Google panda eyes

One of the biggest things to happen in search engines this year has been the updates to Google Panda.

Panda is an attempt by Google to reward high-quality sites with better rankings. It involved an algorithmic change that started in the US earlier this year and has since rolled out to the rest of the English-speaking world.

While most algorithm changes are minor and go unnoticed, Panda notably impacted 10-12% of queries.

Panda was designed to improve the ranking of high-quality sites, thus connecting searchers on Google with the most relevant information as quickly as possible. The opposite effect was to lower the rankings of low-quality sites, such as content farms and those that simply copy content from other sites without offering any real added value to users.

For many websites, Panda went under the radar. Some increased in rankings and traffic without making changes and some fell.

The initial update affected about 12% of US queries. There were some webmasters who woke up with panda eyes. Website ratings left looking as messy as the eyes of women who have gone to sleep with their makeup on.

Google reports that they are receiving positive feedback and that search engines are finding better results.

However, some webmasters report that high-quality sites with articles and expert content have been attacked. After playing around with sites that certainly didn’t have little content or unique information, it seems that user behavior such as bounce rate may have played a role. The site offers very long and detailed content and is not what most of the keyword searchers that ranked were actually looking for.

Ongoing updates to Panda have been incorporated into the release for English Google users. User feedback signals have been included.

User feedback is hard to measure per machine, so it relates to things like bounce rates, time on site, and return visits.

Social media mentions and links are becoming increasingly important, as is traffic moving to and from.

While the algorithm will continue to be tested and refined, Google believes that changes to the algorithm are very accurate in detecting site quality.

Deliver great content and value to users with your business brand. Encourage sharing, likes, and engagement.

Take a broad approach to search engine optimization to ensure your rankings, don’t rely on a stream like article marketing. Know, understand, and follow Google’s website quality guidelines. Encourage user feedback and engagement.

Make sure page content and keyword searches are aligned. Use data from the toolbar, like bounce rates and time on site, to find combinations of pages and keywords that aren’t working for search engines.

Fix any design issues that negatively affect the user experience. So make sure users can easily access content, can easily find related content, and find the best content to tempt them and then stay on top of the page.

Give readers the opportunity to easily share the content they like.