Google’s Panda Revelation: What It Could Mean For Attorney Websites

We’re still waiting on Google’s real-time Penguin update.

But in the meanwhile, attorneys may be interested to know Google’s Panda is now part of the search engine’s core search algorithm.

Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz writes that, while it’s unclear just when this Google algorithm change occurred, another post had a confirmed quote from Google reps:

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.

With this change, Schwartz writes that now, it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing the Panda update announcements we’re accustomed to. Google rarely offers up information about core search algorithm updates, and even with the integration of Panda, the lack of core algorithm updates isn’t likely to change.

(The last announced update we saw for Panda was the 4.2 update in the summer of 2015.)

Google Algorithm Update

Panda + Google’s Core Algorithm: What Attorneys Should Consider

Panda was released in 2011 and has been a valuable tool for Google in terms of fighting webspam.

In general, law firms should strive to have their websites closely follow Google guidelines, but perhaps now more than ever: With Panda integrated into the core search algorithm, there likely won’t be regular update announcements. With Google’s expected real-time Penguin release, ignorance will be no defense against Google’s rules. Law firms with websites in violation of Google’s guidelines may quickly see those sites demoted while those who have stayed on Google’s good side may be rewarded with better rankings and traffic.

Now is a good time to do a website audit to ensure that your law firm’s website isn’t in violation of Google’s policies. When it comes to search engines returning your website in search results, it’s important for attorneys to consider that they’re not entitled to have their websites returned in the search results. Google decides what goes and what stays, and, as I’ve heard it put, “inclusion is a privilege, not a right.” Attorneys may place themselves in a better position on the web if they stick to Google’s rules in the first place rather than asking the search engine giant for forgiveness later.

Panda is the Google algorithm responsible for finding sites with thin or low-quality content. Google has a vested interest in making sure that it gives search engine users relevant, quality results for their queries, so attorneys will want to be sure they’re giving Google what it wants, and giving search engine users what they want. Conveniently, in both cases, it happens to be the same thing: high-quality content.

We’ll keep our readers up to date as we learn more about this algorithm change and with it will mean for law firms in both the short and long term.

Credits: lawlytics.com