How has your web traffic changed since the Google Farmer / Panda Update?

[MichaelCorfman]

On February 24th Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer posted that Google had made significant changes to their search algorithms. You can see their post here: googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html.

In their post they say:

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on.

Earlier this month Wired posted an article in which they interviewed Singhal and Cutts about the update. You can see that article here: www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-farms/all/1

This article begins with the statement: Google announced a new update last week to its search engine that addressed the growing complaint that low-quality content sites (derisively referred to as content farms) were ranked higher than higher-quality sites that seemed to be more important to users. This major change affects almost 12 percent of all search results, and the web is still buzzing about its implications, which include dramatic losses for some companies (Mahalo, Suite 101), and gains by some established sites known for high-quality information.

As noted above, there have been many reports regarding individual websites that have shown the effect on individual sites can be very dramatic. So, since we are now four weeks out from that update, I thought it would be a good time to ask what changes GPWA members have noticed in their web traffic over the past month versus the month before. Anyone who uses an analytics package to track traffic on their site should be able to get a very precise answer to this question. Just be sure to compare exactly equal time periods and days of the week.

For example, compare the four week period 27 January 2011 to 23 February 2011 to the four week period 24 February 2011 to 23 March 23. But, be sure to wait until tomorrow if you do that comparison since February 23rd is not quite over with yet.

So, how does your traffic compare? Are you happy or unhappy about the effect of the Google Panda / Farm algorithm update? And if your traffic has changed significantly, can you attribute the change to Google organic traffic?

Michael

[Doolally]

No discernible difference here! Traffic about the same on all my sites.

[baldidiot]

I've had an increase, but nothing unexpected (eg: in line with the regular growth rate).

[Romulus1970]

Same trafic too

[gayle]

No difference here and my SBI webmaster forums are talking about this change.
Here's something to consider if you submit articles to the article directories, they will have their PR reduced as 'content farms'
We submit articles to these directories (edited to avoid duplicate content) to get links back and get published elsewhere as they usually offer 1-3 do-follow links (great for links to inner pages) but now we should reduce that strategy.
We have not used directories a lot, but I have to agree with G here, there are authors who do shoddy, unprofessional work on all subjects and should be considered low-quality.
A couple of suggestions to avoid a decrease in traffic that have worked for us.
The obvious is to make sure your content is unique, but go for at least 500 words each page, 700 words is better with strategic keyword(s) placement.
I believe that G wants to place 'authority sites' in the forefront and that's probably a good thing.
I can't tell you how many webmasters complain about some 2-5 page site sitting at the top of the SERPS while their unique content and SEO goes unnoticed.
IMHO, your mileage may vary.

[davenewgates]

Hmm seems like everyone doesn't have what I am experiencing now with Google. Ranking for my site is not good, its fluctuating it sometimes goes up and then down again.

[MichaelCorfman]

I was poking around at some of Casino City's sites a little more today. It does look like we have some sites that are doing better after the switch. Our www.casinovendors.com website whose traffic is normally fairly stable these days (the site has been up for over a decade now) has seen around a 13% traffic increase last month versus the month before.

It is a pretty good directory-type website, and when I look at the details, there are many companies for which it now has more visitors than before. I'm guessing clearing out some of the junk company listing sites around has helped this site.

Michael

[TravG]

No major change in traffic. I have seen my visitors grow 10% roughly in the past 12 months so nothing to important to report here. Basically stayed the same growth.

[Skinski]

Have not noticed any difference.

[MrDeposit]

For my main brand. My traffic is up 40% and search engine traffic counts for 53%.

[dhayman]

My traffic has decreased. It has made me realize how I need to not worry about Google any more, and need to concentrate on more practical sources of traffic.

[WinYourWayKyle]

My traffic has increased slightly...Slightly higher than the normal growth rate....

[alexcruncha]

My traffic has had a slight increase since the update but what I have noticed that is more notable is that my reported links in Google Webmaster Tools have tripled since the update. OK, I have done some link building in the last month but not to that magnitude. The link recognition algorithm must have changed.

All in all it hasn't made much difference to the traffic but my site seems to have recovered from a decrease in traffic that I had noticed early March.

[felku]

I didn't see any diffence in any othe panda updates for gambling sites but for other niches I saw a lot of changes

[cass]

Overall our traffic has increased.

Internet casinos

[Topboss]

I haven't seen any significant changes in my traffic, but I really wish that Google would reconsider what they view as an authority site.
For example our main market is the South African market and our SA sites generally hold some very good positions for the majority of SA terms.
There is one particular site which tends to come up for many terms and is an authority site.
I have not mentioned the sites name as the owner is a good friend of mine so this is also why I would not query it with google, but putting the friendship aside for the time being and pretend this website belongs to a stranger ...this particular site still lists casinos on there like Amber Coast which closed down a good 2 years ago, Sunset Palace which closed down about 4 years ago, has numerous broken links, old banners and from what I can see - has not been updated for a good 12 months or so...so why would google consider this an authority site?
( Mods feel free to remove my post if it is not relevant to the google panda update )

[michael1981]

My traffic dropped a little bit, but it was a good learning curve for me. I've learned so much more about link building, and exactly what I should be doing and focusing on. I think the update was good in general though, I see a lot less spam sites hitting page 1 than previous years

[faulkwood]

Overall one page of my site was doing very well and the others not at all. Just checked my stats today and noticed an increase in one of the other pages, but this after I had watched one of the videos from CAP and tweaking it according to their advice. Actually I'm very pleasantly surprised as I've been struggling with getting good back-links (mostly focusing on social networking).