1st July, 2011
Over recent months Tidy Design has been monitoring and researching the Panda update by Google… Yes, this release has affected many sites on the web (both good and bad) however the update has been regarded as a great success by Google.
Google Panda 1.0 was first released back in Feb 2011, following this release Google rolled out 2.2 in June 2011. Google claims that Pandas algorithmic update will only affect sites with poor or duplicated content, this improving the organic SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) for its users.
The truth is that many companies (including our own) rely on SEO and Google’s organic search results for a steady flow of new business generated via the web. This makes Google Panda an important update to be monitoring and addressing if your site / business is suffering from a Panda attack!
Below I have pencilled out our top tips for keeping your site in Google’s good books… The way sites are ranked by Google is changing; Panda has essentially changed the face of SEO so it is important to keep up!
Below I have listed some additional information on each of these points:
Ok, a click-through rate from a search result is when people see your title, description and domain name, they then say “cool, this looks like the site I need, lets visit it!” The aim of Google Panda is to clean out (remove) any spammy sites that are putting people off clicking on them. So, if your website title and description looks spammy, the click-through rate may suffer and so will your rankings.
Yes, we have all done it! Writing blog posts or website content listing keyword after keyword, maybe not focusing as much as we should on quality of content! Google Panda is looking to drop sites that are not delivering quality, so now maybe a good time to look over your site and focus as much on the content as the density of keyword!
In a nutshell, this is the number of people visiting and staying on your site… What pages do they visit, how long do they hang around on each page admiring the view etc. These all factors that will influence your organic search results with Google! If site X is coming up top for “web design in London” and site X only has a few pages, several banner ads, crap content and the words ‘web design London’ repeated 50 times, then chances are you will exit the site… FAST! Google records usage and activity, takes this data into account, and ranks sites higher that retain user interest and has people visit lots of pages! The way to boost your organic SERPs is to lower your bounce rate, keeping people interested and on your site for as long as possible.
Usability and overall customer experience is big business! Thinking about the user experience is now more important than ever, you will need to create a site that people will enjoy visiting, tell friends about and TRUST! At the end of the day this is what Google Panda is all about, a better user experience!
The perfect design will grab the attention of the visitor and navigate them seamlessly to the specific content they set out to find (and more)! If your site is dated, not tested in different browsers and versions, uses Microsoft clipart etc then chances are people will not trust the site and navigate away from it! This is something you don’t want people to do, so a stylish site that is easy to navigate may just help to lower that all important bounce rate!
I recently read about Google Panda taking into account any spammy pages or pages simply not ranking well and using these to punish the better ranking pages on a site… For example, if you had 10 pages and 6 ranked well and 4 didn’t, then you should either look at improving these 4 pages ASAP or remove them all together from your site! Google officially announced that even if you have an awesome website, if a select few pages are of low quality, they can influence the rankings of the rest of the website!
So there you have it, our thoughts on the Google Panda update and how a few select SEO tips may just help you retain or further boost your organic search results. If Google Panda has affected your site then please post your thoughts or comments below, as always we would love to hear from you.
Thanks for stopping by and please visit again soon!