Google’s Panda Update

Introduction

It’s been a while since Google first rolled out their Panda update back in 2011, yet this important update still impacts many websites today.

So, all that commotion surrounding this update may have died down a bit, but its still super important that both seo agencies, and clients alike understand what the Panda update is about.

The reason being is when your equipped with some understanding how this update works, you will have a better understanding of how to implement white hat seo.

It’s safe to say the days of optimising a website just for seo gain are now over, now websites should aim to be the best service by optimising the website in a white hat way.

So, SEO has radically changed, and that’s thanks to the Panda.

 

Which websites did the Panda update particularly target?

If a business had low quality seo implemented, then that business may have been impacted by Panda.

These are the websites that were most often impacted

 

Content thin

Ever landed on a company’s website and been unimpressed by the lack of information? Perhaps for example you wanted to purchase a new pair of shoes, and the only information on the shoes were which size you would like to purchase.

Instead you wanted to know if the shoes were leather, a bit more about the brand for example. Well websites with little in the way of information could be deemed as being “content thin”.

This is a sign that the website may well be low quality, as what is often needed is unique descriptions for each product.

 

Spammy

Often when a business invests in super cheap seo, there’s a reason for why the seo is so cheap, often it’s because the work is spammy or black hat.

Black hat seo will mean the website will incur a penalty. Spammy seo, that is just low quality seo which can also result in a penalty.

For example, you may well be looking to find an accountant in your local city, so “accountant + city name” may just get placed in the content too much.

Also, the meta title, meta description, alt text may well have “accountant + city” placed in every bit,  and us seo’s call this “keyword stuffing”- it’s a really poor seo tactic, one likely to mean the business will incur a penalty.

That is just one example of seo work that could be deemed as spammy, there are many more.

 

Duplicated content

If a website was to have duplicated content, then this can adversely affect the businesses rankings.

White hat seo dictates that all content should be original to that website, this means if you are retailer, it doesn’t make sense to copy and paste product descriptions that may be provided by the manufacturer’s website.

The Panda update is improving and sophisticated

It’s worth mentioning that the Panda algorithm update wasn’t something that was created, and then forgotten about.

Most seo agencies believe that the Google Panda update will be updated on a regular basis.

These regular updates of the Google Panda update will be to help Google weed out low quality websites, and as new rubbish seo methods are introduced to try and fool the algorithm, well you guessed in Google is likely to be one step ahead.

So how should our business be creating content marketing?

We believe you have to think of the following three factors when creating quality content marketing:

 

Relevant

We believe your content marketing should be relevant to your business. Now this may sound pretty obvious, but in matter of fact many businesses do not make their content relevant.

Sure, the content may be relevant in the sense that its about the business, but is it relevant to what the business offers as a service or product?

Let us give you an example, say you run a family law practice, and you specialise in the area of divorce.

Now what would you deem a better seo strategy, articles about how you’ve attended an awards ceremony and recap on what the business has been up to, or articles more focused on answering divorce related questions?

Well we think the latter, sure a few articles on what the business has been up to is okay, yet if you lose sight of offering information that really helps your customers, well the seo strategy is likely to fail.

So, you need to instead offer really good quality advice to your customers.

 

High-quality

All seo work must be high quality. By high-quality we mean white hat.

 

Detailed

You often see it on some company websites that they have invested in seo, but sometimes it may be a bit of a rubbish effort that is made by the marketing agency.

For example, they may add blog posts, but the word count may be on the low side. So, with just a few lines of text they just offer some company update, but in reality, it wont be of much use to in terms of improving the businesses seo.

So, we believe if your going to answer a common questions that your customers may have, well you have to push the boat out.

So here’s what we think your content marketing efforts should include:

 

·        Answer the question in sufficient depth, if the blog post needs to be over 2000 to answer the question then so be it

·        Offer quality not quantity

·        Link to where you have found the information, so basically cite your sources

·        Make it interesting, for example the blog post may contain all the relevant facts, but is it at the cost of sending the reader to sleep?

·        Make it white hat

·        Don’t copy other people’s work

·        Use titles, alt tags, meta titles and meta descriptions

·        Write or create content marketing that will be useful, don’t just focus on trying to improve your businesses seo

Google’s set of questions

Search Engine Land published an interesting article that is well worth a read, regarding the Google Panda update.

 

Quality

As already mentioned, focus on quality. All seo work should be white hat.

 

Must answer the question

Sometimes some digital marketing agencies have been focused on creating content marketing that is just written to a meet a word count.

Yet, as you can imagine often the information isn’t very useful. So, what you end up with is often 500 words of rabbling without offering any useful information.

This is often the type of content marketing that annoys customers. For example, say you were a bathroom retailer, and you published an article advising on how to fit a new shower enclosure.

Well, if the article just promoted various shower enclosures, and didn’t really offer any DIY advice, well as you would guess the reader is going to feel as though you have just wasted their time.

This means that they are likely to leave the website, and not visit anymore information that the website has to offer. Often the reader will quickly pick-up that the page is marketing gibberish, and leave the website, which means the website will incur a higher bounce rate.

Most digital marketing agencies, including ours, believe that a sky-high bounce rate can mean that some websites will see their rankings decrease. The reason for this is that it’s a clear sign that the website doesn’t answer the persons question.

White hat agency

If your business needs help with its SEO, then why not give us a ring?