Coming Soon: Google Panda Update 2.2

One of the bigger pieces of news — certainly for webmasters and SEOs — from our SMX Advanced conference this week is that Google will soon be releasing version 2.2 of the Panda algorithm update.

Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed that during Tuesday’s keynote question-and-answer session with Danny Sullivan. Cutts said that the update has been approved, hasn’t been rolled out yet, but that should happen soon.

Improved Scraper Detection

The next update will target a common webmaster complaint related to the original Panda/Farmer update: sites that scrape and re-publish content and are out-ranking the original source of the content.

“A change has been approved that should help with that issue,” Cutts said.

He also reiterated some previous Panda-related information:

• Google will continue to tweak and update the Panda algorithm.
• There’s no exact date yet for when Panda will launch fully beyond English-language searches.

Recovering From Panda

Cutts also said there have been no manual exceptions made to sites that were wrongly affected, but there have been recompilations of data that may have helped some sites.

In particular, he noted that the Panda algorithm is run against Google’s entire index of pages on an infrequent basis, in order to tag certain sites that should be dinged by it, as opposed to some of its automatic spam detection tools.

For example, Google’s constantly scanning for pages that might use hidden text. If it spots them, then it may assess a penalty.

Google is not constantly scanning for pages that might get hit by its Panda penalty. Instead, Google manually runs that algorithm, which then determines web sites that should be hit by it.

This also means that making changes to a site hit by Panda won’t produce any immediate change in Google. Instead, such changes — if they are beneficial — wouldn’t get registered by Google until the next Panda assessment.

When is Panda run? Google didn’t say. But it seems to be something that runs every few weeks and in association with when the algorithm is improved (Panda 1.0, Panda 2.0, Panda 2.1, Panda 2.2, etc.)

More Information

For additional coverage of SMX Advanced, see our live blog roundups from day one and day two. For more about the Panda update, see our stories below:

Panda Update Must-Reads

• Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Panda” Algorithm Update, Feb. 2011
• Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Panda Update. Now What?, March 2011
• Google Speaks More About Panda Update, March 2011
• The Panda Update: New Information From Google and The Latest from SMX West, March 2011
• Lessons Learned at SMX West: Google’s Panda Update, White Hat Cloaking & Link Building, March 2011
• Panda 2.0: Google Rolls Out Panda Update Internationally & Incorporates Searcher Blocking Data, April 2011
• It’s Panda Update 2.1, Not Panda 3.0, Google Says, May 2011
• Impacted By Google’s Panda Update? Google Asks You To Consider This…, May 2011

More Panda News & Recovery Tips

• Google: We’ve Made No “Significant” Changes To The Panda Update, March 2011
• Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Panda” Algorithm Update
• When Pandas Attack: Online Retailers Need To React, March 2011
• 5 New Tactics For SEO Post-Panda, April 2011

Panda Winners & Losers

• Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s Panda Algorithm Change?, Feb. 26, 2011
• Winners & Losers As Panda 2.0 Goes Global? eHow, Bing’s Ciao.co.uk & More, April 2011
• New York Times: Yes, Google’s Panda Update Hit NYT-Owned About.com, April 2011
• Yellow Pages SEO In The Post-Panda World, April 2011
• Hitwise Data Pegs Panda Impact On Demand Media Sites At 40%, April 2011
• Panda Update: Google Lowers The Boom On eHow.com, April 2011
• Demand Media: Panda’s Impact On eHow.com “Significantly Overstated,” April 2011

Stock image from Shutterstock.com. Used under license.