Google’s Panda Update – Implications for SEO

      The Google algorithm has been updated and will impact 14% of search queries. Through understanding the key to success for search engines we can appreciate the thinking behind this Panda update. They endeavour to supply searches with the information they seek much faster and more consistently than any other search choices available. Any barriers to achieving this objective have to be eliminated and this update is designed to decrease rankings for poor quality sites. Impediments to good search engine rankings are low quality pages with less than unique content, poor page links or none at all and user behaviour data including refined searches and block site requests. Impacted sites are finding recovery difficult from the resultant effects of lowered organic site traffic and possibly a decrease in search engine rankings for terms previously performing well.

There are two immediate steps SEO teams can take – add unique content of high quality and transfer content of a dubious nature to another domain or stop it being indexed by search engines. Prevention is always a better option than correction so it is important to take a protective approach to your site and begin with improved unique content that is not duplicated. This will add value especially if it is relevant and client-user generated. Voluminous content is not an answer especially if it is low quality and will only serve to impact negatively.

The raison d’etre of any content is to act as a vehicle to help the user to access the information they require as quickly as possible – to answer all their questions. Some more tips to help redress this situation are:- ensure good links to content pages, as this intimates quality content to Google. Make sure that content is social media optimised and sharing buttons are displayed clearly to promote sharing of the content. Be wary of too many ads on your pages as Google can construe them as poor quality content. Also ensure each page offers user value so they do not want to block the site from featuring in future search results.