Google Panda and Your Website Content
Google Panda is an algorithm that works to downrank pages that are low-quality, which means that higher-quality websites with valuable content rise higher in search results.
According to their Webmaster Central Blog, Google recommends that website publishers focus on delivering the best possible experience for users. They explicitly state that publishers not focus on the current ranking algorithms or signals they think are being used.
Website publishers need to be wary of the rumours surrounding Google Panda and some of the reported “fixes” that improve a website’s ranking in relation to the algorithm. One such assumption is the removal of low-quality content to repair it’s ranking. Often these fixes cause more damage to a website than improve it.
Google has come forward to clear up some of the mystery surrounding the Panda algorithm. To help you understand how to recover websites, here is what we know about Panda.
Panda’s Influence on Content
Google doesn’t recommend removing content from a website to improve rankings because it can be difficult to know what content is hurting your SEO results. Unless a website publisher is willing to go through every piece of content and checking Google referrals, there’s a chance content is being removed that’s performing well.
Secondly, removing the wrong content from a website means that it will lose the traffic that Google was sending to those pages. Depending on the number of pages removed, it may seem that the website is losing traffic because of Panda or other algorithm changes, when it’s actually the missing pages that’s causing it.
Working with Panda
If you don’t have the time or inclination to fix the thinner content on the website. Google recommends that you prevent it from being indexed via robots.txt or NOINDEX. This is particularly useful if the website’s content is being collected from other sources or is user-submitted.
Our suggestion is to temporarily noindex lower-quality pages, then remove the noindex as each page has unique content added to it. Yet, there are some instances where removing a page is the only solution that makes sense.
Eliminating entire pages is particularly true for websites with spam-filled forums or a large amount of re-published RSS feeds. Instances such as these aren’t worth the investment it would require to fix them.
Adding new content is a great solution to Panda because websites benefit from new quality content, even if Panda impacts some of the content negatively. Some people think that if Panda hits a website, none of it will rank. Yet, this isn’t accurate as pages with quality content will rank, even if the website as a whole doesn’t.
This is just scratching the surface of how Panda works. However, the takeaway is that the content on your website needs to be high-quality for it to rank on Google. Of course, content is only one factor that’s taken into consideration for ranking purposes.
For more information about quality content creation for your website, contact Above the Fold Media today. You can reach us at 416-477-1862, or through our Twitter and Facebook channels.