5. “I’ve Heard Scary Things About Ferocious Pandas and Penguins. What Does That Mean?”
“Panda” and “Penguin” were names given to two major changes in the way Google scores and sorts search results back in 2011 and 2012. It’s not really important what they did (things have changed a lot since then), but their effect on how people see SEO is still felt. Back then, Google would make dozens or hundreds of small but important changes to its rules over the course of a few days. SEO experts would have to pick these apart to figure out what they did, and sites found not following these new rules usually suffered seriously in search results. Because of that, lots of shady characters started to use the words “Penguin” and “Panda” in their marketing – promising, for example, services that were “Panda-proof.” These days, smaller tweaks to how Google operates are taking place all the time. Seismic shifts that get their own special names pop up now and then, but it’s not standard operating procedure. If you hear about Panda or Penguin now, you know the speaker is behind the times. They might even be trying to spook you into buying something you don’t need.
