What is Google Panda
Panda is the official name of a Google Algorithm update which is developed to scale back the prevalence of low-quality, wrong content within the search results and to give a higher rank to the website with the unique content. It was introduced back on February 23, 2011. The name Panda was originated from the name of Engineer NAVNEET PANDA.
Google created Panda because search result’s quality was degrading day by day and content farm activities were increasing. On 24 February 2011, they posted a blog about their update and mentioned that they have launched an improved algorithm that impacts 11.8% of their queries. It provides the suggestion that the website owners must self evaluate their content, should focus on quality and user engagement. If their page fails to maintain certain guidelines, then they would get penalized. So, they should modify their content unless they will be ranked down. They also mentioned that this will help to reduce the ranking of low-quality sites, copied content sites, and one which is not very useful to the users.
How Google Panda Update Helps in Website Ranking
The Google Panda update is part of Google’s continual efforts to evaluate high-quality websites to rank them in search results. Moreover, menacing or penalizing the rank of low-quality internet sites and pages, particularly those sites that provide low-quality content. Nowadays, most of the companies across the globe follow Panda updates. Panda changes can have a significant impact on the traffic the website receives from natural, or organic, search results.
Websites can get over the impact of Panda by refurbishing the pages with low-quality content and adding the new high-quality content which abolishing the filler words and generally improving the user experience, removing the copied content from their websites and also removing those contents which are not very useful for the users and replacing it with useful content Furthermore, it measures the standard of the site, which we will read more about in the guidelines. Moreover, the Panda update allows Google to require quality under consideration and adjust ranking accordingly.
Objectives of Panda Update
The Google Panda Update mainly focuses on large on-site content. The primary objective of the update is to diminish the website rank which includes the low, plagiarized, or poor quality content. This update proliferates the website’s rank with the high quality and relevant content on Google search results.
This update focuses on the ON-PAGE SEO factors which include the high content or coding just to make the higher rank of the website. The enactment of the algorithm, therefore, serves the optimization of the user experience.
To conclude, websites that persistently publishing high quality, original content should not have fear from this update. But, if the website has attached problematic practices, it should hit by panda update which can be called Penalty. If any of the websites did not follow the Panda update, there will be penalties. However, Penalties will make Google send their content to the sandbox and which takes more time to recover. To recover the website, the business has to make the content unique and relevant. From a business standpoint, the best hope to avoid Panda is just to develop the website which becomes the trusted resource of excellent content.
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Issues Addressed in Google Panda Update
Poor Content
Poor content includes thin content and low-quality content. Thin contents are the weak pages with very little text and relevant resources or names, such as a set of pages describing a variety of health problems with only a few sentences on each page. And, low-quality content is those pages or sites which provide very little value to users as they lack in-depth information on the topic. The solution for your content is dependent on the topic and the software that you use. If you have your e-commerce website and you have multiple product pages whose details and functions are the same. Only their size and colour are different, then you can merge all these products into one page and allow the option for choosing different sizes and colours. In this way, you can brag about your similar products on a single page that supports multiple products. This enables users to choose from the product category and they can order according to their preference. If you have different products with different pages and still do not understand the reason for the low-ranking of your pages then you need to take steps rigorously.
Ad Heavy Content
Ad heavy content is almost similar to thin content. Your content is very poor if they are just pop up ads and relatively less content. When your page or site has more adverts than content, in this case, users will have a bad experience and hence, it will not return to this page in web search. Your page would not rank if your visitors will not return to your page. To avoid this either decrease adverts or increase your content. So, you need to make sure that your pages are worth to visit.
Content Farms
It is a practice of hiring a large number of freelancer content writers to produce a high volume content. The objective is to write bulk content according to the search engine algorithm to rank in SERP. The limitation of content farming in the volume of content is high but its relevancy is low.
Duplicate Content
While Duplicate content is a copied content that appears on the internet in multiple locations. Duplicate content issues occur on your website when you have multiple pages with the same text with little variation. This is a very big issue if you have made copies of your content and publish it on other sites. This situation gets worse when you are an e-commerce site. Here, manufacturers simply copy and paste each other’s product descriptions and do not provide any unique description of their product. As a result, your page will not appear as there would be many pages with the same content. There could be many reasons for duplication like content could be copied or due to affiliated sites. If your site is old, then there is a possibility of your content being copied credited by others. Google will not penalize other sites, in this case, you need to update your content from time to time. However, you can send them legal notice but it will involve a lot of time and effort. Rewriting your content is a simpler way to avoid such issues.
Lack of authority/reliability
Lack of authority sites is those sites that contain content from not reliable or not definitive sources. Their source of information is not trustworthy. It is important to pay special attention to the quality of the content. It is still difficult to analyze on what basis google ranks other pages over you but you should pay attention to your content. Your content should be so engaging that your visitors spend more time on your site. You can offer relevant navigation so that they can surf other pages of your site. Make sure your content is not concise, it should include every detail. Simple words should be used, include high-quality images and it should be well understood by the visitors. You should make sure that your content is not old, make it evergreen, and user friendly. If you do not update frequently and just publish long paragraphs then another new site will outperform you. So, you need to publish new and interactive content.
Low-quality User generated content
Low-quality UGC happens when a blog that posts guests’ blogs have short content, many spelling and grammatical error, and very less authoritative information.
Myths of Google Panda
Duplicate Content
The most prevalent myth about Google Panda is that it is not about duplicate content. Many times google specified that it is looking for unique content that provides users with unique information. Muller once stated that to remove duplicate content was their least priority. Others should think about what is different about the top rank website. But Panda update definitely gives more importance to the new and unique site rather than duplicate ones.
Deleting Content
Another myth that surrounds panda is that you should delete your content when you are hit by Panda. there are many cases when you can be hit by panda i.e., thin content, duplicate content, ad-heavy content, and many more. In all these cases you should not delete your content rather work on improving it and adding high-quality content.
Word Count Factor
Another myth is that Panda doesn’t take word count as a factor. Many sites don’t publish content that is less than 250 or 350 words, as they think it the word limit that is required to be fulfilled. Panda has not set any limits, it just asks you to think how many words should be there in that particular content to be useful enough for the users.
CONCLUSION
Google Panda was updated by Google to make sure that only quality content gets the traffic. Users get to see only relevant information and not a useless page. Google updates its Algorithm change from time to time. Only those sites get affected which has poor content and bad web architecture. So, you need to make sure that your content is of high quality, with creative design and useful for the users.
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