Google Panda helps website for Ethical SEO Campaigns

Google Panda previously known as farmer updated for search engine optimizer and website owners. Google has recently updated their search engine algorithm with latest Panda updates. Google constantly changes and updates its ranking algorithm to offer visitors or searchers for improved results. Some of the changes are minor while other changes affect the back end results or pages. This updates initially launch in USA and webmasters discussion forums quickly started to heat up. Now the question is how it will affect your site’s SEO?
The purpose of Panda:
It’s implemented in order to stop the low quality content or other words, spamming content try to get rank in search engines. This is as per google policy that google gives best results which is relevant and useful to the end users.
This update has affected many websites like Ezine Articles, Hubpages.com, buzzle.com, Wisegeek.com, Mahalo.com, business.com etc. These websites were affected by panda because they look over or edit articles or also rejects some article quite loosely. Now these sites started reviewing new articles more strictly.
How it affects your SEO?
To publish your content just for the traffic is not good idea. It’s the main reason why google made this update because most of the sites publish lots of content only to attract more visitors from search engine to gain impressions and ads click.
They do not care about quality of the content, from where they are getting traffic. We should always try to give what people want, unique, useful and quality content. Google try its best to deliver which we desire. You should be more careful what you publish and make sure it’s original, unique, quality and helpful to people.
SEO is zero-sum game in search engine. If the content writer is getting how to do SERPs then it’s easy to get rank higher.

Google Panda New update 2.2 Coming Soon

This Year 2011, Google has launched a Google Panda Update earlier. Its purpose to deliver best quality content to end user’s. So now all company try to write unique content for their website which contains useful information for visitors and they satisfied with that information. This changes affect SEO-friendly content for SEO firm and company which distribute their content to search engine. Due to this Google panda update it affect 11.8 % of all queries related seo-friendly content, spammy content, law quality content and keyword spamming content etc.
This panda affect search engine optimization activity very carefully to decrease page rank for law quality content and copy content from other website etc. Now Google panda has update their algorithm to provide good quality wise content and unique useful content which contains research and in-depth analysis.
Upcoming new update panda 2.2 may be not affect all sites because major update done at February and frequently Google algorithm changes in April, it means that now all of the company constantly evaluating the results.
Google Says that: ”They will provide high quality as well as unique sites for Google users and 500 changes will make ranking Google algorithm every year. We have nothing more words to announce now at this time.”

Official: Google Panda Update 2.2 Is Live

                                                                                                             Google has given us confirmation that they have run an update to the Panda filter recently.
We have been expecting the Panda 2.2 update based on news coming out of the SMX Advanced conference. Matt Cutts told SMX attendees that Panda 2.2 has been approved, hasn’t been rolled out yet, but that should happen soon.
The update hit sometime late last week. I believe Google manually pushed out the Panda 2.2 update around June 16th.
As some of you know, I track the SEO discussion forums very closely and have two posts at the Search Engine Roundtable discussing Webmaster chatter around this update. The first was on June 16th where I referenced ongoing WebmasterWorldthreads and the second was on June 20th where I added in more Google Webmaster Help Threads.
Yesterday, I asked Google for confirmation that these discussions taking place were likely due to the Panda 2.2 release and Google gave us confirmation.
Some webmasters found themselves breaking out of the Panda filter and ranking better again, since being hit on Panda 1.0 on February 24th. Whereas others were hit for the first time, now suffering from the Panda filter.
As Google’s Cutts explained, 2.2 was to improve scraper detection and that these Panda updates are pushed out manually.
For more information on how Panda works, see Danny Sullivan’s Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update that went up here today on Search Engine Land. It also covers related Panda history and tips.

Google Panda Update 2.4: Panda Goes International, In Most Languages

                                                                             Google has just announced that their “Panda” rankings changes, first launched in the United States in late February and rolled out to English language indices internationally in April, have now launched internationally in all languagesother than Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Their post notes that for non-English indices, this change impacts 6-9% of queries (vs. the 12% the original US English launch). This launch also includes a few minor changes to the English version of Panda, but shouldn’t have a substantial impact.
In their post, they say:
For many months, we’ve been focused on trying to return high-quality sites to users. Earlier this year, we rolled out our “Panda” change for searches in English around the world. Today we’re continuing that effort by rolling out our algorithmic search improvements in different languages. Our scientific evaluation data show that this change improves our search quality across the board, and the response to Panda from users has been very positive.
I talked to Google about the change and they reiterated that searchers overwhelmingly have found the Panda-based changes to improve their search results and that those impacted should evaluate their sites objectively for quality and unique value.
This year, Google has focused on identifying sites with a large number of low quality pages as part of their overall goal of providing the best possible search experience. The Panda updates have been evolutions of algorithms that increasingly detect this and lower those sites in search rankings. I often describe it as somewhat like the Adwords quality score, which uses a number of factors to assign an overall score to a site. Since we’re talking about algorithms with many inputs, there’s no one thing that can cause a site to lose rankings due to Panda. Rather it’s an accumulation of factors.
Imagine you’re eating an ice cream sundae. The ice cream is delicious and creamy. It’s covered in the best hot fudge sauce you’ve ever eaten. The whipped cream is freshly made from scratch. On top is an OK-tasting cherry. How do you feel about the sundae overall? Pretty good? Excellent even?
Now, imagine another ice cream sundae. It’s made with that blech tasting cardboard-and-ice style ice cream. The hot fudge is missing entirely. And the whipped cream is that scary fake stuff from a can. The cherry, however, is quite good. How do you feel about this sundae?
The maker of the second sundae might ask why it is you’ve put down your spoon and are edging back to the sundae #1. But the cherry is better! He might say. A Rainier cherry from Washington state! How can you like the other sundae better when it has such a sub-par cherry? Mine has all of the same parts as that sundae! Well, except the hot fudge!
Google is taste-testing ice cream sundaes and offering searchers the ones that are the best holistically. I mean, they’re not literally eating ice cream. (Actually, they are, but not as part of this metaphor.) I’m just saying you can’t look for one specific thing to fix and you can’t compare one specific thing on your site to that same thing on another site. There are too many moving parts.
The History of Panda
This post covers all of the Panda updates leading up to this one. That post also recaps the articles we’ve published here with advice and impact. The last update was about three weeks ago and was fairly minor.
Advice If Your Site Has Lost Ranking
Panda seems to be focused primarily on unique value and user experience. I gave a long interview to Eric Enge about this not too long ago. If your site has lost search traffic due to Panda, take an objective look (or better yet, have someone else take an objective look) and ask:
How does the content quality compare to other pages on the web about the same topic? Is the page the most valuable and useful content about the topic?
Do multiple pages on the site answer the same problem/focus on the same basic task? It’s one thing to have separate pages on “best chocolate cake recipe” and “best pumpkin pie recipe” and quite another to have separate pages on “best chocolate cake recipe” and “ideal chocolate cake recipe”.
Is the content primarily syndicated or aggregated from other sources? If most of the content isn’t original, Google’s algorithms might give the site a lower “quality score” (in quotes because I totally made that up that way of looking at Panda — I’m not saying Google internally is using the concept of a quality score) to better ensure that the original version ranks.
If the content is unique, does it completely cover the topic in a credible, useful way or is it shallow and barely scratch the surface?
Does the user interface design and navigation make engagement easy or are things cluttered and make it difficult for visitors to find what they’re looking for?
Are the site design and goals user-focused or revenue-focused? It’s absolutely fine (and generally necessary if you’re running a business!) to ensure that your site makes money. But if the goals you keep in mind when designing the pages don’t take into account how well the visitor can get what they need (an answer to their question, ability to accomplish their task easily) and only are based on getting what you want from users (ad views or clicks, for instance), the user experience of your pages might not be ideal.
Since Panda is based on an overall ice cream sundae score, you likely won’t see rankings improvements right away once you make changes. Google periodically recalculates these scores (just like they periodically launch a new version of Panda with improved signals), so after you make changes, you’ ll have to wait for Google to recrawl the site so they can take note of the changes (you can check the cache dates of your indexed pages to see if Google has recrawled them) and then you’ ll have to wait for one of Google’s periodic scoring recalculations (which so far seem to coincide with Panda algorithm updates).
Some site owners who have made substantial changes based on the bullets above have seen positive results (I’ve worked with some of them and seen the analytics myself), but a recovery isn’t likely overnight.

Winners & Losers As Panda 2.0 Goes Global? eHow, Bing’s Ciao.co.uk & More

It’s only been 48 hours since Google expanded the Panda/Farmer update to all English language searches outside the US, and we’re already seeing reports about who the early winners and losers are.
In some cases, the names are familiar if you followed the original reports when the algorithm change first hit in the US in late February.
But there are also some new names, including a notable one that was missing the first time around.
Sistrix Visibility Index Losers
Earlier today, Sistrix posted its initial list of the 30 biggest losers from Panda’s expansion. It’s based on an analysis of a million keywords that were checked before and after Google’s announcement. The “Visibility Index” is Sistrix’s internal measurement that takes into account how many keywords were ranking, their position, and click-through rate on those positions.
Here are the top 30 losers from Sistrix’s measurements. (I’ve manually bolded the domains seeing an 80% or greater loss.)
#
DomainChangeSISTRIX (before)SISTRIX (after)# KWs (before)# KWs (after)
1 ehow.co.uk -84% 218,37 35,43 381.271 139.687
2 ezinearticles.com -78% 118,45 25,65 267.785 116.644
3 twenga.co.uk -79% 98,96 20,96 153.106 72.996
4 shopzilla.co.uk -77% 99,92 23,40 156.630 89.611
5 hubpages.com -72% 96,35 26,99 206.290 95.460
6 ciao.co.uk -81% 81,01 15,43 125.173 61.286
7 suite101.com -79% 70,98 14,85 175.632 70.548
8 associatedcontent.com -82% 51,16 9,41 186.020 85.507
9 dooyoo.co.uk -80% 50,64 10,38 94.310 40.864
10 comparestoreprices.co.uk -78% 37,68 8,19 66.862 39.633
11 hotfrog.co.uk -87% 31,67 4,23 117.126 38.357
12 shopping.com -74% 35,38 9,18 109.907 68.540
13 bizrate.co.uk -76% 33,78 8,10 79.533 38.444
14 mahalo.com -77% 32,54 7,43 43.272 18.451
15 findarticles.com -82% 24,02 4,35 94.362 46.954
16 articlesbase.com -79% 24,63 5,13 127.935 64.369
17 tradekey.com -78% 23,54 5,24 55.496 38.064
18 cylex-uk.co.uk -83% 20,98 3,57 75.019 29.806
19 answerbag.com -78% 19,35 4,31 71.178 36.270
20 encyclopedia.com -77% 19,43 4,39 61.608 41.401
21 qype.co.uk -76% 18,42 4,36 42.859 20.278
22 vodpod.com -78% 17,03 3,79 51.552 29.224
23 brighthub.com -76% 16,35 3,95 52.103 22.584
24 zazzle.co.uk -72% 16,80 4,72 22.771 10.803
25 howtodothings.com -75% 15,06 3,76 35.802 14.990
26 life123.com -81% 13,26 2,57 91.429 48.428
27 wn.com -76% 13,73 3,32 132.401 102.132
28 idealo.co.uk -81% 12,12 2,35 40.466 20.822
29 docstoc.com -79% 12,09 2,56 71.725 40.566
30 faqs.org -75% 11,50 2,87 33.302 21.130
The first domain listed is the obvious surprise. Considered a poster child for content farms, eHow was widely expected to be an obvious loser from Google’s changes. But when Panda/Farmer first rolled out, it was actually listed among the winners.
What changed?
Good question. Perhaps one reason is that Google says this more recent update includes data from searchers that manually block sites. But that’s speculation for now.
Postscript, April 18: For more on the eHow situation, please see these more recent articles:
Panda Update: Google Lowers The Boom On eHow.com
Demand Media: Panda’s Impact On eHow.com “Significantly Overstated”
Also on the Sistrix loser list is Ciao.co.uk, a comparison shopping site that Microsoft owns and is presented as “Ciao from Bing” on its website. (There are more shopping comparison sites on this list of losing sites than there were on the US-only lists.)
Yahoo’s Associated Content didn’t escape this week’s Panda expansion — Sistrix lists it with an 82% visibility decline. It was one of the harder hit domains in the US, too. Other domains on both lists include Ezinearticles.com, Mahalo.com, Suite101.com, Hubpages.com and others.
SearchMetrics’ Winners & Losers
SearchMetrics has also weighed in with its list of winners and losers from the Panda expansion. Some of the same names mentioned above are on SearchMetrics’ list, too. It analyzed “millions” of keywords as part of its Organic Performance Index (OPI), which takes into account keyword search volume, rankings and the expected traffic from those keywords and rankings.
In absolute numbers, Reviewcentre.com is the biggest loser, going from an OPI of 648,704 down to 68,096 — a loss of 580,000+. But in terms of percentage, there are bigger losers; some smaller sites have dropped more than 99% in the company’s OPI index.
But among bigger sites, SearchMetrics lists several of the same losers as mentioned above.
Ciao.co.uk – down 94% OPI


Airfaresflights.co.uk – down 95% OPI



Hubpages.com – down 86% OPI


Ehow.co.uk – down 72% OPI (Ehow.com dropped 53%, too.)


Searchmetrics’ Winners List
On the flip side, Searchmetrics lists its top 20 winners, which include several “brand name” sites including various media outlets and even a couple Google domains: Blogspot.com and YouTube.com.
domain Visibility (OPI) new Visibility (OPI) old difference %
ebay.co.uk 1469346 1034302 435044 42.06%
techcrunch.com 174797 124220 50577 40.72%
national-lottery.co.uk 292053 209357 82696 39.50%
econsultancy.com 186175 135804 50371 37.09%
thisismoney.co.uk 234717 180377 54340 30.13%
siteslike.com 175869 140279 35590 25.37%
mirror.co.uk 275876 220937 54939 24.87%
blogspot.com 1006719 819832 186887 22.80%
mashable.com 295137 240714 54423 22.61%
itv.com 345470 282300 63170 22.38%
metro.co.uk 181507 149271 32236 21.60%
independent.co.uk 471896 388280 83616 21.53%
mozilla.org 146282 122471 23811 19.44%
youtube.com 8856696 7446902 1409794 18.93%
vimeo.com 168979 142182 26797 18.85%
wordpress.com 331836 279738 52098 18.62%
laterooms.com 150533 127297 23236 18.25%
dailymotion.com 577590 490328 87262 17.80%
soundcloud.com 150998 128569 22429 17.45%
We expect there’ll be more reports of winners and losers in the days ahead, and we’ll either update this article or publish new article(s). Comments are open if you have thoughts/opinions to share. And be sure to read some of the related articles below if you need to get caught up on what this is all about.
Postscript, April 14: As expected, we have more reports on the impact of Panda’s expansion.
Greenlight’s Winners & Losers
Greenlight, a search agency based in London and New York, has been monitoring a keyword sample across 10 verticals (automotive, beauty, fashion, etc.) since Panda rolled out in the US in late February. Greenlight monitored keywords that reflected informational searches – the kind that might lead searchers to content farms.
Using a similar visibility metric that looks at where URLs rank and how likely the ranking is to lead to a click, Greenlight has published its list of winners and losers from this week’s announcement. And the names are quite similar to what we’ve reported above.

Several media sites (Times Online, CNET, Telegraph, Guardian, etc.) have come out quite well according to Greenlight’s tracking, while eHow.co.uk, Ciao.co.uk, EzineArticles.com, Hubpages.com and a few others are on the losers’ list — just as they are with the Sistrix and Searchmetrics numbers above.
Meanwhile, ReviewCentre.com — one of the sites listed as a loser above — is already talkingabout it on the company blog:
On Monday of this week, the ongoing upkeep of Review Centre suddenly became a lot more difficult. Google rolled out a major algorithmic shift (nicknamed the Panda Update), that was apparently an attempt to remove low quality websites from its search index. It affected Review Centre, and has resulted in a significant drop to our Google traffic.
We’ve also reached out to Demand Media asking for reaction to the above reports that eHow.co.uk and, to a lesser degree, eHow.com have been impacted negatively this week by Panda’s expansion. A company spokesperson said that, aside from their February blog postafter Panda’s US launch, “we generally don’t comment or speculate on changes by major search engines.”
CNET’s Winners & Losers
CNET’s Declan McCullagh has also dug into Google rankings before and after the most recent expansion of Google’s Panda changes. In general, his findings are similar to what’s been reported above. McCullagh says several news-related sites are doing better now — sites like Fox News, ABC News, ESPN, The New York Times and Yahoo News. He also reports that some government sites — like WhiteHouse.gov, NASA, the CDC and NIH — are also doing better recently.
Sites faring worse recently include eHow.com, WikiHow, Nextag, Associated Content, Ezine Articles and FindArticles.com.

Google Panda 2.5: Losers Include Today Show, The Next Web; Winners Include YouTube, Fox News

Searchmetrics has a pretty good track record of figuring out who lost after one of Google’s Panda Updates. Among the latest victims of this week’sPanda Update 2.5, some unexpected surprises: popular tech blog The Next Web, blog aggregatorTechnorati, and NBC’s The Today Show. Winners include Google’s own YouTube, along with Fox News and several other mainstream news sites.
Apparently, that patented SEO process that Business Wire just announced isn’t much help to the company. It was listed among the victims, along with PR Newswire.
About The Losers
The names are from a report that Searchmetrics has just released.
It’s worth noting that that Searchmetrics doesn’t really know the degree any of these sites has actually been harmed by the Panda update. The company computes a “visibility” score for a wide-range of keywords. The companies named above, along with others, have lost visibility for those terms.
It could be despite this, these companies have gained visibility for terms that aren’t checked. It could also be that the terms they’ve lost visibility for weren’t sending important traffic that converted into sales or ad revenue.
Those caveats aside, it’s been pretty common that after Searchmetrics has issued one of its winners / loser reports, some of the sites have stepped up to confirm the assessments.
Here’s the full losers list:

For Every Loser, There’s A Winner
There’s also a winners list. Once again, Google’s own YouTube site is winner. It tops the latest list, something that’s sure to raise controversy in a climate when Google’s facing criticism that its search results favor itself. Google’s Android.com is also in the top winners list. So is Google-partner AOL.com.
A site that won’t be gossiping over the news is Perez Hilton, among the winners. And while magazine Motor Trend took a hit, magazine US Weekly rose. Other big winners were mainstream news sites like the Washington Post, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal.
While YouTube was the top winner, TV.com from CBS Interactive was in the number two spot. In fact, on a percentage basis, it did better than YouTube.
Here’s the winners list:


Also notable on the winners list is HubPages, which was hit hard by previous Panda updates but claimed to have recovered back in July.
More Information
If you’re trying to understand more about the Panda update, and perhaps recover from it, see our Related Entry links below.
If you’re trying to understand more about SEO in general and know nothing about it, might I recommend our What Is Search Engine Optimization video. It’s only 3 1/2 minutes long:
Need more SEO information? Head over to our What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization? page, which links to guides and resources here at Search Engine Land and across the web about the topic.

Another Google Panda Update On October 14 ’2011, Reports Matt Cutts

Started very well for us and the rest of our blogger community. However, none of us were aware that we were going to get hit by another deadly Google Panda Update in the next 5-6 hours. And it came to us! It was none other than another minor update to Google’s deadly Panda which is famous for killing a series of websites ever since it was rolled out for the first time in February 2011.



It is not the first time GeekSyrup has been hit by a Panda Update. Earlier Panda Updates have actually been really good for us since they gave us appreciable traffic increase, for the simple reason that we have all unique and high quality content out here on GeekSyrup. However, this is the first time any Panda Update has degraded us adversely, and I am still un-aware of the reason, since we have been respecting Google’s webmaster guidelines in every aspect ever since GeekSyrup came online. That is not all, we have been ranking fairly good in search engines, thanks to the efforts of our SEO team.



As far as keywords are concerned, they have never been stable in the past 2-3 months, and I can see them moving a lot every-time. The best of our articles are still ranking on the first page in Google Search, however, the traffic drop we are experiencing on GeekSyrup takes us back to the traffic we used to have 15-20 days back. GeekSyrup has been experiencing a traffic loss of around 60% after recent Panda Update. I know it should not be much of a concern for us, since I am sure we will be getting over with the Panda Update in the coming week, and also, I will be making certain changes to the blog , taking into consideration the blog’s loading time, various scripts, and also strengthen the content quality for the next of our posts, to make sure Google does not target us in its next update.
There are constant discussions on Facebook and Twitter as well, regarding a ‘supposed’ Google Panda Update in the past 24-hours, however, we are now sure of it being none other than the deadly Google Panda. Google’s webmaster forums are overfilled with re-consideration requests and what not, however, if you keep writing quality and originality oriented content, you don’t really need to worry about Google Panda Updates, since they would actually prove good for you in a long time, if they are violent for you at the present!
We are welcoming suggestions, requests, and feedback on how we can fight-back Google’s recent Panda Update in a healthy manner. Feel free to add your experience and views via the comments section below, and we will start making changes accordingly!

How To Affect Your Panda Quality Score: 7 Ways To Do It via focusa2z

Ok. I’m frustrated with all of the hype and misinformation regarding the Panda Update to the Google algorithm. There are very few websites willing to come out and share their experiences, with the exception ofDaniWeb and a few others. Most have been fairly silent, which I can only assume is out of fear of repercussions. That’s lame.
So, I’m going to share my experience and lessons learned along the way.
I got Google slapped hard starting February 24. I remember tweeting about it a full day before anything was even announced. No one was talking about it yet. I sure noticed. Overnight, my highly traffic’d website lost 50% of search traffic and most longtail SERPS were suppressed to the 3rd page or worse.When I went to check revenue stats, they were cut by 60%. I’ve been on the web more than 14 years and I’ve never seen an update with this much impact.
The point of Panda was to get rid of content farms that have shallow content, gaming the search engines by covering niche topics poorly. Sites like Hubpages.com, Ezinearticles.com and eHow.com were all hit pretty hard, but those weren’t the only ones. Many online retailers and blogs were also hit.
I’m lucky to have awesome friends and deep connections in the online marketing circuit, but that still didn’t save me. I had to save myself. And if I would have listened to a few of my smarty pants friends sooner, I might have been able to dig myself out faster. But, that’s neither here nor there. All I want to do is help you understand the Panda Update on a intuitive level as well as a practical one.
Your site didn’t lose ranking because you have too many ads or because you have too many affiliate links. You didn’t lose traffic because you have a shitty site. You got buried because your overall quality score isn’t up to par with the Google. When you get Pandalized, even your Google Adsense earnings will go down. Certain ads will stop showing up and your CPM will get killed. At least, that was my experience.
Here are a seven tips you can apply to your marketing strategy to make sure you keep your site out of Panda. If you’re short on time, make sure you read the first two.
1.) As my friend @Olivia told me back in March, TAKE THE GARBAGE OUT. That means, old content needs to be deleted and 301′d. If the content is no longer accurate either get rid of it or noindex it. I know you are terrified to delete old blog posts, but they are bloating your quality score. I bet those pages aren’t getting much traffic anyway. You think they are… check your analytics. At first, your traffic will go down, but this will help you get out of Panda and will improve how Google views your site. Even if you haven’t been hit by Panda, think about a content archiving strategy that will remove old content from the search bots path.
2.) I spoke with Chris Sullivan at WeBuildPages.com, now Internet Marketing Ninjas. Chris helped me philosophically understand the Panda Update. You should look at your bounce rate, but a better way to think about Panda is pogosticking. Are people coming to your site or side door page and automatically popping back to the search results for the same term? In other words, did they find what they were looking for immediately? This has many implications, including making sure your messaging is tied to the section, page and anything above the fold. You need to grab visitors right away. And you need to steer them somewhere else — not back to the search results, as that’s a sure signal to Google that the visitors intent was not satisfied.
3.) Panda is hard to fix. Once you’re in the new sandbox of Panda, you really have to make site wide changes and to get out. Every site has a slightly different story as to why they got Pandalized. And according to some reports only 5% of websites have fully recovered from Panda since February 24. However, don’t think that means you’re doomed forever. You’re not. You just need to rethink your strategy and make sure you’re putting the user experience first. Is the content quality? Would you read it or pop back to search results? Is the content visually engaging? What do visitors first see?
4.) Duplicate content doesn’t do anything for anyone. Fix your title tags – make them all unique. And don’t repurpose content on 10 different sections of your site without adding additional content and value. Joining SEOMoz and getting my site indexed helped me see some big problem areas of duplicate content and title tags. If you have a large site, a SEOMoz Pro account is invaluable.
5.) Build cool shit and develop a brand that people can attach to or you’re out. The search results of the future will be socially decided, so start rethinking your strategy if it revolves around SEO and/or arbitrage or scraping. Think of your website as a community — as people really must feel a bond with your brand as that’ s another signal to Google – how many times do people search for your website by name? Do people want to come back? Do they remember you?
6.) The Panda update or as @DannySullivan called it, the Farmer update is an on/off switch. If you have been hit by the Panda, your longtail search engine positions will be virtually eliminated and link building won’t do any good until you’re out from under the Panda. Once you’re out, positions will return to normal. And this can happen when the update is run again (see #7).
7.) The Panda update only seems to run every 4-6 weeks, meaning until the update is run again, your website will not be rescored or have the potential to recover. The update will run your site through a quality check of some sort and if you’ve recovered, you’ll know at the onset of the updates. Since February 2011, there have been 5 updates and we’re now at Panda 2.5.

Broad Complaints from Web Publishers After Google Releases Panda 2.5.2 Minor Update

From the article intro: Yesterday we reported that Google rolled out a "minor" update to the Google Panda algorithm, which we labelled Panda 2.5.2.
The thing is, the level of complaints and forum posts, as well as comments on my post, is at a level that seems to be more than "minor" by our standards.
There are literally hundreds of complaints, complaints maybe at levels closer to a full major update to the Panda algorithm, as opposed to what we saw back on October 9th.
Here are some of the many threads I've seen with complaints at the Google Webmaster Help Forums, HighRankings Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google Panda Update: Another Tweak Suspected (2)

It looks like webmasters recently felt the affects of another Google Panda Update tweak.
Since what’s come to be known as version 2.5, Google has been making tweaks to it as promised, and these tweaks continue to help some sites and hurt others.
Search Engine Roundtable points to some webmaster discussion, indicating that a tweak may have rolled out on October 20.
There are indeed plenty of complaints in a WebmasterWorld thread here. Most are calling it a minor update, but even the minor updates can be major for some sites.
User Bewenched wrote, for example, “It may have been a ‘minor’ update, but it slammed our ecommerce site yet again… down 30%”

The Panda Algorithm Tests: Search Engine Watch Analyzes Panda Behavior Across Hundreds of Sites

Can you be affected by Panda in various degrees?
What affects the amount of thin content that is condoned?
What is the best way to recover from Panda?
SEW run some very interesting tests across a few hundred web sites to find out what affected and triggered the Google Panda and how to best recover from it.
Their conclusions include:
1) Panda uses a steep threshold. Pages are either affected or not.
2) The threshold isn’t the same for each domain. Links seem to cause some difference.
3) Almost all keywords on an affected page drop in ranking.
4) Entire sections of pages are affected. Drops for a single page are unlikely to be caused by Panda.
5) You can recover from Panda by removing low quality pages from the index (canonical, noindex, etc.).

3 Off-Page SEO Manipulative Techniques Killed By Google Panda

From the article: "Everybody knows that Google Panda has rolled out, of-course it increased the user’s experience but literally messed up those search ranking manipulators.
I also tried these things in March-April and these techniques was working very well, like One can easily rank any keyword in just 15-20 days with those tactics.
But, now scenario has changed, Google has advanced its algorithm and slapped those grey practices for artificial link building.
So.. which were those link building techniques?
1. DoFollow Blog Commenting
2. Link Exchange
3. Indirect Layer [Sort of Link Wheel]"

Is Writing Quality a Google Panda Algorithm Factor? | SEOptimise

From the article intro: "I had a thought earlier today, funnily enough whist interviewing copywriters, which led me to think: how important is the quality of writing as a ranking factor following the Panda update?
Obviously the Panda update has had a negative impact to websites which have low-quality content – but, from the other way around, how has this impacted high-quality content?
Forgetting completely about links for now and assuming all things are equal, does higher quality written content now have more of a positive impact to search rankings?
Well I thought I’d do a few tests with Google’s reading level search filter to compare the differences between how content ranks which is either basic, intermediate or advanced."

Panda Update Driven By Google Advertising Needs? Gianluca Fiorelli - I Love SEO

Gianluca Fiorelli, of I Love SEO calls the new Google "Fresh" update, “Caffeine 2.0″ and shares some very interesting thoughts about how this change was brought about by advertising needs.Claiming that Google is driven by ad space, and needed to make changes to reflect this:

“Google is an substantially an editor (even it will never recognize it) that sells ad spaces, and Search is still its main product to sell toward the advertiser.
 So Google needs to have the best product to continue selling ad space.

That product was ironically endangered by Caffeine.

With Panda Google tries to solve the content issue and with the Social Signals linked inextricably to the Authors and Publishers tries to solve the obsolescence of the Link Graph.”

Panda All Over Again? Google Freshness Update Impact

Alex Petrovic reports:
"Under the new Google Freshness update, content that is updated much more frequently will be rewarded under the algorithm.
However, some opponents of the system have raised some doubts about what this will actually mean for search results.
For instance, the Google Panda update stopped many black hat techniques in their tracks such as keyword stuffing and directory listing with spam directories.
There was also some backlash with Panda, with many users saying that this particular update unfairly punished how to and wiki sites. However, the positive effect of Panda on search results and search engine optimisation both far outweighed the negatives – this was pretty much universally agreed upon by consumers and producers of online content alike.
Opponents of Google Freshness see a much higher probability for backlash with no positive effect. For instance, opponents say, simply making a small change to a page can give it a “freshness” update that will unfairly boost it to the top of search engine rankings without taking into account its relevance or true popularity. This would actually lead to huge decreases in relevancy and the ability of spammers and content with less gravitas to have greater presence in search results.
Google counters these critiques by saying that it has already incorporated search ranking factors that are tried and true in with the Freshness algorithm to reward content that is both fresh and good. They say that simply changing a small aspect of the page does not make it automatically become “fresh,” as opponents of the update say that it will."

The Basic Recipe for Recovering from the Google’s Panda Algorithm

The Basic Recipe for Recovering from the Google’s Panda Algorithm



Adam Heitzman brings together what has been identified has being the key remedy actions to take if your web site has been hit by the Google Panda.
"For those of you who are unaware, the Google Panda update reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12% of all search results — more than any other update before.
Since then, Google has rolled out several other updates to Panda, dramatically changing how thousands of websites are ranked.
Those that were considered to be high-quality sites saw their rankings improve, while those of supposed low-quality essentially vanished from ranking at the top.
So now, the obvious question is this: How can we make websites that are seen as high-quality in the eyes of Google Panda?"

Duplicate Content In a Post-Panda World: A Complete Guide | SEOMoz

From the article intro: "Ok, maybe we’re starting to get a bit melodramatic about this whole Panda thing.
While it’s true that Panda didn’t change everything about SEO, I think it has been a wake-up call about SEO issues we’ve been ignoring for too long.
One of those issues is duplicate content. While duplicate content as an SEO problem has been around for years, the way Google handles it has evolved dramatically and seems to only get more complicated with every update.
Panda has upped the ante even more.
So, I thought it was a good time to cover the topic of duplicate content, as it stands in 2011, in depth.
This is designed to be a comprehensive resource – a complete discussion of what duplicate content is, how it happens, how to diagnose it, and how to fix it.
Maybe we’ll even round up a few rogue pandas along the way."

The Google Panda Conundrum: Everything Marketers Need to Know About Google's Panda Updates

From the article intro: "We all learned a lot after this year's Google Panda updates. Some site owners felt vindicated by finally seeing their efforts at legitimate SEO paying off.
Others were punished severely in the SERPs for grey and black hat tactics. While some of the vanquished were marketing professionals deeply entrenched in the ins and outs of SEO, unfortunately, many of them were people who turned their site over to an agency for management, or people who just plain didn't know any better.
So what's the glass half full perspective on all of this?
Well, Google Panda is kind of forcing site owners and managers to be, well, good marketers.
With the help of SEOMoz's algorithm timeline and Kuno Creative's fantastic cartoons, let's look back at the year's Google Panda updates and see how we can leverage them to be better marketers."

Is Reading Level a Google Panda Algorithm Factor?

I had a thought earlier today, funnily enough whist interviewing copywriters, which led me to think: how important is the quality of writing as a ranking factor following the Panda update?
Obviously the Panda update has had a negative impact to websites which have low-quality content – but, from the other way around, how has this impacted high-quality content? Forgetting completely about links for now and assuming all things are equal, does higher quality written content now have more of a positive impact to search rankings?
Well I thought I’d do a few tests with Google’s reading level search filter to compare the differences between how content ranks which is either basic, intermediate or advanced.
How is the reading-level split between Google SERPs?
I wanted to get an idea about how the reading levels of content is spread between content which ranks on the first page of Google. Does content have to be well-written, or is the fact that it’s unique sufficient enough? Here’s an example query, with the reading levels highlighted in red – please note, not all listings are classified with reading levels.



So what can we read into this (no pun intended!)? Well, looking at these results, it’s interesting to see that no advanced content ranks at all for this query, despite the split between indexed content being very evenly spread across the three categories. In fact I didn’t find a single “advanced” piece of content listed in Google’s top 100 results at all!

66% Says Google's Panda Minor Update Was Very Significant but now it is difficult to all

On Tuesday I reported how the Google Panda 2.5.2tweak was more than just a "minor" update.
There were just too many complaints in the forums for it to appear to be really that "minor."
So I decided to run a poll, where we have well over 400 responses. The responses were overwhelming against the notion that this was a minor update or tweak to the Panda algorithm. Almost 80% of those who responded said this was a "somewhat significant" or "very significant" update. Under 15% said this update was not significant, which is very low.
I am a bit surprised by these numbers. I was hoping what I saw in the forums was just a loud minority but it seems like a lot of people would classify this minor update as more major and more hurtful than maybe Google would have considered?
For more on Panda, see our Google Panda category.
Forum discussion continued at Google Webmaster Help Forums, HighRankings Forumsand WebmasterWorld.

Google Panda Update: Popular Sites Negatively Impacted by search engine PART 3

Google Panda Update: Popular Sites Negatively Impacted by search engine PART 3

Life123.com

  

BrightHub.com

 

Apples4theTeacher.com

  

Large Sites not Impacted by the Algorithm Change

---

WordPress.com

  

Reference.com

  

Wikia.com

  

Examiner.com

  

Squidoo.com

  

City-Data.com

  

Google Panda Update: Popular Sites Negatively Impacted by search engine PART 2

WonderHowTo.com

  

Encyclopedia.com

  

AmericanTowns.com

  

Whosdatedwho.com

  

ThriftyFun.com

  

Buzzle.com

 

HowToDoThings.com

 

Sites Spared in the Initial Roll-Out (23 Feb 2011) of the New Algorithm
but Impacted on the Secondary Roll-Out (11 April 2011)

---

Answers.com

  

eHow.com

 

WikiHow.com

Google  Panda Update: Popular Sites Negatively Impacted by search engine 

ChaCha.com

 

HubPages.com

  

AssociatedContent.com

 

Suite101.com

  

WiseGeek.com

  

BlurtIt.com

  

WrongDiagnosis.com (changed to RightDiagnosis.com and BetterMedicine.com)

 

Local.com

  

ArticlesBase.com

  

WorthPoint.com

  

5 SEO Tips to Fight Back After the Google Panda Update: focusa2z

If you are one of the lucky ones that has not been affected by the Google Panda update, then hold on tight, because your turn might be coming. I believe that this is only one of many updates that Google is going to put into force. This recent Google Panda update has not cleared out all the spam websites that still exist in the search engine results and therefore the job is not finished!
Unfortunately the Google Panda update did not only affect trash websites, but it also affected the largest and most highly regarded websites on the Internet. These websites are so big that it is almost impossible to keep track of the quality of the content that is placed on their websites. I know one of my websites got hit recently, and I do agree that I had old and outdated content that even I consider, not to be great.
When you get hit by the Google Panda update a good percentage of your traffic will be gone in the matter of one day. You will wonder what has happened and investigate by searching in Google. You will see that your content is still exists in the search engines but does not rank anywhere and less you type in a precise title and sometimes even the name of your website as well. It’s like you’ve been sent to the back of the queue, when you have been working so hard to get to the top.
When this actually happened to one of my websites I did not sit back and wonder why, I immediately investigated and found some very valid reasons why I got hit by the Google Panda update.
What kind of content does the Google Panda update target?
Duplicate content.
Not enough text on the page.
No internal or external links to the page.
Content that requires a qualified person to write.
Check out the Google Webmaster guidelines. Everything that Google expects from a website is listed there. It baffles me when people are continually asking questions about what Google wants and what is the right thing to do when it is all listed there on their website. Go through the guidelines and make sure your website is following the rules.
5 SEO Tips to Fight Back After the Google Panda Update
Analyze your website statistics
You need to find out what keywords you were ranking for before you got hit by the Google Panda update and you can do this by going to Google Analytics. If you were ranking for a particular keyword then I have no doubt that you can rank for the same keyword again. You just need to do a repair job on your rankings.
You can also visit Google Webmaster tools to see if there are any crawling errors or problems with your website site map. The only reason your website is being hit by the Google Panda update is because there is something wrong and you need to find it.
Compare the competition
What websites are still ranking for the keywords that you have dropped out for? Investigate and find out why they are still there and you are not? Have they got better content? Are their pages search engine optimized?
Onpage optimization
Onpage optimization is the only way to tell the search engines what is exactly on your website.Follow my SEO techniques to get your pages up to standard. It is so easy to do onpage SEO but often people neglect it, thinking that their page will just rank in the search engines from pure luck.This can happen, but why leave it to luck when you can be sure to rank well. While doing your Onpage SEO, this is a great chance to define clearly which keywords should be targeted for an individual page or post.
Offpage optimization
We all know about link building and the quickest and most effective way to do this off page optimization is to use Web 2.0 properties in your SEO back linking tactics. I know you are all probably thinking guest posting and blog commenting are your top choices for back linking, however this is too slow for such an urgent situation. You need to get straight back into the search engines as soon as possible.
Check your progress
Go back to the search engines 2 or 3 days after optimizing a particular page will post and see where it is ranking now? If it gets back to its original position then your job is done, however sometimes it might need a bit more work.


Does this method work?
Yes! When I said I got hit by the Google Panda update, I mean really hit. I lost thousands of visitors per day which equated to over 100,000 in a month (more like 120,000). I could not let this happen and I fought back quickly. These are the exact methods I used to get my traffic back. The website is back to normal now, but I am still using these methods to get even more traffic. You do not have to be hit by the Google Panda update to take advantage of these SEO tips.