Google has been updating its algorithm frequently in the last 2 months to reduce SPAM. Google updated its algorithm recently and called it “Panda”. The panda update is named after a Google engineer which ended up making a huge wave in the industry as authority web sites were hit in the bargain and classified as “low quality sites”
I’ve come to the conclusion that too much dependency on Google is a bad thing as things can literally change overnight! Most of our SEO strategies are focused around gaining Organic traffic from search engines – I think it’s better to start focusing on building alternate sources of traffic as well!
Anyways, coming back – with this Algorithm update “Panda”, Google has devalued “low quality” sites which look like “content farms”
What is a low quality website?
Google is still having a tough time defining what low quality websites are? Some SEO experts are interpreting this to mean sites overloaded with AdSense and others advertisements could be defined as low quality websites.
What is a content farm?
As per Wikipedia, “the term content farm is used to describe a company that employs large numbers of often freelance writers to generate large amounts of textual content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by automated search engines. Their main goal is to generate advertising revenue through attracting reader page views”
I would presume here, that Google’s target would mostly be auto blogs and unmoderated article directories that have a huge load of content without any quality of course. The bad news is that in the process, reputed websites like labnol.org, Ezine Article Directory (moderated) etc have been hit hard and have seen a huge dip in traffic.
Posting on Hacker News, Cutts wrote:
“The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content. An example would be that stackoverflow.com will tend to rank higher than sites that just reuse stackoverflow.com’s content. Note that the algorithmic change isn’t specific to stackoverflow.com though.”
On his blog, Matt Cutts wrote:
“This was 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.”
What can we do?
- Be careful where you attain your backlinks, as Google has penalized big brands like JCPenney, Forbes and Overstock for “shady” linking practices.
- Stay away from building backlinks from websites that have an awful lot of advertisements, lack quality content and have no comment moderation when it comes to blogs (These are the blogs which will be most spammed as they do not moderate their comments)
- Do not link out to bad neighborhoods
What should we do?
Of course, Write, Write & Write! Focus on building quality & original content on your blogs. When you write quality & original content, you attract natural organic links which helps you rank better in SERP’s.
Wasn’t it always said that Content is King? Google just proved it.
Do let us know your thoughts on the recent Google Panda Algorithm update? Please let us know if this update has affected you in any way (Good or Bad). Also do you plan to change your link building strategies? Speak Your Mind and you will do us a favor
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Sandeep.It’s informative. Is there any thing harmful to new bloggers?.Anything advantages to new bloggers?
Thanks for your comment and welcome to my blog..
It would really depend on what kind of content you already have on your blog… if you see a traffic reduction it means you are hit negatively
hi sandy,nice post. I’ve a shopping cart site and it’s new i want to use automatic article submission service of unique article wizard OR AMA will the google panda effect it? should i use these services for link building?
Hi Abrar,
Welcome to my blog and thanks for your comment.. you should verify which directories they submit your articles and then you evaluate if you want to go ahead or not.. hopefully this helps
hi thank you sandy. I also want to ask that they say they submit to 100′s of article directories and they have a good reputation in Seo industry so they are not willing me to give all the listing because they say all their submissions are under Google guidelines.and PR of directories is also above 2,so what should i do now? Thank you for helping me out =)
Hi Abrar – Remember one thing they can say anything they want.. but if they cannot prove it to you it really does not matter… you could also check up their reputation before giving them the job… and with the recent panda updates i would want to think twice as many reputed article directories like Ezine have been hit.. just my 2 cents..
*above pr2*
THank you for guiding me i really appreciate your help and you know i asked the same question about a week ago but they have not replied yet but you reply very fast,thank you very much.You really seem to love your work, and i think i totally not rely on article marketing for organic growth but also use other strategies to diversify the marketing and putting less risk on each of the technique.one more thing regarding their reputation they are the leading article submission services,but as you said ezine is also been hit which is also a leading directory than the leeds in the industry are also affected and after this new update of Google we have to think twice before doing each and every step,because i see this up-date a turning point in the Seo industry
Im glad I could be of help…please consider all factors before signing up with them
Nice analize Sandy. I used to build building from the way which now hated by google panda. post in auto approve site as many as posible. I also copied-modified-pasted content from other content.
now I know that that methode are wrong. Thank for sharing.
Btw, what about social bookmark link building? is it still worth?
Thank you
@ Edhi – Social bookmarking links building would still be valid and help you in SEO efforts
What I feel is We must and should content articles to our blog. When I check my stats in stemeter, I will have visit from google bot once in four hours I guess. So, for one creating backlinks for the reason to increase their PR, then it is of waste I guess. What say guys?
Panda update would definitely encourage people in researching about the topic in a more efficient way and then post something on the web. This will also contain the copying of content. Thanks for giving the information on panda upgrade.
Thanks Sandeep. great news …
Google Panda 2.2 update recently this week has made many faces of webmasters happy while few still unhappy over the whole panda changes
HI There – will need to read up on panda update 2.2… thks for letting me know
Hi Sandeep, till today I did not know what a content farm was. Thanks for telling.
I still believe that CONTENT is the king despite of the Google panda update. I’m still getting tons of traffic from my site and it’s good to know that i haven’t gotten affected with the update which means that my linking strategy is effective.
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