Official: Google Panda Update 2.2 Is Live

Google has given us confirmation that they have run an update to the Panda filter recently.

We have been expecting the Panda 2.2 update based on news coming out of the SMX Advanced conference. Matt Cutts told SMX attendees that Panda 2.2 has been approved, hasn’t been rolled out yet, but that should happen soon.

The update hit sometime late last week. I believe Google manually pushed out the Panda 2.2 update around June 16th.

As some of you know, I track the SEO discussion forums very closely and have two posts at the Search Engine Roundtable discussing Webmaster chatter around this update. The first was on June 16th where I referenced ongoing WebmasterWorld threads and the second was on June 20th where I added in more Google Webmaster Help Threads.

Yesterday, I asked Google for confirmation that these discussions taking place were likely due to the Panda 2.2 release and Google gave us confirmation.

Some webmasters found themselves breaking out of the Panda filter and ranking better again, since being hit on Panda 1.0 on February 24th. Whereas others were hit for the first time, now suffering from the Panda filter.

As Google’s Cutts explained, 2.2 was to improve scraper detection and that these Panda updates are pushed out manually.

For more information on how Panda works, see Danny Sullivan’s Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update that went up here today on Search Engine Land. It also covers related Panda history and tips.