After an extended period of relative silence on the algorithm update front, Google rolled out two major updates this week; Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0.
The dual algo update represented a one-two attack against spammy content (Panda) and spammy queries (Payday Loan). This was also one of the first times many SEO watchers could recall two major updates being released in such a short period of time.
Official word of Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0 put to rest weeks of speculation in SEO circles that Google was planning something big.
Dealing with two major updates at the same time presented a challenge for web publishers who can’t be quite sure which update to attribute recent traffic bumps and dips to.
That doesn’t, however, mean that they’re complaining. In fact, a number of sources told SEO news outlets like SearchEngineWatch that they’ve actually seen traffic increase since the Panda 4.0 launch. (It seems as though white hate sites that have adhered to Google’s ideals of quality content are finally getting their reward.)
One site that’s definitely not feeling the love from Panda 4.0 is eBay. According to a number of reports, the internet giant lost as much as 80% of its organic rankings.
SEO watchers are blaming the dip on eBay’s failure to effectively utilize AdWords and relatively thin content offerings.
Payday Loan 2.0 probably won’t have a big impact on English language queries, but could be a very big deal for international SEOs. The original Payday Loan algorithm effected just 0.3% of American queries, but as many as 4% of queries in countries like Turkey.
Google’s twin algorithm update is also noteworthy because Google had promised that they would no longer be publicly announcing major updates.
For now, it looks as though most casino affiliates won’t be feeling any significant negative impact from Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0.