{"id":143065,"date":"2021-02-24T12:13:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T12:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=143065"},"modified":"2021-02-24T12:13:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T12:13:01","slug":"the-panda-anniversary-and-what-we-desperately-must-remember-about-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/02\/24\/the-panda-anniversary-and-what-we-desperately-must-remember-about-search\/","title":{"rendered":"The Panda anniversary and what we desperately must remember about search"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This week marks the 10 year anniversary of Google\u2019s landmark web quality algorithm Panda<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a seminal moment for the SEO industry with 12% of US sites being targeted for poor quality and manipulative optimization practices<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite removing much of the worst black-hat tactics SEO is still hasn\u2019t lived up to its experiential potential ten years on<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many clients and practitioners still use outdated language and practices to position the value of Search in this vastly more mature marketing landscape<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To escape this pre-Panda legacy SEO needs to take the best of its constituent parts and shape a new customer-centric Search future once and for all<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was recently notified of a significant work anniversary which transported me back in time to the turbulent start of my SEO career just over 10 years ago.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was prompted to reflect on the industry I love, where it continues to fall short, and ultimately where I see it going. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This professional milestone closely corresponded with what was a seminal event for the immature SEO business. On February 24th, 2011 the \u2018Death Star\u2019 took aim, and with a typically understated Tweet from the Head of Google\u2019s Web Spam team, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Matt Cutts confirmed it<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Google had launched its landmark web quality algorithm that would forever be known as Panda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Google just launched a new algorithmic ranking change. Here&#39;s the blog post: http:\/\/goo.gl\/J1e0a<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mattcutts\/status\/40969108803698688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2011<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mattcutts\/status\/40969108803698688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Twitter<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The day of reckoning had arrived for an industry that tied their client\u2019s lucrative search fortunes to a house of cards built on the spammy and manipulative best practices that had become SEO\u2019s calling card. Thin, duplicate and often stolen content was accompanied by on-site keyword stuffing and obvious over-optimization. This might have gamed the rankings for a time but provided little value to the users who bounced en masse giving Google a solid signal that many sites deserved an algorithmic slapdown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What exactly happened in 2011 with Panda?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In what was a relatively short rollout, around 12% of US search queries were affected and the target of the rollout was poor quality sites relying way too heavily on content farms and directories to fabricate their popularity in search.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shell-shocked webmasters stared at their Analytics dashboards like Wall Street traders on Black Monday, watching in disbelief as their search share plummeted and asked, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;What do we do now?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time, I was simply a fledgling Search Executive with a mere nine months&#8217; industry experience under my belt, with the only thing protecting me from this fallout being the founders of our agency. As a start-up, luckily we were free and clear of this mess as they had seen the writing on the wall long before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO was dead, or so we thought, and a new age of experience was dawning. We looked on as Rome burned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, despite its obituary being cynically written every year since SEO refused to die. At the time, practitioners paid lip service to profound change but were far too invested in their ways of operating, and clients, although badly burned, were addicted to the quick wins the hackers of the algorithm had peddled. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so, the dance went on.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Was Panda a missed opportunity for the industry?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes Panda, and its sister link-spam algorithm <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/07\/15\/panda-and-penguin-are-not-penalties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Penguin<\/a>, had a profound effect and removed the absolute worst of the worst black-hat practices but a significant proportion of the industry simply did their best to clean up the mess they\u2019d created &#8211; often charging clients to take out their own trash so to speak &#8211; and so the probing began for what was the new acceptable minimum you needed to meet in order to get your site ranking once again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Is 300 words enough now?&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;How many keywords can I get away with using without angering Google?&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;How much content do I need to change for it to be considered unique, will 60% do it?&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This mentality of chasing the ever-evolving algorithmic goalposts is the continued failure of many in the industry who still largely prefer to please bots ahead of delivering real value for users.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m not meaning to preach, my hands aren\u2019t squeaky clean and these tactics do have a use but it\u2019s a belief gaining momentum that they should not be allowed to ride roughshod over both brand and UX. I was lucky enough to have been scared straight from the start, firmly putting my focus on how to <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/01\/25\/business-value-of-seo-in-2021-from-revenue-generation-to-retention\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">drive real value<\/a> to the consumer, building great experiences, authority, and trust.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Panda\u2019s pain is still real<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the Jackal and Hyde reputation the industry has suffered through ever since. The straightest of strait-laced operators &#8211; who see search as a powerful and useful customer touchpoint, are tarnished with the same brush as the sketchiest of spammers and scammers who are still alive and well within the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their presence diminishes the overall value of search and can create a race to the bottom kind of mentality. Clients who are still sore with the industry ten years on sometimes expect &#8220;old-school&#8221; results without being willing to invest in long-term value &#8211; ironically because they\u2019re terrified of being burned again by another update.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s crazy but it\u2019s true, I\u2019m still having these conversations on a basis that is more than is reasonable and it is because the discipline is haunted by the original sins of its birth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It goes without saying that I want to scream every time I hear the words:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Can you <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">do <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">some quick<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO for me?&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;I\u2019d love it if you could build us some cheap links?&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Can you just get rid of this negative article from Google for me?&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Just tell me what keywords I should use!&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All with the retort of,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;&#8230; it will cost what?! I found a guy online who\u2019ll do it for peanuts&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The damage has been done and this is the cross that SEO has to bear, but is there a way to move out of the long shadow cast by a decade-old catastrophe?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer is resounding, &#8220;yes!&#8221; but we need to meet the revolutionary promise we made in 2011 and we desperately need to stop talking just about SEO and reposition the <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/12\/22\/how-c-suite-derives-business-value-from-social-media-qa-with-hootsuites-vp-of-corporate-marketing-henk-campher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">value of search<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What does our SEO past mean for our search future?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First let\u2019s start with the term itself, what it means to clients and how it needs to be repositioned. SEO is a collection of data-driven tactics which are often seen as a cure-all by clients, a channel unto itself, this it is not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite sitting at the critical crossroads of web development, content, and PR, SEO is far too often a siloed activity that does not play nicely with other marketing disciplines, even separated in mind and budget from its closest counterpart SEM.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, we need to be evaluating search, not SEO, as a valuable driver in a customer\u2019s path to purchase and how it can facilitate discovery, consideration, and purchase, driving an overall brand experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143068\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/infographic-23feb2020-1.jpg\" alt=\"Looking at SEO and how it operates on the Panda update anniversary\" width=\"602\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/infographic-23feb2020-1.jpg 602w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/infographic-23feb2020-1-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason SEO too often operates in a vacuum is that historically it\u2019s far less complicated to manage and measure in isolation. But the impact and delivery of search should be more dynamic and incorporated across marketing departments as you can see above or agencies with the constituent tactics of SEO being greater as part of the search.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s fair to say that the Panda SEO ripples from 10 years ago have not yet matured nearly as quickly as the dynamic marketing ecosystem that\u2019s grown up around it. 10 years ago, rich media, mobile and social media weren\u2019t yet huge drivers or mediums, also with the arrival of personalized <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/02\/12\/five-ways-to-use-machine-learning-in-digital-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">email and marketing automation<\/a> being relatively new on the scene too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google has evolved well beyond its blue link roots providing a valuable blended search experience featuring products, local results, answers, reviews, news, video and is powered by <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/02\/22\/how-marketers-can-start-using-ai-for-stronger-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">advanced AI<\/a> which actually understands user intent and voice searches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search is no longer the one-dimensional digital bottleneck it once was and consumers hold the power to choose how they interact with brands and follow the path that\u2019s most convenient for them, not one that\u2019s engineered by SEO alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember, people will always do what\u2019s right for them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Three considerations for how search should learn from SEO\u2019s past<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Put the customer first<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A customer-centric approach is a given in most marketing disciplines but a lot of people in the SEO community did not seem to get the memo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of talking about search share and obsessing about the ranking opportunities we need to focus on, try to refocus the lens on what the customer feels, wants, and needs as the foundation of an experiential strategy from which, not only search will be the tactic it delivers on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond the implied minimum of a technically sound site, we need to put a greater emphasis on analyzing search behavior, not just keywords, to provide the customer with the right information at the moments that matter in their journey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marketing teams need to be asking themselves, &#8220;why?&#8221; more often and for search the answer needs to be, &#8220;because it\u2019s what\u2019s best for the customer&#8221;.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>2. Change the tone and vocabulary<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These points all have one thing in common in that we need to try and move away from the acronyms, verbiage, and lingo that was coined in a non-customer-centric world and based on optimization rather than value.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This will be one of the hardest things to move away from as so many veterans wear SEO as a badge of honor and clients will more than struggle to learn a new way of referring to a discipline they still don\u2019t fully understand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Obviously, I don\u2019t have all the answers here, so from a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/kevin-mullaney_seo-search-digitalmarketing-ugcPost-6768443472807550976-eEMJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">quick poll<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I ran on LinkedIn, I wanted to gauge other industry opinions on this divisive topic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143067\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Poll-on-the-state-of-SEO.png\" alt=\"Poll on the state of SEO\" width=\"535\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Poll-on-the-state-of-SEO.png 535w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Poll-on-the-state-of-SEO-300x249.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, even from this small pool of 39 people in my marketing network, there are almost half of them who also sense that there is a problem but either feel that the hill is too high to climb or that the problem is there but can continue to be ignored. The conversation continues.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>3. Create don\u2019t build<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just showing up in the right search simply isn\u2019t good enough and we know that we need to move away from the mentality of building SEO-optimized content and links as simply a means to an end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search data should inform what kind of content people are looking for and also what they like to consume but owned branded content should not be the playground of optimization. There aren\u2019t any shortcuts to creating great user experiences or content that is genuinely useful and deserving of press but you can use search data to make valuable decisions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search as a collaborative marketing discipline will win the day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The final conclusion to all of this is that search holds extreme value but the industry still is not living up to its full potential because of the ghosts of its pre-Panda past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The long-term beneficiaries of SEO will be those who can effectively rip it apart and piece it back together in everything marketing teams do, which is no easy feat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we educate the experience makers, everyone from the copywriter to the PR director, the developer to UX designer on the beneficial insights that search teams can provide then a new paradigm can be born.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, and only then, can SEO finally be put out to stud and enjoy the retirement it so desperately deserves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Kevin Mullaney is MarTech Lead at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nordicmorning.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nordic Morning\u2019s<\/a> Malm\u00f6 office. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kevin has over 12 years&#8217; experience working with large global brands at established digital consultancies. A veteran of the SEO industry Kevin has been a speaker at BrightonSEO and other industry events and now leads the MarTech and Media team at Nordic Morning\u2019s Malm\u00f6 office in Sweden.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celebrating 10 years of Google&#8217;s web quality algorithm Panda and its legacy which still casts a shadow over an SEO industry begging for change.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":143069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[151,75,703,369,422,482,792,23172,28075,33,974,22,27132],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-143065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","category-seo","tag-ai","tag-content-2","tag-data-analytics","tag-evergreen-content","tag-google-panda","tag-google-updates","tag-panda","tag-panda-algorithm","tag-panda-update","tag-search","tag-search-intent","tag-seo","tag-state-of-seo"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The-anniversary-of-Panda-and-what-we-desperately-need-to-remember-about-search.png","category":"Industry","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143065"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=143065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}