Google Panda in the UK - Travel Winners and Losers

14 April 2011 | Dominic Sawyer

Anyone working in the UK SEO industry would have anxiously been awaiting Google's rollout of its Panda / Farmer update. That day came last Monday and you can read more about the announcement on the Google Webmaster Central blog.

Google's aim was to tweak the algorithms to help searchers find better quality sites. Searchmetrics have taken a look at the winners and losers and I've pulled out the travel brands.

The research indicates that many are suffering massive drops in visibility and in some cases as much as 90%.

Only one travel winner with laterooms.com registering a visibility increase of 18.25%. (Worth noting that there are sites in the winners list that do have have travel sections).

A few more in the negatively affected category.

airfaresflights.co.uk : -95.44%
justtheflight.co.uk : -95.08%
worldtravelguide.net : -86.97%
flightmapping.com : -72.62%
londontown.com : -75.12%
aboutbritain.com : -91.37%

With the release only a few days old it's too early to draw any solid conclusions. It would be good to hear from any of these brands to get their thoughts.

Read the full analysis and how they calculate visibility at the Searchmetrics blog.

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Director & Web Producer

Since 2000 Dominic has had lead roles in creative design, web programming, project management and online marketing. He set up Dot Tourism in 2006 to mix his passion for digital with travel.

When he's not working Dominic is probably running along the seafront or playing Call of Duty.