I am starting this thread so that we can all gather our thoughts in regards to the Panda update. I don't want you to post if you were affected or not, or whether you like the update or not... I want to see facts and figures. I want to try and decode what has changed in the algorithm and figure out how we should change our SEO techniques to adapt to those changes. And I am sure that there are 100s of SEOs out there who would like to do that too. I have more than a 100 sites, so I have a decent pool of stats to test any theories that may come up. As a group, I am sure that the SEOs on DP have/manage 1000s of sites, so if we put our stats together, then we'll be able to come up with some answers. A few things to note... Google pitched the Panda update as the update that would get rid of low-quality sites, and push the high-quality sites to the top. Did it do that? In some cases yes, and in others no. What we did see is that many of the BIG free blogging platforms and many article directories have lost their rankings. EzineArticles is a great example of that. So, what did Panda really target? Duplicate content? Not really... or at least... not necessarily. While I am sure that article directories and blog platforms are full of dub content, I know for a fact that many sites that were hit from the update only feature unique and high quality content. How do I know that? A simple Google search will yield many legitimate businesses claiming that they got "Pandalized". And I had a few of my sites lose rankings as well... One important thing to note is that the original Panda update took place a few months ago, and the only change that I noticed when it was first rolled out was increased rankings for all of my sites. Back then, I thought that Panda was so efficient, that it somehow managed to filter out all those auto-blogs or scrapper sites that steal content, and only show those that actually take the time to offer quality content (like my sites). However, during the past week, I have a feeling that a big update took place. It is being called Panda 2.0, and it was put in place to restore the rankings of sites that had been mistakenly "Pandalized" from the first version. And the effect that this second version had on SOME of my sites? They dropped a few spots ranging from 2-3 all the way to 100. In other words, I saw sites that were 1st, go 2nd or 3rd. I saw sites that were 10th, go 15th. And last but certainly not least I saw sites that were 30th, go 100th. The important thing to note is that some of my sites maintained their search positions, and others got even higher. To keep things simple, you can assume that all of my sites are built the same way. They are all WP blogs with similar designs, they all have the same types of links (and a similar amount of links), they were all created at around the same time period (about 2 years ago), they all have unique content on them and unique content for any sort of linkbuilding (ie. no spinned article submission or anything of that sort), no paid links whatsoever, no interlinking. In other words, I have followed all the legit SEO techniques and they have really paid off. But now something is changing with this new update and I cannot seem to figure out what it is. Over the past 2 years, I have seen my sites rise in the rankings, and my earnings grow. During the past 2 weeks, I have seen the exact opposite effect. And I can be certain that this is not due to a Google Dance or sandbox or anything of that sort because of the following: 1) I have not done anything out of the ordinary in regards to my linkbuilding during the whole time that the sites have been live. 2) They are not newly established sites. 3) The effects varied across the board - some sites lost rankings, some sites gained rankings, and the vast majority remained intact or moved up/down one or two spots. I tried examining all the sites that were affected negatively as a group, but I was not able to find ANY commonalities. I did the same for all the sites that were positively affected, and again, I could not find any commonalities. I had many guesses and I examined them all... I tried to see the bounce rate, the average time spent on site, any bad neighborhood links, how long it had been since they were last updated, site speed... In other words, I examined EVERYTHING that would be specific to each site, since they all share the same core (unique content on site and exact same type of links or linkbuilding schedule). But maybe I missed something, and that's why I decided to make this thread. Have you experienced any fluctuations in your rankings ever since the first update? Did you notice anything change these past two weeks or so, when a further algo update was implemented? I would like to hear about it. Upon further testing, I noticed a pattern... For product/service keywords, the top 10 results will most likely be actual companies, while in the past, you would see blogs... Furthermore, the pages that are ranking, tend to have very little content... Could it be that Google decided that "content is no longer the KING"? Could it be that a lot of content (ie. the latest 3 blog posts on the homepage), could result into false positives for duplicate content? I mean, let's face it... Chances are that if you are talking about something specific, then you will have to repeat the same stuff. For example, even if I am the ultimate health expert, and I start talking about mesothelioma, then I will have to mention the causes of mesothelioma, I would have to mention the treatment of mesothelioma etc etc... And these are the same things that any run of the mil person would talk about, if he/she was writing about mesothelioma... In other words, if there are a few articles that talk about a specific theme, then all the other articles that will follow would "theoretically" be duplicates of some sort. I may use different wording, but I will still say the same stuff. So, if Google assumes that Wikipedia for example is the most authoritative source for mesothelioma, then all the rest could be considered duplicates... Maybe I am going off point here.. The thing is that I noticed that most of the top 10 results are no longer blogs. In fact, if you were to search for an actual product, most of the results that you will see will be ecommerce sites. And they will be sites that have little or no content... Feel free to post your thoughts in regards to everything I mentioned in here, or through PM. I would be more than happy to discuss with any serious SEO about it through PM or chat as well. The thing is that I have had a great upward trend for the past 2 years, and I am afraid that if I don't act quick then this could change. Thanks to everyone in advance for your participation in figuring this out. It will help everyone!