5 Things You Should Know About Google Panda Algorithm So, what’s all the buzz about Google Panda? If you’re a tech savvy or own a website, you surely have known that since the introduction of Google Panda in 2011, many websites have lost their rankings. And, since then, many SEO algorithms have changed in Google kingdom. To make the things worse, Google promises that it will go on updating its Panda algorithm.
Your website may also be slapped by the updates even if it is spared last year. Even a small extension in this algorithm can make your website breathe hard. Now, comes the question- ‘How can I play safe?’ Though there’s a rumor that no effective cure to the Panda update is available, yet by knowing its ABC, you can go on enjoying huge traffic flow.
What is Google Panda? Precisely said, it’s another way brought to you by Google to give rankings to the deserving websites. Any website is deserving if it is giving high quality and informative content to its readers. Actually, Google loves good content.
Initially, the algorithm was named ‘Farmer’s updates’. It’s because it has targeted and removed hundreds of content farm websites that contain useless pages from their SERPs. But, later Google acknowledged it should be named Panda after the name of one of its developers.
Some of the sites affected most by the first Panda roll-out are
ezinearticles.com
hubpages.com
mahalo.com
freedownloadscenter.com
wisegeek.com
You would definitely not like to enlist your name here. To protect your website from Google Panda updates, consider 5 points shared below.
1.
Share Informative and Engaging Content: Panda hates stealing. Yes, you’ve heard it right. Resultantly, it blacklists content imitating others’. Reserve some time to do enough research on the topic so as to produce unique, informative, and interesting content.
Being a reader from a reputed web design agency from Merced, you also won’t like to get same information in different blogs. At the same time, you will start to feel exhausted after reading a few lines in a blog stiffed with information. Create a perfect balance between inserting information in your blog while making it engaging.
Remember, it’s your blog’s title that influences the readers to click on it. Make catchy tiles by including numbers in it. In a survey, it has been found that approximately 61% of the top blogs have titles with numbers in it.
You know what the purpose of your business is. Find out your targeted audience accordingly. Craft your blog in a way that it will promote your business in the guise of a friend interested in helping its readers only.
2.
Maintain Ratio of Advertising: Ads are fine. But, it should have quality. As for instance, spending $10k for four ads is a profitable deal in the long run than spending $600 for 15 ads. Maintain the healthy ratio not only for Google Panda but also for enhancing the users’ experience.
Inclusion of ads in the web page is a good way of making the website visually appealing. Proper advertising and marketing ratio will prevent your site from becoming cluttered. Consequently, more and more readers will land on to your website. This, in turn, will increase your site’s authority and trustworthiness.
If you’re intended to generate revenue from ads, give it a ratio of less than 1 editorial is to 3 advertising.
3.
Strengthen Your Social Networking: Have a strong presence in social media sites especially Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. Getting links from these sites will do half of your job. Through these links, you can improve your ranks. Unlike spam links, they help you in connecting with your audience with ease.
Get links automatically to your profile by uploading quality blogs to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. What about using Buffer tool? It’s a superb update-scheduling device informing you about any new blog posts. Consequently, you can reach users logged in at different times.
Expose your blog posts more by installing SEO WordPress plugin. These kinds of plugins come with descriptions and excerpts. As a result, your blogs will appear in the first pages when somebody types the keywords you have targeted.
4.
Cut Down Your Page Loading Time: Google rewards websites having fast download speeds. And, it’s pretty justifiable when it comes to bettering readers’ experience. As per a survey done recently by an Fresno SEO Agency, even 1 second delay in uploading a page can affect the conversion rate by 7%.
You’re more likely to get retaining viewers when your webpages load quickly. Whatever device the user is using, your website should load fast. Otherwise, your viewers will get annoyed. It, indirectly, will bring down your conversion rate.
While the webpage is uploading, a lot of things are happening behind the curtains slowing down the loading time. Replace the images in your blog with CSS. When you do so, the HTTP activating the elements of on-page doesn’t get chance to make your site slow.
5.
Keep Quality Comments Only: A new trend of removing comments has come up. Numerous news sites and blogs are removing comments forever from their
websites. So, should you need to do the same blindly? If not, why? All comments are not bad. Rather, Google look at it as a way to show how much worthy your content is. It’s not the comment number that matters. What actually matters here is the quality 0f the comment.
Quality comments give your readers a deep insight about the content. They may come back repeatedly to your blog post to check whether any new comment has been added. But don’t allow any comment if you aren’t sure about its quality.
However, there may be some low-quality comment. You don’t have to remove them all. Contradictorily, find out what the overall value of the comments is. If it’s quite low, remove by choosing the not-so-good comments (in terms of writing), or your site will get affected.
Wired Magazine once took the interview of Amit Shinghal and Matt Cutts, associated with Google. In the interview they confirmed that they use their standard system of evaluating sites. Outside testers receive some documents from their side. After that, they begin to ask certain questions like ‘Will you give the website your credit card?’ and others. Google engineers frame the Panda updates on the basis of the answers of these questions.
The Bottom Line
Today, this big Panda has become an integral part of Google’s SEO algorithm. Nothing new has been added to Panda scores. Without bringing any positive change in your website, you cannot stay ahead. Search Engine Watch also suffered a decline in its traffic few years ago due to the Panda introduction. However, Search Engine Watch’s Danny Godwin said that they have recovered the losses by changing certain things. These include improvement in the link structures, quickening the load time of pages, and the removal of duplicate content.
Don’t blame Google if you’re experiencing losses in your eCommerce site due to the Panda update. Instead, focus on improving your visitor’s experience. Once your audience starts to spend more time on your site, it will pay you off in the long run.
In short, to have a Panda-proof website, include quality content to your website. Plus, avoid excess-optimization of the page by coding all headline and meta tags with the targeted keywords. Stuffing of keywords can lower the content’s quality. It will be better if you can rewrite the content.