to climb back to page 1.
The last official Panda update that Google announced started in July of 2015 but Google said it would be slow rolling and take several months to fully roll out. We still don't know whether that iteration is still slowly rolling along now.
Google did confirm recently that Panda is not yet baked into the algorithm but that it is considered a core part of the algorithm. It still does need to be manually refreshed however. So, it is my guess that in October of 2015 they manually refreshed or updated some portion of Panda and your site started to see improvement at that point.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Panda July 2016
Hi Does anyone know what impact the recent slow Panda roll out may have? Obviously content, but would it perhaps include engagement/user behaviour factors regarding your on page content too? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Google Mobile Algorithm update
Hi there, On April the 21st Google seems to going to update their Mobile algorithm. I have a few questions about this one. Our current mobile website is very mobile friendly. We block all mobile pages with a noindex, so the desktop pages have been indexed on mobile devices. We use a redirect from desktop page to mobile page when someone hits a result on a mobile device. My gut tells me this is not April 21st-proof so I'm thinking about an update to make this whole thing adaptive. By making the thing adaptive, our mobile pages will be indexed instead of the desktop pages. Two questions: Will Google treat the mobile page as a 100% different page than the desktop page? Or will it match those two because everything will tell Google those belong together. In other words: will the mobile page start with a zero authority and will pages lose good organic positions because of authority or not? Which ranking factor will be stronger after April 21st for mobile pages: page authority or mobile friendliness? In other words: is it worth ignoring the 21 April update because the authority of the desktop pages is more important than making every page super mobile friendly? Hope to get some good advice! Marcel
Algorithm Updates | | MarcelMoz0 -
Penguin Refresh - any ideas when?
Has anyone heard when a Penguin algo refresh might be happening? I used LinkRisk and identified about 1,000 toxic links (not put up by me) and disavowed them. Then my rankings tanked a bit. (yes, I know they must have been helping me.) But I think we are probably under a Penguin algo penalty since 2012. Earned some good links, and disavowed some bad links. So I'm hopeful that a Penguin algo update will give us a traffic boost.
Algorithm Updates | | yatesandcojewelers0 -
Next big Google update. Andy ideas when?
I'm interested to find out if anyone has and idea of when it will be or good guesses I would be interested to hear your thoughts. I have put a big effort into an SEO upgrade on my site and I'm interested in what impact I can expect when the next big update comes. Assuming I have fixed the issues that had been causing my traffic drop.
Algorithm Updates | | mark_baird0 -
Did The Last Google Algorithm Update, Hit sites with poor anchor text?
My content is quite strong within my niche, so I ranked well, but last month my rankings plummeted. On closer examination and scrutiny I discovered my anchor text needed updating. Has anyone else seen this happening in the last four weeks?
Algorithm Updates | | simonberenyi0 -
Any health bloggers/writers out there want to help in an experiment?
Hey mozzers, I'm trying a post-penguin experiment with a brand new website. New domain, separate hosting from all my other stuff, all that. It is run on an article script that allows new authors to make articles and post them. It is all health related and there are no other topics. I'm trying to see if a brand new site can get something to rank quickly with no SEO being done. No links of any kind, just social media sharing of articles. Authors can put links in their articles to anywhere they want, so if you want to help your health site out with a link, go for it. I'm looking for any writers who want to join us in this experiment. i figure if we get a lot of content on there, all original, no spun, natural links, we can do well. if so, I'm abandoning all penguin hit domains and starting over. And you all can get some links out of it. I've already got me and my employees, so the more the merrier. Just let me know if interested.
Algorithm Updates | | DanDeceuster2 -
Is a slash just as good as buying a country specific domain? .com/de vs .de
I guess this question comes in a few parts: 1. Would Google read a 2-letter country code that is after the domain name (after the slash) and recognize it as a location (targeting that country)? Or does is just read it as it would a word. eg. www.marketing.com/de for a microsite for the Germans www.marketing.com/fr for a microsite for the French Or would it read the de and fr as words (not locations) in the url. In which case, would it have worse SEO (as people would tend to search "marketing france" not "marketing fr")? 2. Which is better for SEO and rankings? Separate country specific domains: www.marketing.de and www.marketing.fr OR the use of subfolders in the url: www.marketing.com/de and www.marketing.com/fr
Algorithm Updates | | richardstrange0 -
How influential do you think user behavior is in the algorithm?
I'm one of the guys out there that is super focused on user behavior right now. I think with the implementation of different things such as the block feature and +1, it points to the fact that Google is putting a lot more power in the users. How influential do you think factors such as bounce rate, CTR, time on site, and other user behavior metrics are in the algo?
Algorithm Updates | | TommySwanson520
