Anyone else hit by the Oct. 13th Panda update? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I am a member of another community of bloggers – nearly all of them are reporting the same thing. This seems to be impacting more than 2% of the searches. This has hit big sites, small sites, new sites, and old sites. There doesn't seem to be a common factor amongst any of the sites hit.

Here's one of the best theories I've seen so far:

By the way, the machine intelligence that Google has incorporated into its algorithm is essentially a complicated form of a control system. Control systems work by having an ideal deviation value of 0%, but in order to get there, the data will initially overshoot (sometimes by a large degree), then decrease to a negative deviation and then move back towards the 0% mark, but will overshoot the mark again, though much less than the first time. The deviations continually get smaller and smaller until the ideal deviation value is reached (or at least until it is acceptably low). Think of a cosine curve where the amplitude continues to get smaller during each cycle.

I think that we are simply experiencing the initial implementation of Google's latest "control system" variation and that things will level out soon enough. Although, it is impossible to tell the time frame because we don't know if they are adjusting the factors continuously, daily, monthly, etc.

If you have a quality site that truly serves what the searcher is looking for, I predict that you will eventually see your sites rise to the top. Let's just hope that doesn't take too long:)

I'm not seeing any perceivable difference.  It's hard for me to tell though, as I only get about 32-34% of my traffic from Google, and have an existing penalty to my PR anyways. 

One thing that I will add though.  For those of you hit hardest by this, is that you should take the opportunity to investigate ways of increasing your traffic through link building, guest posts, and the like in order to decrease the dependency on Google and their ever complicated algorithm.  It's not terribly easy, and I certainly haven't got it all figured out yet either.  But, the more we depend on the Great Googley-Moogley, the worse these sorts of things hit us. 

Jeff @ said:

I agree with BB – the more diverse our traffic stream, the better off we will be.  Depending on 1 source for all of something (like a primary job for your income) is never good if something goes sideways outside of your control.  

I didnt see much of a hit, but I do get a high amount of traffic from the big G.  

 

Well said. Diversification is key. I too am one of the lucky ones with no issues. I am still a PR3 but that's ok.

I haven't noticed much difference on any of my sites but it has only been a few days and my traffic is always down on the weekend.  I don't get the huge numbers of search visitors that some do so I don't think any of my sites would be affected.

Anyone up for starting a Google Protest blog?  Here is the idea:

The community will be fueled by those genuinely trying to make it online who were/are punished.  A central protest hub – Google will have no choice but to lend its ear and act ? ? ?

I am game if anyone is willing to try a hand at it… or is there one prominent enough out there that I am simply missing?

I don't think that there is one thing you can put your finger on that defines quality. Google wants to give the searcher exactly that they're looking for. That's a tough thing to do. Obviously, every searcher isn't looking for the same thing.

I don't try to over analyze it. I look at my competition and ask myself if I am providing better content than they are. Maybe that means I go more in depth or I provide some neat infographic or a just offer a unique viewpoint on the issue.

I don't chase algorithm changes, I try to follow Google's compass. I know that Google wants to give its searchers the best information available on a topic and that's what I try to provide.

Sunil from The Extra Money Blog said:

Jeremy – but don't you think micro niche sites or those done with average diligence will also truly serve what the searcher is looking for?  There may be average or below average sites out there that still serve the purpose. The main question is, who is Google trying to knock out and how?

SavingMentor said:

It was confirmed by Matt Cutts that there was a panda update (change to the Google algorithm) a couple of days ago. According to him it was only a minor update – but it was all it took to bring my search engine traffic to its knees.

I literally lost 3/4 of my traffic from Google overnight.

Now I'm sitting scratching my head wondering what horrible sin I committed. I know I've done a few things that Google might frown upon, but not near so much as I know a lot of other Yakezie folks do.

Unfortunately my site had almost 70% of its traffic come from Google, so this is definitely a massive blow. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Wondering if there is any way I can recover that lost traffic or if they've tainted my sight for good. Do they give second chances?

Mine actually seems to have gone up. My search engine traffic had normally been 40% of my overall traffic, and now it's hovering around 50% (in the past week).

I had the opposite effect.  Traffic has been up by about 300 extra  pageviews (didn't check visitors) for the past few days.  I did notice that I fell off of the 1st page for one really, really good key word. 

Most of my traffic doesn't come from search engine (about 30%) so I never notice drops but I did notice this extra traffic. 

I try to write what my regular readers want and worry about Google third.  The goal is t develop loyal readers that will want whatever product I come up with in the next year. 

Search engine viewer probably would not be the core of those individuals, so I don't care as much about them.

@Jeff  You have great stuff!  as long as other people link to your content I think the drops might be temporary and will rebound quickly.

By the way, when doing research about a possible algorithm update I got a lot of good information from this post that was posted the same day the Panda update was made. In it she shows a twitter confirmation from Matt Cutts that there was a "minor" update on Oct. 13th. As others have said in this thread, I guess they thought it would be 2% but ended up being a lot more sites affected:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/2011…..m-changes/

Sorry to hear for those that have been unduly punished. I remember waiting almost a year just to get any PR and Google does seem so random and uncaring about the collateral damage that they cause. I also agree that we should not be too reliant on Google. That's why I'm also nervous with my 75% SE, even though I have as of yet not been negatively affected, as far as I can tell.