Google's Panda update 'an opportunity for small firms'

Small businesses have an opportunity to rise in Google's website search engines, an expert has claimed, as a result of the company's 'Panda' update which demotes sites which re-publish content from others.

According to Google, the update, which started in February and rolled out more extensively this week, affects websites which "copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful". It is believed that as many as 12% of search results has been impacted.

Many major websites including Computer Weekly, PC Advisor and Microsoft-owned Ciao have taken a hit but others such as YouTube, TechCrunch and The Independent have benefited. 

But it's not just big original content publishers who should view the change as positive, Jack Adams, senior search manager at SearchCatalyst said; small business owners could also emerge as winners.

"With most UK SMEs being experts in their respective fields, the opportunity to attain search presence at the expense of large content aggregators – which previously would outrank smaller websites based purely on the inbound links spread thinly across their mass of content – is now more possible than ever before," Adams claimed.