The Google Panda update has been designed to help improve the search engine rankings of websites that have better quality content and on the other hand to penalise sites that have meaningless, spam-like web copy.
We refer to the Panda update as an attack. You can compare a Panda bear attacking you and a Google Panda attacking your website ranking.
The attack happens because companies will often use SEO companies that try to fool the algorithm and employ SEO tactics that are outside the search guidelines. Eventually, this catches up with them and they become part of this panda attack.
How do you know if you have been the subject of a Google Panda attack?
– Check your rankings and if they have dropped a few pages or disappeared altogether then you have incurred the wrath of the dreaded Panda.
– Audit your site and make sure that there are no duplicate pages and that each page on your site has unique content. This is an important step as you may have accidentally loaded content to your site that was on another or old site.
Search Engine Journal has a great article regarding the Google Panda penalty which you can read here. Wikipedia also has some useful information about the Google Panda Update which is worth a read.
What Do You Do Now?
Following are a few points to help you improve the quality of content on your website and this, in turn, should help you get out from the Panda attack or Panda penalty.
Work on improving upon slim content
A lot of websites will have images only on the home page. Sure images look great and they are impressive, but look at adding original copy or content describing those images. If, for example, you are an architect why not have 2 or 3 case studies on the home page with great copy describing actually what you did for the project. This will have the effect of providing useful information to someone visiting your site and help the search engines when indexing your site. Remember to make the content unique. Also continually look at updating content on your website and this includes old blogs ( which I am doing right now almost 10 years after originally posting this blog) with new links, images and more relevant copy. Outdated blogs provide no benefit to users so keeping them fresh with new copy and including your services, staff and contact details updated is a good way to stay ahead of Panda. I want to point out here that the worst thing you can do if your feel too stressed about writing copy is to buy blogs or copy online. There are lots of people selling content but they scrape this off the internet and republish this as their own which they sell to you. Obtaining content this way has so many negatives including duplicate content which is in strict violation of Panda. The rule here is to write the content yourself and make certain it’s unique.
Also read: 10 Content Marketing Predictions for 2022
In so far as design is concerned, there are ways you can integrate this copy into the design without ever compromising on the site’s overall appeal. Speak to your web designer about this. Most web design studios should be able to advise you on this.
Add new and fascinating content will radically help you
Ask yourself this question; when was the last time that I added content to my website? If the answer is, I can’t remember, then you really need to take action and take it fast. Think about adding a blog to your site and adding an interesting article every other week. This will keep the search engines satisfied and keep you out of the crosshairs of the Panda update. Make sure the blog articles are well written and posted online regularly. Blog posting is great for business and lifting your online profile as a source of information.
Now start linking
Google’s spiders are always on the lookout for new pages. Having an external link pointing to your new content is a sure way to get noticed and help your article as well as a website with SEO rankings. Getting links that point to this new content is not easy but a good starting place is on your social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. A great way to promote your site legitimately is to have a link point to your blog from another external blog.
More SEO points related to Panda
The Panda is a complex beast. In terms of SEO, it has changed the landscape forever, which I personally feel has been positive. It has rewarded companies like hopping mad designs who spend hours upon hours writing quality content on our blogs. We play by the rules and this is why we are ranking online. Panda has eliminated all the dodgy SEO companies, who in the past, could rank sites easily.
My main tip to anyone reading this is to speak with an SEO professional and get advice if you feel that you are the subject of a Panda attack. These people will be able to diagnose the issues and fix them so they won’t occur in the near future.