Google Panda Is Now Part of Google’s Core Ranking Signals

Ever since it’s inception in 2011, Google’s Panda has kept SEO’s guessing how their rankings will change with each manual update.

However, recent events have shed some light on some recent changes that Google has made regarding their Panda algorithm. A recent panda guide post, which was vetted by the Google PR team, made the following statement:

Panda is an algorithm that’s applied to sites overall and has become one of our core ranking signals. It measures the quality of a site, which you can read more about in our guidelines. Panda allows Google to take quality into account and adjust ranking accordingly.

This quote was later confirmed by Google’s Gary Illyes:

Wanna know more about Panda? Of course you do. We answered @jenstar ‘s questions, and the result is brilliant! https://t.co/lKiFcYqajX

— Gary Illyes (@methode) January 11, 2016

The question then became whether or not the newly integrated Panda/Core algorithm is updated in real time. Gary cleared this up in the following tweet:

@dr_pete OK.The real time p stuff is wrong. We had a core algo update, and independently we revealed more about panda through @TheSEMPost

— Gary Illyes (@methode) January 12, 2016

With a recent core algorithm update happening over the last weekend, the timing of this news is definitely interesting as we aren’t sure when Google combined this with the core algorithm. All signs point to this happening in late 2015, but why the two algorithms were combined is still a mystery.

I’m sure we will get more clarity as the year goes on, but we’ll keep you updated as we hear more from Google.