How to bear with Google's Panda update

Have you suddenly realized that your business, which previously appeared on the front page of a Google search on your area of expertise, has suddenly dropped off the face of the computer screen?

If so you might have fallen victim to a recent slew of algorithmic changes Google has been carrying out lately to enhance Web search results for its users. Aimed at helping users avoid undesired search results, spam and low quality content, the tweaks are a boon to many users but could be troublesome for many businesses of all sizes that rely on the Internet for exposure.

Hot on the heels of an update to combat duplicate content last month, Google has unleashed Panda – an algorithmic change aimed at purveyors of low quality Web content. In February, Google also released a Chrome browser extension called Personal Blocklist. The feature can stop those sites from appearing in your results and you'll be helping Google out at the same time.

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“Generally perceived to be designed to tackle content farms, Panda destroys the rankings of sites which many Google users are sick and tired of seeing in the search engine results pages,” according to Adam Bunn, director of search engine optimization (SEO) at Greenlight, a U.K.-based search marketing and technology firm.

Like other recent tweaks to the search engine, Panda is now live in the United States and could quickly be implemented across the globe, according to Bunn.

To avoid being slammed with little or no warning, Greenlight is urging businesses to take the necessary steps now to ensure their sites rankings, and thus visibility, are not affected when Panda strikes.

Meanwhile in Toronto, Dev Basu, a search engine optimization specialist, and president of Powered by Search said Panda and its algorithmic update illustrate that Google is ratcheting up its efforts “to enhance user experience and filter out low quality Web content.”

If they are serving their clients well, businesses do not have much to worry about a Personal Blocklist, according to Basu. The feature allows a user to blacklist a Web site “but it does not have a global effect, if your other customers like you then they will not block your site.”

But Personal Blocklist and Panda appear to be corroborating each other's results, he says. “Google was happy to find out that many of the sites which users block using Personal Blocklist were also the sites that Panda filtered.”

He said Google's efforts to raise the search bar have even affected sites that actually contain useful and unique content. “The top ranking site Cult of Mac which provides review, news, and how-to instructions concerning Apple products, recently lost its search ranking when Panda was launched.”

Basu said Google has since rectified the problem and Cult of Mac rankings has been returning to normal.
Source http://www.itbusiness.ca/