There are some rumors shuffling around the SEO industry that there is a new Google Panda update taking place right now.
Update: Google said there is no update taking place right now.
Tedster started a thread at WebmasterWorld asking, "I'm hearing some reports of site-wide ranking demotions over the weekend that have a similar pattern to what we saw with Panda. That is, lots of keywords affected, but the demotions are not at all uniform the way we often see in a site-wide penalty."
One full time member confirmed some major changes, saying:
Sustained dip on sites with a local relevance, beginning on the 17th, maintained through today.Sustained 40-50% increase on niche-info type sites, started on the 13th, maintained through today. (on sites I watch, this generic site action/reaction is typical within 4-10 days after a large googlebot crawl)
Plus, in ongoing Google Webmaster Help thread we have new reports of new sites being hit by Panda.
We do have some recoveries being reported but at the same time, some new sites were hit.
The big question is, can I get Google to confirm or deny this and if so, did you guys notice a new Panda update?
For more on Panda, see our Panda category and here are some of the major updates to Panda:
- Panda 2.4 in August
- Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
- Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
- Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
- Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
- Panda 1.0 on February 24th
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Webmaster Help.
Update: Google told me, "There was no update in the past couple days. The most recent update was in August, when we rolled out the algorithm change internationally to most languages."