Official: Google Panda 2.3 Update Is Live

Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that late last week it pushed out a small update to the Panda filter.

“We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users,” a Google spokesperson told us. “This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year,” the spokesperson added.

Over the past week or so, I have been tracking the complaints in the various forums, including the large ongoing thread at WebmasterWorld.

At first, I felt the complaints suggested that Google was doing rolling updates of Panda, as opposed Panda updates being manually pushed out. I was wrong, they are still being pushed put manually, Google says.

Google told us “this update incorporates some new signals that help differentiate between higher- and lower-quality sites. As a result, some sites are ranking higher after this most recent update.”

Previous Panda Updates

So far, the Panda update schedule has been like this:

• Panda Update 1.0: Feb. 24, 2011
• Panda Update 2.0: April 11, 2011 (about 7 weeks later)
• Panda Update 2.1: May 10, 2011 (about  4 weeks later)
• Panda Update 2.2: June 16, 2011 (about 5 weeks later)
• Panda Update 2.3: July 23, 2011 (about 5 weeks later)

The 2.1 to 2.3 dates are approximate. Google may have rolled them out just a bit earlier or later than those exact days. The bigger issue is that you can see a trend developing. About every month, Google reruns its Panda algorithm.

Each time Panda is run, there’s a chance some hit from the last update will improve, while other sites might see traffic drops. In between updates, changes people may make specifically in hopes of fixing a Panda problem won’t show any impact until the next update is run.

To understand more about this, how the periodic nature of Panda updates work, see Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update.

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
• Hit By Panda Update? Google Has 23 Questions To Ask Yourself To Improve, May 2011
• Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update, June 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
• Can You Dig Out Of Your Google Panda Hole By Offloading To Subdomains?, July 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

More SEO Information

• What Is Google PageRank? A Guide For Searchers & Webmasters
• 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques
• What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
• Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors
• Search Engine Land’s Guide To SEO