Google rolled out its latest update to its Panda algorithm in mid-July, 2015. This comes after ten long months. The last update was rolled out in September of 2014. This news had caused a bit of confusion in the SEO world. This is due to the fact that unlike the first update that took around eight weeks to be rolled out, Google Panda 4.4 will be rolled out in several months. The impact will thus not be noticeable right away. SEO’s should therefore keep a follow closely any change in traffic.

Google have announced that in the U.S alone only 2-3% of queries will be affected. This is still a relatively high number especially when the figures are extrapolated to the whole world. Putting in mind that Panda Updates are aimed to rank sites in relation to their quality, it is imperative that SEO’s strive to publish high quality content. Sites that were affected by the previous update had to wait until Google Panda 4.2 was rolled out. The importance of avoiding being hit by the current update can therefore not be ignored under any circumstance.

Another way of avoiding being hit by Google Panda 4.2 is to improve your site’s visual appeal. For blog posts try adding visuals which are more appealing than plain text. Adding custom illustrations goes a long way to improve number of visits to your site.

To wrap up on how to avoid the Google Update penalty, good web design is a must. Cleaning up code and site architecture to get rid of thin low quality pages should be practised. Thin pages are pages that contain out dated information, like a product that is no longer in stock and empty pages. Finally, creating content-rich pages with an excellent and rich UI will go a long way in helping you avoid being affected by this update.

A troubling thought on most marketers and SEO’s minds is how to recover when Google update hits them. Sadly, after this update has been rolled out, it’s too late to make changes. Your rankings will definitely be negatively affected. However it would be unwise take the hit lying down. SEO’s should consistently improve their sites and content quality since updates will be rolled out continuously

There is a tip which web pros say can be used to provide a cushion landing for the affected sites. This includes redirecting your site. This is done by acquiring new domain and redirecting your site’s inner pages to your new domain. This trick has worked on a few sites however redirecting penalized sites is sort of negative SEO and may not be ethical.

A better approach to recover from the updates is to contact promoting a website SEO packages and choose a recovery package. Technical SEO experts can help you recover from a Google Panda hit.

Google Update 4.2 rollout is good news for the sites that were penalized by Panda in the last update. If they followed the steps outlined above on how to avoid being hit by Google updates, the thus have a chance to recover. A slow but noticeable change in organic rankings should be realized for these recovering sites.