Another Google Algorithm Update…But It’s Not Panda

There has been plenty of speculation about a potential Panda algorithm update in the works and we’re expecting news on this in the coming weeks. However, an algorithm update did take place yesterday which Google confirmed as a core search algorithm update. Google released a statement sent to SearchEngineLand which said that core search algorithm updates are likely to become more commonplace in future as they focus on improving search quality.

“This is not a Panda update. As you know, we’re always making improvements to our search algorithms and the web is constantly evolving. We’re going to continue to work on improvements across the board.”

The SEO community noticed ripples of change yesterday after the latest core search update and it’s highly likely that these were adjustments to the first core search algorithm we spotted back in early May, coined the Google Quality Update by SearchEngineLand.

Google tend not to give too much away in the event of a core search algorithm update, so we can be pretty certain it has nothing to do with Panda, Penguin or HTTPS. Mozcast was one of many automated tracking tools that displayed spikes in Google search results yesterday, with Dr Pete Meyers initially linking the events to a HTTPS algorithm change. Google’s Gary Illyes ruled this out on his Twitter account. One of the likely reasons for spikes is Wikipedia changing all its URLs to HTTPS this week.

So we continue to wait patiently for any changes to Panda, with yesterday’s events proving to be a false alarm. Google updates core search throughout the year, so we can expect to see them being reported more often from now on.

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