Google Punishes JC Penney and Overstock.com for Shady Link Practices,Everything-Marketers-Need-to-Know-About-Google-s-Panda-Updates & Panda Cracks Down on Content Farms _focusatoz

In the beginning of the year, JC Penney and Overstock saw dramatic falls from page one of the SERPs when Google punished them for getting links to product pages from irrelevant sites. The quality of an inbound link in Google's algorithm became based on relevancy and site authority.
How marketers can leverage it: If it's easier for you to find time in the day than dollars in your budget, you'll get tons of leverage out of this algorithm update. Instead of buying coveted inbound links, you can get them by maintaining a quality site, upping the frequency with which you generate interesting content, and creating a solid distribution network. Marketers willing to put the time into doing this consistently will see more qualified visitors and enjoy a wider social reach because of their affiliation with other relevant sites.
Google didn't rest long, emerging with the first official Panda update in February that targeted sites with content that was spammy, low quality, and littered with ads. This update affected a whopping 12% of searches.
How marketers can leverage it: Old school marketers should have fun with this update. Marketing is about writing for people again, not at them. Instead of creating spammy, keyword dense content, you get to do market research, talk to users on social networks, and craft personas. Marketers and site owners can leverage this update by finding out what their audience wants to read, and addressing those issues in a helpful way. Power to the people.