Back in February of 2011, Google released a major update to their search results ranking algorithm known as Google Panda Update. The significant algorithm update aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results.
As of today, Google released 28 panda algorithm update and last one (Panda 4.2) was July 17, 2015. you can read about all google algorithm update from Moz Google Algorithm Change History Timeline.
If you run a website or blog and want your site stick to the top of Google’s search result, Here’s My Tips to Protect Your Site From Google Panda Penalties. Alternatively, you can read Google's Quality Guidelines.
1. Write Fresh and Quality Content, and Don’t Worry About Length
If you read SEO guides (many of which are outdated SEO Guides), you may find ongoing debate about what will be content length for website pages and blog posts,.What is The Ideal Content Length?
Actually there are no rules, except opinions. Some experts believe 300 to 500 words work best while others say content should be 1,000+ words.
In my opinion, Making content larger or shorter doesn’t guarantee success or failure; your content should be as long as it takes to deliver the message to your user, and no more.
I've seen many websites ranking higher with a very little amount of text. So don't worry too much about content length, make sure you write fresh and quality content regular basis.
2. Identify Redundant Content and Remove Them
Do a quick check on your website if there's duplicated and outdated information on it. This kinds of content can hurt your website ranking and lead to penalty, now might be a great time to clean it up.Here are a few tips to Identify Redundant or Obsolete Content.
When review or write content, Ask yourself
- Is this page/post necessary?
- Does the information exist elsewhere?
- Is it still current and relevant?
- Does it do/say something?
3. Create Natural Link Profile
A natural link is a link obtained when a visitor shares your site on his or her own website, blog or other site. Let’s say the purpose of your site is to discuss cleaning services and you writing a article about "carpet cleaning service toronto".You might link your article to some carpet cleaning mainstream media articles and internal link within your website. What you probably wouldn’t do, however, is link directly to competing sites trying to fill the cleaning niche. In a post-Panda online environment, this is a mistake.
Google Panda is all about Quality and Relevancy. Your site Quality and Relevancy ca be increase by linking to other related sites and content whether they’re your competitor or not. Your readers will surely appreciate it, and hence, The Google will too.
4. Target Natural Keywords
Outdated SEO advice may refer to something like this: select one or two keywords most closely related to page or post and insert them into the content as much as possible. This tactic was really good before panda update, But by panda algorithm Google see right through this, and treat it as a Unethical SEO Practice.If you want to rank for a phrase like “clean my carpet,” you do not need to repeat the term exactly in your website, instead you may use "immaculate my carpet," which will google see similar to “clean my carpet,” If you use “immaculate” instead of “clean,” you'll have opportunity to rank for both phrases.
Why?
Because, Google’s algorithm uses Latent semantic indexing (LSI), which help Google identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of text. LSI is based on the principle that words that are used in the same contexts tend to have similar meanings.
5. Pay Attention to Website Navigation
It's under google's website design guideline. Improving your website navigation can have a positive impact on your site ranking. No amount of excellent content will be worth anything if your users can’t find their away around your site.Navigation Best Practice:
- Keep menus consistent and logically arranged.
- Use internal linking whenever appropriate.
- Verify there is text navigation, not JavaScript or Flash navigation that spiders can’t see.
- Make sure you at least have text navigation on the bottom of the page if there aren’t any spiderable navigation links in the top navigation.
6. Avoid the Shortcut Methods
A lot of SEO experts claim that they have short cut method (Usually they keep it secret from their client) to rank higher on SERP.Shortcut method may works on very short-term basis, But there’s a risk involved in tricky shortcut method.
What and Why?
The problem occurs when google's spider finish analyzing your website and find tricky method that you/your expert implemented to dodge google.
The only way to get rid of it and get your rank back is if you find your SEO expert did or doing any Shortcut Method on your website, abandon the expert and clean your content.
7. Stop Guest Posting
Don't get me wrong, I still believe that Guest posting is an effective and killer way to build authoritative links. But it shouldn’t be the one and only one strategy for your website marketing.Remember what I already said about Natural Link Profile And a site with a too many links from one source (like guest posts) may penalize your website.
Also, There's a very real risk that Google will belittle links coming from guest posts. There’s too many people guest posting on an industrial-scale and it has footprint.
8. Anchor Text Diversity
The question of Anchor Text Diversity is heavily debated. In the past, experts believed that Anchor Text Optimized Backlinks is the key to dominate in the search rank. Again, Anchor Text Optimized Backlinks doesn’t look Natural Link Profile to user or Google.Today Anchor Text Diversifying for link is a must. Since Google use Latent semantic indexing, you don't have to worry much about anchor text. Use mix of brand, domain, webmaster name, and keywords as anchor text more often.
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