Google’s Panda algorithm update has been around for quite a while and new versions of this update gets releases regularly. The first version of this update was released in 2011 and many major websites were hit. This update focuses on removing “low quality” content from the search engine result pages to give Google users the best user experience possible. If you are into search engine optimisation, you have to be aware of this update.
This major algorithm shift to the biggest search engine has affected many of the search results according to Google and the best summary of this update can be found on the Google Blog when it was first announced.
According to the official Google Blog:
“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.”
The above means that websites producing duplicate and low quality content were strongly affected. This includes many article syndication websites where spun articles were posted and content were not unique. Scraper websites that harvest content from around the internet are affected. Websites with excessive advertisements were also affected.
Websites with links in their content with no relevance seems to be affected the strongest. This updated affected many of the major websites.
How to ensure you don’t get affected
- Always plan how you can provide a good user experience on your website.
- Always create useful and original content on your website / blog.
- Never, never, never use duplicate content.
- Add fresh new content to your website and blog and remove the old low quality content.
- Make regular updates and improvements to your website and pages with the lowest visit time and the highest bounce rate.
- Make your content easily sharable on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels.
- Keep your website in good repair. Fix broken RSS feeds, broken links, etc. Broken features is an indication to Google for low quality content.
- Avoid excessive advertisements that exceeds the amount of useful content to users.
- Delete spam comments on your blog and always moderate your comments.
