The Google Panda Vs The World of SEO

Imagine waking up in the morning, walking over to your computer, and logging into your website to check analytics.  To your absolute horror, your website traffic that used to average 800 hits per day has dropped by 800 hits per day?  Your site traffic is flatlined and the only action you can think to take is to update your resume.

What lessons can be learned from the latest Google Panda update?  To find out, let’s first take a look at who the winners and losers of the latest Google Panda update were.

Latest Google Panda Update | The Losers

Google confirmed that is ran an update last week, but true to Google’s form, they did not reveal the details of what was behind the update.  However, according to SearchMetrics, you can find out who the losers of the Google Panda update were.  The list below details the website, the amount of traffic for the week of 9/25 and the amount of traffic a week later, 10/2.

• ConsumerAffairs.com- Traffic dropped from about 447k to 101k
• Starpulse.com- Traffic dropped from about 553k to 213k
• AceShowBiz.com- Traffic dropped from 163k to 11k
• Savings.com- Traffic dropped from 198k to 48k
• Entrepreneur.com- dropped from 81k to 25k

Latest Google Panda Update | The Winners

Here’s a list of some of the Winners from the Google Panda Update.  The list below details the website, the amount of traffic for the week of 9/25 and the amount of traffic a week later, 10/2.

• Hulu.com- saw an increase from 325k to 640k
• Reelz.com- saw an increase from  21k to 215k
• Fox.com- saw an increase from 81k to 232k
• NBC.com- saw an increase from 202k to 344k
• Hubpages.com- saw an increase from 692k to 761k

Latest Google Panda Update | What to Do?

As mentioned earlier, Google doesn’t necessarily let the public know what is going to happen when they incorporate their latest Google Panda update, so it’s up to us to try to find any patterns or clue as to why some sites fail and others prosper.

Why does Google do what it does?  Google CEO Matt Cutts developed the Panda Update because he felt that the Internet was turning into a big mess and wanted to create an algorithm that would allow search engine users the ability to find the results they are looking for without having to sift through multiple keyword content farm spam sites.  Therefore, the Google Panda Update punished websites that overused key words, had low quality backlinks, and didn’t provide much value to the end user.

Perhaps the best way to prevent the latest Google Panda Update slap (and future slappings) is to create a website and pretend that Google didn’t exist.  What does that mean?  It means, if you weren’t creating a site for SEO purposes, what would your site look like?  Your goal would obviously be to get people who visit your site to stay on your site.  So what are some tips that may help prevent the latest Google Panda Update slap:

• Video– video is very important.  More people will watch a video than read text, lowering your bounce rate and improving your average time spent on site by user.  In fact, did you notice the common thread of the latest Google Panda Update winners?  They’re all heavily video oriented sites.  Video is generally going to be branded and original content.  For example, Netflix isn’t going to show a video on their website that was created and branded by BlockBuster Video.  Therefore, utilizing video is probably one of the most important items you can do to avoid the Google slap.
• Original Content– providing value is very important.  Too many businesses just try to overuse keywords to get a higher Google ranking.  However, the more repetitive keywords you use, the more Google Panda Updates can harm you.  Again, pretend Google isn’t around.  Would you want to read an article that just had keywords written over and over again?  No.  You’d visit the site and immediately exit, thus giving you a higher bounce rate.  Higher bounce rates will lead to a Google slap.  One final tip: avoid using dashes in your domain name (my-keyword-article-site.com).  Using dashes in your domain name may be one part of the algorithm that suggests your site is a keyword site rather than a quality content site.
• Less Ads– this may seem surprising, but running fewer Ads on your site may be better for SEO.    Again, think about it from a user’s perspective.  Would you rather visit a page with several ad sense ads or a page with few ads and considerable content.  More ads will tend to not rank as well as pages with fewer AdSense slots, which seems to defy logic because you would think that Google would reward for using its products and programs.  But when it comes to anything pertaining that which is not original, quality content, always remember the old axiom of ‘less is more’.

Image: chrisroll / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Latest Google Panda Update | The Conclusion?

In summary, the latest Google Panda update is doing its usual job of wreaking havoc on content farm sites with low quality links, overusage of key words, and tons of Adsense.  Although Google doesn’t exactly detail what it will punish you for, it helps to pretend Google doesn’t exist and create a site with the user’s benefit in mind rather than SEO. By following the tips above, you should be able to avoid this and future slaps from the latest Google Panda Update.