When Google introduced its Panda update changes to its site ranking algorithm in February 2011, it immediately sent some spammy or content farm sites spiraling downward in Google search results. Later updates to Panda, which is intended to increase the quality of results searchers get, followed from April 2011 to the two in January 2012.
Following Panda, we noticed right away that fewer searches took us to those poorly written content farm sites with their twisted grammar and copy written primarily to attract clicks. Just about anyone involved with Search Engine Opitimization has to pay attention to how Google ranks sites.
Attempts to fool Google with so-called “black hat” SEO techniques have occasionally worked for a while, but result in business crushing downgrades when discovered, as retailer J.C. Penny learned the same month Panda was introduced. Panda continues to be a topic of wide discussion on blogs and tech sites and among SEO professionals and Internet marketers.
Killer Infographics created this to explain Panda in Plain English:
