Google - Panda Update Delayed for Technical Reasons

Yesterday we reached out to Google’s Gary Illyes to ask whether there was any news on the upcoming Panda Update, asking, “I was just wondering if you have any news on the Upcoming Panda Update? i.e., ETA … Thanks.”.

Unfortunately, Gary had less than positive news, which only adds to the uncertainty that there will be further delays before it is rolled out. Gary said that “it’s still in the ‘soon’ phase, but can’t give an ETA for technical reasons.":

No specific reasons were mentioned. Whether this is their new “Go-To” phrase to avoid having to give specific reasons, or whether there is a change in how the Panda update will be rolled out is unclear.

Despite a few hopes over the last couple of months that Panda was being updated, webmasters have been left disappointed. We have seen some updates tightening up on content quality, and a little boost for news related websites (supposedly), but not the big Panda update everyone is waiting for.

The frustration on the lack of update is evident:

Google Panda Expected by the end of June 2015

Back on the 3rd June Gary Illyes announced at SMX Advanced that the next Panda Refresh would happen in the next few weeks. It hasn’t, and the time scale is now long past.

Many webmasters will now be disappointed by this latest news, especially with no concrete answer on when it may be forthcoming being given by Google. The last Panda update was on 25th September 2014 (although many people think there was a subsequent update a month later on the 24th October) some 9-10 months ago.

For many, the Panda Update has significantly reduced the traffic serving their website, and despite many webmasters spending significant time, effort, and money improving their sites, they have been forced to suffer the consequences all this time.

We think Google needs to roll these updates out more regularly, as we believe they owe it to their users and the businesses who have been affected for so long.

Update (3rd August 2015): Google Panda has now been released

You can read more about the new Panda Update here. The rollout is expected to take several months (i.e., August and maybe into September 2015).