What is Panda 4.1 and Does it Even Matter?

Recently, the company known as God... I mean, Google, updated their electron-based algorithmic droids, their 'algo-bots' to once again tweak how their SEO ranking systems work. The company claimed that the reconfiguration was designed to boost the websites that have original, high quality content against those that regurgitate content found on numerous other sites. The stated goal was to reward small to medium-sized websites that contain rich, informative content, as well as to increase the usability of the search engine for a world that loves to 'google' stuff.

Since understanding Google's all-powerful algo-bots is the Holy Grail of SEO gurus, the search optimization community immediately weighed in on the effects of the switch. Reading the myriad of "expert opinions" regarding the initiative, it seems the winners and losers were a great deal different than what Google had foreseen. Content that was supposed to be suppressed as "thin" or lacking originality and fraught with reprints, such as song lyric sites and medical advice sites were definitely adversely affected. The sites that ranked much better following the change, however, were most curious. They included such sketchy web places as Pirate Bay, which appears to encourage copyright invasion, and a vast array of extremely naughty porn sites which I now have to explain to the boss why I visited.

Ultimately, the reality is that, although there are some SEO techniques that are universally accepted as having a positive ranking effect; using all your tag fields properly, for instance, there really is only one sure way of getting noticed by those web-crawling spider-bots. Forget them. Ignore them. The most important thing you need to do to maximize your organic reach in any search engine is to ensure your site has high quality, original content updated regularly. If you make your website as interesting, user-friendly and fun to visit as you can, the bots will do the rest.

For the number crunching enthusiasts in the crowd, here is a comprehensive list of the winners and losers of Panda 4.1 out of the gate thanks to searchmetrics.com. Hopefully we won't get beat up for publishing second-hand content by the bot police.