Earlier this year, Brafton reported Google rolled out the Panda update, a change to the search engine’s algorithm that punished websites for publishing low-quality content while rewarding those that generate insightful and valuable content. Now, the company has launched Panda update 2.3, which Google says incorporates “some new signals.”
The 2.3 update makes use of new signals that are designed to help the portal further differentiate between low- and high-quality sources. This means businesses may see their websites rank higher or lower on Google, depending on the content published on their web pages.
“We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. “This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year.”
Marketers may have been waiting for the 2.3 update. Brafton had earlier reported that Google’s Matt Cutts told SMX Advanced Seattle attendees that new versions of Panda were around the corner. Now, businessess will want to check their rankings – and perhaps check their Google +1 metrics (now part of Google’s analytics package) to see if social signals may be involved in the Panda 2.3 searchscape.
Matt Cutts has hinted that +1 will become a ranking signal. Whether it’s Panda 2.3 or a later iteration of Google’s algorithm that incorporates this data, businesses might be well advised to monitor their social currency.
