30-second summary:
- This week marks the 10 year anniversary of Google’s landmark web quality algorithm Panda
- It was a seminal moment for the SEO industry with 12% of US sites being targeted for poor quality and manipulative optimization practices
- Despite removing much of the worst black-hat tactics SEO is still hasn’t lived up to its experiential potential ten years on
- Many clients and practitioners still use outdated language and practices to position the value of Search in this vastly more mature marketing landscape
- To escape this pre-Panda legacy SEO needs to take the best of its constituent parts and shape a new customer-centric Search future once and for all
I was recently notified of a significant work anniversary which transported me back in time to the turbulent start of my SEO career just over 10 years ago. I was prompted to reflect on the industry I love, where it continues to fall short, and ultimately where I see it going. This professional milestone closely corresponded with what was a seminal event for the immature SEO business. On February 24th, 2011 the ‘Death Star’ took aim, and with a typically understated Tweet from the Head of Google’s Web Spam team, Matt Cutts confirmed it. Google had launched its landmark web quality algorithm that would forever be known as Panda.
The day of reckoning had arrived for an industry that tied their client’s lucrative search fortunes to a house of cards built on the spammy and manipulative best practices that had become SEO’s calling card. Thin, duplicate and often stolen content was accompanied by on-site keyword stuffing and obvious over-optimization. This might have gamed the rankings for a time but provided little value to the users who bounced en masse giving Google a solid