Most people were not even aware of the Panda 2.5 update sometime early October. However, many sites noticed considerable traffic drops. Most sites immediately went to Search Metrics to determine the effects of the update on their sites. Most webmasters basically panicked from the Google Panda 2.5 update. There are winners and there are definitely losers from the latest update initially.

The Winners

FoxNews.com is one of the most obvious winners form the Google Panda update because of the considerable increase in SEO visibility. However, looking more closely into the data, FOxNews.com was on a steady decrease before the update. Even after the update, this steady decrease still continued. After a week, FoxNews.com was back where it started before the update. Basically, it isn’t a winner from the update after all. Looking at other so-called winners, the case is basically the same wherein sudden increase in visibility didn’t really affect the upward/downward trend in SEO visibility.

The Losers

On the other hand, those that were significantly affected negatively by the update were able to improve SEO visibility after a week. It’s still unsure whether this is because of precautionary measures and SEO tactics that were implemented after the update. However, this “drop and improve” happened to a lot of the initial losers from the update. This is why most experts believe that Google backed off from the update. There is still no certainty if this is the case because as of now, there is still no announcement from Google.

The Bottom Line

So, what can we learn from what happened? The answer is not to panic and avoid jumping to conclusions. Just because you’ve heard of certain cases, you don’t have to react quickly and implement considerable changes in SEO strategy. Basically, don’t base a strategy according to two data points that may be useless in the long run. This is why patience is really very important in SEO.

News organizations need to break update quickly so they use whatever data they have available. In most cases, these data are not accurate and basing your strategy on these data might lead to catastrophic results. So, the next time updates from Google and other search engines come out, relax and take your time in analysing all the data points. Don’t panic and you will surely find a way to fix things. Panic and you will surely find yourself in a disastrous situation.