Things You Need To Know About Google’s ‘Mobile-First’ Indexing

Here's everything you need to know (technically worry) about the Google Mobile-First Search Index.

Why Does Google Switch To ‘Mobile-First’ Search Result?

Google's internal research found that the majority of Searches on Google are done via Mobile devices. Google's aim to deliver relevant results to the majority of their searchers. Until now, Google has indexed web pages as desktop browsers see them. With the new ‘mobile-first’ search index approach, Google indexes web pages as mobile phones see them. The rankings will be based on the mobile websites priority then desktop website.

Nutshell is the mobile version of your website will become more & more important for SEO than the desktop version.

What is Changing with the Mobile-First Search Index?

As more and more google searches happening on mobile, Google wants its index and results to represent the majority of their users — who are mobile searchers actually. Google has started to use the mobile version of the web as their primary search engine index. A search engine index is a results of pages/documents that the search engine discover, primarily through crawling the world wide web through links. Google has crawled the web from a desktop browser point of view, and now Google is changing that to crawl the web from a mobile browser view.

The most substantial change will likely be that by having a mobile index, Google can run its ranking algorithm in a different fashion across “pure” mobile content rather than the current system that extracts data from desktop content to determine rankings.

What if You Don’t have a Mobile Friendly Website?

Google said not to worry. Although Google wants you to have a mobile friendly website, it will still crawl your desktop version of your website instead. Google said,

If you only have a desktop site, we’ll continue to index your desktop site just fine, even if we’re using a mobile user agent to view your site.

If you have a mobile friendly website, then you need to make sure the website content and links on the mobile site are similar enough to the desktop version of your website, so that Google can consume the proper content and rank your site as well as it did by crawling your desktop website.

Test your website with Google's New tool.

Don't Have a Mobile Friendly Website? Contact Here

What do You Have to Do if you Have a Mobile Friendly Website?

You have to make sure that your mobile website contain enough related & high quality content to rank your pages on google search. If your mobile website have less content than your desktop pages, your pages might get lower rankings with Google’s new ‘mobile first’ search index.

My Mobile Site has less Content than my Desktop Version. Should I be Worry?

Potentially, yes you should worry about it. Google has said that it will look at the mobile version of your site. If that has less content on webpage "X" than the desktop version of webpage "X", then Google will probably just see the mobile version with less content. This is why Google recommends you go with a responsive design approach — the content is the same on a webpage-by-webpage basis from your desktop to your mobile website. You can do the same with other mobile implementations, but there is more room for error.

What is the Best Solution to Make Sure that Google can see the Content of My Webpages?

Google Recommends responsive web design. The content on responsive websites is the same on desktop computers, tablet and mobile devices. The layout changes based on the media device that is used to view the content but the content is the same. Of course, you can also create a separate website just for serve mobile.

Responsive websites will benefit the most and will be well placed for the change. However, websites which have a separate mobile site will suffer the most as a strong focus on optimization will be necessary to get them up to speed if they’ve been neglected in the past.

In general, a separate mobile website lead to more work and more errors can happen.

What About Expandable Content on Mobile Device?

With your desktop sites, Google said that content hidden in tabs, accordions, expandable boxes and other methods would not be weighted as high. But when it comes to mobile search index, Google’s Gary Illyes said content like this will be given full weight if done for user experience purposes. The idea is that expandable content makes sense on mobile device and not so much on desktop.

Will My Rankings Change a Lot?

At the moment, it’s still too early to say about it. But note it, that Google is prioritizing mobile content.

Google's Representative says that there should be minimal ranking changes around this algorithm change. Of course, most websites already have good mobile friendly or responsive sites. If you do not have a mobile friendly website yet, your rankings might change more than the rankings of a website that already is mobile friendly. Pages that are not mobile-friendly will not rank as well as pages that have been optimized for mobile devices.

I suggest a SEO audit ? Contact Here

Will Google Have Different Indexes for Mobile Search and Desktop Search Results?

We know Google has been working on creating a separate mobile index for a while now, but with mobile searches now accounting for more than 50% of all searches, it’s making more sense to priorities a more relevant and positive user experience for users on mobile devices.

Although we’ve had some pretty obvious clues that Google search is become more mobile-orientated with the advent of ‘Mobilegeddon’ The Google Mobile Friendly Update On April 21, 2015 and the introduction of AMP in February this year, it’s now clear that Google is taking his search algorithm a step further.

Currently, Google search is set to become mobile-first & has a single index for search across desktop and mobile, but last week Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed at Pubcon in Las Vegas they are going to create a separate, rapidly updated mobile search index, which will become the primary index used for search.

A secondary desktop index will be in place, but won’t be as up-to-date as the mobile index. We don’t know exactly when the changes will be rolled out, but it will likely only be a matter of time.

When Will This Fully Roll Out?

Google's Representative said they have already begun testing this mobile-first search index to some users. But it looks like we are still months away from this fully rolling out. Google won’t give us a date because they are still testing the roll-out, and if things go well, they may push it sooner. If things do not go well, they may push it back. Google did say they will push this out to more and more searchers over time as they become more confident with the mobile-first search index.

What Happens to the Links that Point to My Website?

If you have a responsive website, you do not have to worry about this because the URLs of your mobile pages and your desktop pages are the same (actually, the pages are the same, they are only displayed differently on mobile and desktop).

Is This a Mobile-Friendly Website Ranking Boost?

Google has previously said that the website content that’s not mobile-friendly will not rank high on organic search. That remains the case with this new index too. In the current index, which most people will continue to get results from, desktop content is indexed and used for showing search listings to both desktop and mobile users.

A special mobile-friendly ranking system is then used to boost website content for Google’s mobile listings. Content that’s not mobile-friendly doesn’t perform as well. In the new mobile-first index, which some people will get results from as Google rolls it out, mobile content is indexed and used for showing listings to both desktop and mobile users. Then the mobile-friendly ranking boost is applied, as with the current system, to mobile-friendly pages.

Want to Boost Your Website Ranking? Contact Here

How Can I Tell if Google Sees My Mobile Pages?

The best way is to use the Fetch and Render tool in the Google Search Console. Specify the mobile:smartphone user-agent and look at the preview after the fetch and render is complete. What Google shows you in the rendered results is likely what Google can see and index from your mobile website. If content is missing, then you should look into how to fix that and run the google tool again.

Will Links and Rankings Change Because of This?

There is a concern that mobile content tends to have fewer links than desktop content. This is a concern that is similar to the concern listed above around mobile content having less content than desktop content. Google’s search results are very dependent on links and content. So if both links and content are impacted, will the rankings be impacted? Google said they are still testing, so it isn’t 100 percent clear. Gary Illyes said,

I don’t want to say anything definite about links yet. It’s too early for that cos things are very much in motion.

Canonical URLs: Shall I Need to Change Them?

Google said the canonicals will not need to be changed, just keep your canonical tags as is, and follow their recommendations as listed on their blog post. They Said,

Sites do not have to make changes to their canonical links; we’ll continue to use these links as guides to serve the appropriate results to a user searching on desktop or mobile.

Can I See the Change and The Impact in the Search Results Now?

Google said you shouldn’t be able to see the change and impact of the mobile-first search index roll-out now. In fact, Google said it hopes there is little to no impact after it is fully rolled out. Paul Haahr Software engineer at Google said,

I would be very surprised to detect any effects of mobile-first indexing at this stage.

Will Bing Search Move To Mobile First Index Too?

Some have been wondering if Bing Search Engine would follow in Google’s footsteps and do a Mobile First Index, similar to what Google recently announced. Google will be changing their desktop index to one where they index the mobile version of a website, in order to serve mobile users – which now account for more than 50% of all searches – the most accurate search results.

Christi Olson Bing Evangelist at Microsoft says that they have no plans to do a Bing “mobile first” index. Their index will remain as a desktop index, meaning they will continue to index the desktop version of a webpage, and not the mobile version of the page. She Said,

At Bing, we maintain a single index that is optimized for both mobile and desktop to ensure our users continue to receive the most relevant, fresh and consistent results no matter where they are.

Want To Rank Higher on Bing & Yahoo Serch? Contact Here

Although Google said they have already begun testing this mobile-first index to some users, it will still take some time until it goes live for all users.

Google Penguin 4.0, Penguin is now real-time and more granular.

Yesterday Google Announced on their official Webmaster Central Blog that after four year and five months of development and testing, they are now rolling out an update to the Penguin algorithm in all languages. With this update, Penguin's data is refreshed in real time, so changes will be visible much faster, typically taking effect shortly after googlebot re-crawl and re-index a page. The Penguin algorithm will be able to devalue spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting the ranking of the whole site.

Penguin is now part of Google’s core ranking algorithm, It is real-time and more granular.

Penguin Algorithm, The Real Time Update.
The Penguin Algorithm is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines by using unethical SEO techniques involved in increasing artificially the ranking of a webpage by manipulating the number of links pointing to the page. Such tactics are commonly described as link schemes.

Penguin becomes more page-specific, not sitewide only.
As we know Penguin Algorithm was a sitewide penalty but Google’s last official statement saying that it's now page-specific. Google also said this new Penguin algorithm is “more granular.” From its post:

Penguin is now more granular. Penguin now devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting ranking of the whole site.

Can your website be affected by Penguin 4.0?
If your website were affected by Penguin in the past and you don't see a recovery, then that probably means your website is still affected and you should go with Penguin Cleanups.

Soon we’ll be hearing from many SEOs, Website Owner and SEO Tools Developers success and failed stories of Penguin recovery, as they analyze the changes their sites have made. I'd give this a couple weeks to fully roll out and check my analytics to see if there are any changes.

8 Ways to Protect Your Site From Google Panda Penalties

Back in February of 2011, Google released a major update to their search results ranking algorithm known as Google Panda Update. The significant algorithm update aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results.

As of today, Google released 28 panda algorithm update and last one (Panda 4.2) was July 17, 2015. you can read about all google algorithm update from Moz Google Algorithm Change History Timeline.

If you run a website or blog and want your site stick to the top of Google’s search result, Here’s My Tips to Protect Your Site From Google Panda Penalties. Alternatively, you can read Google's Quality Guidelines.

1. Write Fresh and Quality Content, and Don’t Worry About Length

If you read SEO guides (many of which are outdated SEO Guides), you may find ongoing debate about what will be content length for website pages and blog posts,.

What is The Ideal Content Length?

Actually there are no rules, except opinions. Some experts believe 300 to 500 words work best while others say content should be 1,000+ words.

In my opinion, Making content larger or shorter doesn’t guarantee success or failure; your content should be as long as it takes to deliver the message to your user, and no more.

I've seen many websites ranking higher with a very little amount of text. So don't worry too much about content length, make sure you write fresh and quality content regular basis.

2. Identify Redundant Content and Remove Them

Do a quick check on your website if there's duplicated and outdated information on it. This kinds of content can hurt your website ranking and lead to penalty, now might be a great time to clean it up.

Here are a few tips to Identify Redundant or Obsolete Content.

When review or write content, Ask yourself

• Is this page/post necessary?
• Does the information exist elsewhere?
• Is it still current and relevant?
• Does it do/say something?

3. Create Natural Link Profile

A natural link is a link obtained when a visitor shares your site on his or her own website, blog or other site. Let’s say the purpose of your site is to discuss cleaning services and you writing a article about "carpet cleaning service toronto".

You might link your article to some carpet cleaning mainstream media articles and internal link within your website. What you probably wouldn’t do, however, is link directly to competing sites trying to fill the cleaning niche. In a post-Panda online environment, this is a mistake.

Google Panda is all about Quality and Relevancy. Your site Quality and Relevancy ca be increase by linking to other related sites and content whether they’re your competitor or not. Your readers will surely appreciate it, and hence, The Google will too.

4. Target Natural Keywords

Outdated SEO advice may refer to something like this: select one or two keywords most closely related to page or post and insert them into the content as much as possible. This tactic was really good before panda update, But by panda algorithm Google see right through this, and treat it as a Unethical SEO Practice.

If you want to rank for a phrase like “clean my carpet,” you do not need to repeat the term exactly in your website, instead you may use "immaculate my carpet," which will google see similar to “clean my carpet,” If you use “immaculate” instead of “clean,” you'll have opportunity to rank for both phrases.

Why?

Because, Google’s algorithm uses Latent semantic indexing (LSI), which help Google identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text. LSI is based on the principle that words that are used in the same contexts tend to have similar meanings.

5. Pay Attention to Website Navigation

It's under google's website design guideline. Improving your website navigation can have a positive impact on your site ranking. No amount of excellent content will be worth anything if your users can’t find their away around your site.

Navigation Best Practice:

• Keep menus consistent and logically arranged.
• Use internal linking whenever appropriate.
• Verify there is text navigation, not JavaScript or Flash navigation that spiders can’t see.
• Make sure you at least have text navigation on the bottom of the page if there aren’t any spiderable navigation links in the top navigation.

6. Avoid the Shortcut Methods

A lot of SEO experts claim that they have short cut method (Usually they keep it secret from their client) to rank higher on SERP.

Shortcut method may works on very short-term basis, But there’s a risk involved in tricky shortcut method.

What and Why?

The problem occurs when google's spider finish analyzing your website and find tricky method that you/your expert implemented to dodge google.

The only way to get rid of it and get your rank back is if you find your SEO expert did or doing any Shortcut Method on your website, abandon the expert and clean your content.

7. Stop Guest Posting

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that Guest posting is an effective and killer way to build authoritative links. But it shouldn’t be the one and only one strategy for your website marketing.

Remember what I already said about Natural Link Profile And a site with a too many links from one source (like guest posts) may penalize your website.

Also, There's a very real risk that Google will belittle links coming from guest posts. There’s too many people guest posting on an industrial-scale and it has footprint.

8. Anchor Text Diversity

The question of Anchor Text Diversity is heavily debated. In the past, experts believed that Anchor Text Optimized Backlinks is the key to dominate in the search rank. Again, Anchor Text Optimized Backlinks doesn’t look Natural Link Profile to user or Google.

Today Anchor Text Diversifying for link is a must. Since Google use Latent semantic indexing, you don't have to worry much about anchor text. Use mix of brand, domain, webmaster name, and keywords as anchor text more often.

Panda actually is less about backlinks, but more about quality and content. I deal with manual penalty removal for my client website, but this is another pair of shoes and has nothing to or with panda or penguin.

Did you receive a manual penalty message within the Google Webmaster Tools? Please leave a comment below.

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How to Fix Common Mobile Content and Usability Issues

From last year mobile became dominant device for search query, and from April 21, 2015 google's mobile friendly search algorithm update (Commonly known as Mobilegeddon, which is designed to give preference to mobile friendly websites over non-mobile friendly websites), it is your responsibility to make your site mobile friendly in order to claim higher position on search result.

A recent research revealed that Search is 48% mobile user's starting point, and it's increasing rapidly. The analysts of RESEARCHANDMARKETER says that the global mobile entertainment market to grow at a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.82% over the period 2014-2019.

The forecast is simple, mobile is taking over the control, and search engine like google and bing taking steps to adopt it. To help you, ensure that your website is good to go with this, here are few common mobile content and usability issue and solutions in Search Engine Optimization Prospective.

In this article, we'll cover

1. Viewport
2. Use Stylistic Images
3. Breakpoint
4. Font and Text
5. Flash
6. Loading Speed

Viewport Configuration: 

For those that are unaware, viewport controls the way web pages are displayed on different devices. Without a configured viewport, pages will appear on mobile devices as the typical desktop screen width, only scaled to fit the screen.

Because visitors to your site use a variety of devices with varying screen sizes—from large desktop monitors to tablets and small smartphones—your pages should specify a viewport using the meta viewport tag. This tag tells browsers how to adjust the page’s dimension and scaling to suit the device. Learn more in Responsive Web Design Basics.

There is clearly demand for the viewport meta tag since it is supported by most popular mobile browsers and used by thousands of websites. It would be good to have a true standard for web pages to control viewport properties.

Use Stylistic Images: 

Wherever possible Apply simple styling and Add stylistic images. These are always some images in our website that were important to the narrative of our product. Stylistic images are images that are not needed as part of the core content but add visual flare or help guide the user’s attention to a specific piece of content.

Set your Breakpoint:

• Constrain the maximum width of the design. 
• Give enough padding to elements and make bigger the text size. 
• Make the video float around the content. 
• Reduce the size of the images and have them appear in a nicer grid.

Font and Text:

Font

The viewport also impacts how fonts are scaled on different devices. A page without a properly configured viewport is scaled down on mobile devices, often resulting in the text on the page being illegible due to its small size.

Some mobile browsers may attempt to scale fonts for pages without a properly configured viewport. This scaling behavior varies between browsers and should not be relied upon to deliver legible fonts on mobile devices. PageSpeed Insights displays the text on your page without browser-specific font scaling applied.

Text

On the narrow viewport, you don’t have a lot of space to display content so the size and weight of the typography are often drastically reduced to fit the screen.

With a larger viewport, you need to consider that the user is more likely to be on a larger screen but further away. To increase the readability of the content, we can increase the size and weight of the typography and we can also alter the padding to make distinct areas stand out more.

Avoid Flash: 

As it currently stands, the majority of mobile browsers do not support Flash-based content. Sites that embed any content that relies on Flash, whether it be for animations, videos, or navigation, are essentially damaging the site’s potential since users on mobile can’t view the content. So you shouldn't have flash on your website.

Improve Loading Speed: 

Your website must deliver and render the “above the fold” content in under one second. This allows the user to begin interacting with the website as soon as possible. Since mobile device CPUs are less powerful than desktop CPUs, speed tips that reduce CPU consumption (for instance JavaScript Parse time) need to be addressed first.

See Google's PageSpeed Insights Rules for how to improve web page load speed.

These are just things I think you should take in consideration about Mobile Content and Usability Issues. I am sure you can come up with more opinions and am really looking forward to your thoughts about How to Fix Common Mobile Content and Usability Issues?

Why Domain Age Is Matter!

One Search Engine Optimization Related question which is often asked is how much domain age is important for SEO or Why Domain Age Is Matter?

Some marketing professionals might suggest that domain age is “not to worry about.” The truth is that domain age evidently matters – but there are other reasons beyond Search Engine Optimization concerns as to why this is true. We will count a number of different reasons.

However, before we continue, it is important to realize that domain age is not about how long that specific domain name has been in your possession. Instead, it means the amount of time that has passed since Google first indexed that particular domain (or saw a link to it). Remember, the site has to be indexed by Google for it to mean that Google considers it 10 years old. Just because you have registered the domain a decade ago does not mean the same thing.

Established Reputation

Many companies are spending a great deal of their advertising budget to build up trust and reputation among their consumer and target audiences.

There are Many websites where you could buy aged domains with established trust and good reputation. While it is hideous task to build and manage online reputation; You might be getting a shortcut towards reputation management when you buy a domain that has an established reputation over time.

Where to buy old domains?: Here's few websites offer Domain Auction.

• GoDaddy Auctions
• Sedo
• Flippa
• Namecheap Domain Auction
• SnapNames

Traffic

If you are buying an aged expired domain, you are more likely to getting at least some traffic along with it. This is why many internet marketer are looking for a expired domain that has been around for some time. This can save you both time and money, but remember that you are likely paying more for a domain that enjoys a great deal of traffic.

Old domains may carry more weight due to their past records (i.e. old backlinks pointing to them) – this can be a good point to consider but then again if you are serious about your brand, keep in mind that an established domain already has associations and history before you own it and they might be hard to conquer.

The Trust Factor

It is important to remember that Google gives “trusted and user-friendly” websites higher preference on their organic ranking. This means that in order to safeguard against fraudulent websites that are here-today-gone-tomorrow. How many times have we seen a website flourish; only to be gone in a few months after potential advertisers have given them their money?

Simply put, established sites are more credible than those that are just starting up. Especially if you are starting an online business where you are going to sell products, it is important that your prospective buyers are able to look at your domain age and feel comfortable – assured that you are going to actually provide them with their purchased product.

SEO & Ranking in Google

As we already know about, There is a certain amount of debate about exactly how important domain age is to your ability to rank well, but testing and experience by SEO professionals paints a pretty clear picture that an older domain age competes for rankings a bit better. In fact, Google has even stepped forward to tell us a little bit about the importance of domain age, though as usual they’re still holding their cards close to their chest.

Here’s the basics of what we know:

• Domain age is a factor in determining Google rankings, and a part of our SEO.
• Sites are significantly devalued for the first few months after Google first discovers them. It is extremely challenging to rank well for competitive terms in those first few months. In fact, some SEO professionals simply won’t work with brand new domains.
• According to Google’s Matt Cutts, the difference between a domain that’s 6 months old and 12 months old is very small

What Google’s matt Cutts has to say on domain age, Here is a video from Google’s Matt Cutts on the subject:

One of the very important things to note here is that Matt does not say that domain age doesn’t matter. There are a handful of people out there who insist this is the case, and cite Matt Cutts as the source. In point of fact, he clearly indicates that very young domains will struggle to rank, and goes on to mentions the difference between domain ages, saying that they are small… clearly indicating that there is, in fact, a difference.

“The difference between a domain that’s six months old vs one year old is really not that big at all. As long as you’ve been around for at least a couple of months, you should be able make sure that you can show up in search results.”

But as with all things in the SEO world, domain age is just one of many, many factors and it is certainly not one of the biggest factors (those would be on-page optimization and backlinks). Older domains will certainly have a little bit of an edge, but the importance of their age is often confused with the fact that older domains also tend to have a lot more backlinks (and natural backlinks) just due to the fact that they’ve had so many years to acquire them.

What do you think about domain age? Share your tips and tricks in the comments.

How Dare You Tell Me To NoFollow My Sponsored Links(REPOST)

Collect from Barry Schwartz Post, Executive Editor Search Engine Roundtable
 

I am getting upset, I rarely write stories when I am upset but hey - when you are in the heat of the moment, the writing should come out passionate, shouldn't it?
The other day, I broke the story that Forbes got caught selling links and didn't even know they were selling it. It turns out, it was a technical error and they apologized, removed the links and likely submitted their reconsideration request.
But if you read the comments in my post and even some comments in the Google Webmaster Help thread you will see people laughing at me because we sell links on the side bar here. Yes, scroll down, look on the right, there are "sponsored links." We have sponsors pay about $350 per month for those links and most have been there for years. You don't think I know I sell links on this site? Do you think I am that dumb?
Let me give you some history, so you have some perspective. In November 2007 Google started slapping sites who sold links that passed PageRank. It specifically was targeting paid links and this came with no surprise to SEOs, Google warned us, if you sell links, make sure they don't pass PageRank or Google can penalize you.
So sites, like this one, that did not listen began to see their PageRank drop significantly - yes, including this one. We saw our PageRank in the Toolbar drop from a six or seven to a four. It was upsetting, but I was stubborn and hey our traffic didn't drop at that time. Most sites hit with the penalty quickly removed the paid links from passing PageRank and asked Google for forgiveness. Some brave webmasters did not, and decided to live with the penalty.
As I said back in 2007, I think this is the smartest move Google could have made. They have to target link sellers, because link buyers target their search quality. I think Google is doing the right thing for penalizing sites for selling links. I have no ill will against Google for penalizing this site. Again, they have to do it and they are 100% right in doing so.
But at the same time, I have 100% right to build my site the way I want. I know, without a doubt, that the penalty this site (and other sites) have for selling links affects more than just the visible Toolbar PageRank. Back in 2007, I didn't see a ranking or traffic drop. But soon later I noticed the traffic and ranking in Google for this site dropped. There is no doubt that if I removed the links, my traffic would likely increase by 25% to 100%.
As you can see, I am making a conscious decision to leave the paid links here despite the PageRank and ranking penalty. Why?

• I had those links there prior to Google's paid links guideline
• I always clearly labeled them as paid links for humans to see
• Google reads this blog, they know about the paid links and I know they discredit them
• I am stupid
• I am incredibly stubborn, ask my wife

You see, I just don't want to change. This is how I had it, this is how I want it to be. I know the links do little value to those buying them. I believe, I really do, that the sponsors of this site do it because they want to support the site and the industry. Proof? I am posting this, they can read it and pull their links at any time.
So why won't I nofollow them then? Because I am stubborn and I am one of the few SEO blogs that decided to not change when Google unleashed their penalty (again, Google has to do it and I commend them for it).
Does this mean I will never remove the links? No. But for now, and for the past three-plus years, the links are staying as is.
Feel free to trash (or support) me in the comments.

Google Panda Official Update Version 3.8 On June 25th

Yesterday Google has announced they pushed out a new refresh to the Panda algorithm recently.
This update “noticeably affects only ~1% of queries worldwide,” said Google on Twitter.

There were earlier rumors of an update over the weekend but Google said the rollout started today and not over the weekend.

The previous Panda update was on June 8th and before that on April 26th. Typically, Google pushes out algorithm updates for Panda and Penguin every month or so. While the last Panda update was just over 2 weeks ago, Google felt they wanted to push out a new refresh.

Here is the tweet:

A Google

✔

Heads up: we're pushing a new Panda data refresh that noticeably affects only ~1% of queries worldwide. More context: goo.gl/HNvCt
— A Googler (@google) June 25, 2012

Google said there were no updates to the algorithm or changes in the signals. This was simply a basic data refresh where they ran the algorithm again.
For more on Panda update, see this article.