Google Panda Updates and What it means to Our Websites

By

Pooja & Usha

What is Google Panda Update

Google Panda/Farmer update is basically aimed to content farms (Sites with shallow or low quality content).

Panda – Navneet Panda is the S/W engineer at Google who brought out this program, so internally they are calling it Panda Update.

What is Content Farms

Content Farms are websites which are Using High bid Rate Key Words to generate low Quality content and are made to generate revenue through Google Adsense Program.

Their main purpose is usually to drive people to Google Adsense or similar advertising, rather than to become your favourite destination for helpful advice and information on a particular subject. For users though, Google has let them down and not fulfilled its main goal of providing the best content for a particular search. Bad Google!

Who is hit by Panda Update

According to Matt Cutts The Panda update is a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content. (emphasis added)

What are the Wrong Beliefs

Google doesn’t take as strong action on spammy content in our index if those sites are serving Google ads.

Displaying Google ads help a site’s rankings in Google; and

Buying Google ads increase a site’s rankings in Google’s search results.

How to Come out of Panda

Have a Clearcut Site Structure Be Simple and do not complicate Ask What is the use of each of your pages

in website Better and Simple Design for the site Reduce the number of ads in page(as %

of Content) Quality of the content is important No Duplicate Content

Remove Canonical Errors Mention Actual Meta-Tags Look at your site like a visitor and find

what you would like to see in the webpage

Social Media integration Remove Coding Errors Maintain Site Speed

Webmaster Guidelines that Google Expects websites to follow

Design and Content Guidelines Technical Guidelines Quality Guidelines

Design and Content Guidelines

Make site with clear Hierarchy and text links

Offer site map to users Keep the links given on a page to a

reasonable number Create a useful information rich site Check and correct broken links in your

web pages

Technical Guidelines Check your site using Lynx Browser as seen by

Search Engine Spiders Make sure your web server supports the If-

Modified-Since HTTP header. Make use of robots.txt file on your webserver Make reasonable efforts to ensure that ads do

not affect search engine rankings. If using cms, make sure that that the search

engine can crawl the same Check the site in different browsers Optimize the load time of the site

Quality guidelines Make pages for users and not for search

engines Avoid tricks intended to improve search

engine rankings. Do test like - Does this help my users

Do not participate in Link Schemes. Avoid links to web Spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web

Do not use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings etc

Specific Quality guidelines

- Avoid Hidden Text or Hidden links- Do not use cloaking or sneaky redirects- Do not send automated queries to Google- Do not load pages with irrelevant keywords- Do not create multiple pages, sub-domains,

domains with duplicate content- Do not create pages with malicious behavior- Avoid doorway pages- Affiliate program pages with Little no original

content

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS!

Would you trust the information presented in this article?

Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?

Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?

Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?

Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?

Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

How much quality control is done on content?

Does the article describe both sides of a story?

Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?

Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?

Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?

Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?

Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?

Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?

Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?

Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

If you find some one spamming what to do

If you believe that another site is abusing Google's quality guidelines, please report that site at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef

Further Reading

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-farms/

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769