Google is on a roll. Around the same time Panda 4.0 was rolled out, the search engine giant also launched the new Payday 2.0 algorithm. Shortly after Cutts announced the new Panda update, he posted a second tweet about the rollout of the new ranking update that will target spammy queries.
This past weekend we started rolling out a ranking update for very spammy queries: http://t.co/NpUZRqpnBI
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) May 21, 2014
An Early Warning from Google
The update didn’t come as much of a surprise for most search marketers and web masters. Last year, Cutts posted a video explaining the Google changes to happen in the coming months. While Cutts didn’t elaborate any algorithm updates, he did give a hint about Google’s efforts to look through spammy queries. Since then, search marketers have always kept a close eye on the space for any update to happen.
A Look Back at the Payday Loan Update
Launched in June 2013, the first Payday Loan algorithm targets spammy queries, including [payday loans], accident claims, insurance, and pornography related queries. While the update is completely unrelated to both the Panda and Penguin algorithms, it has affected most industries where spam tactics and black hat link building schemes are more extreme.
International Rollout; Minimal Impact on English Queries
Much like the original algorithm, Payday 2.0 update has more substantial effects on international queries than those in English—reports show the update having an impact on English searches by approximately 0.2 percent.
What This Means for Your Campaigns
With the combo update of Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0, you need to be more proactive and vigilant with the way you handle campaigns. These updates, and all the others that Google will launch, only point to two things: quality and user experience.
The good news for all our agency partners is we’ve improved our search marketing processes and focused on eliminating the spammy links that can send red flags to Google and cause a penalty from the Payday Loan update.
Contact our account managers and find out the latest improvements we can integrate with your search marketing campaigns. Sign up today and be our agency partner to get expert solutions and updates!
