Goole Panda Algorithm?
Every genuine and useful content online must be rewarded in organic search results of Google search engine.
Google Panda algorithm is an update launched by Google in 2011 to reward high-quality websites. And in addition to that, lowering the presence of low-quality websites in organic search results pages.
The overall impact of the implementation of this new panda algorithm is on 11.8% of the total search queries on Google.
Why does the panda algorithm get triggered?
There are various parameters and aspects that Google considers to filter websites with high quality content than the ones which are not. Some of the major factors believed to be considered by the panda update are as follows.
Less content on the website
Websites with relatively less content present on them trigger the Panda algorithm to act upon it. For example, a website with multiple blogs or pages that contains a few lines of content.
Such websites make it difficult for users to understand a brand further and with no or very little information provided.
Websites with Duplicate content
Duplicate content does not find its way to the organic search result pages. Websites that follow the ‘copy-paste’ content practice from other websites onto their own pages, get affected by the Panda algorithm.
Panda update pushes down the duplicate content in SERP.
Duplicate content could be similar content on different web pages or duplicate and redundant content present in the blogs, homepage, and more.
To help you understand what duplicate content is, let’s suppose if a website offers SEO services for different industries and the content on all the offerings page is similar as follows.
URL 1:
www.seoservices/job_portal_plan
‘ We offer the best SEO services for Job portals’.
URL 2:
www.seoservices/enterprise_plan
‘We offer the best SEO services for Enterprise brands.
URL 3:
www.seoservices/ecommerce_plan
‘We offer best SEO services for eCommerce brands’
Website authority
Websites that are trustworthy and are verified are considered authoritative sites.
Authoritative sites build a reputation among their audience through well-established content that aims to educate them, provide genuine products and services, and build a positive experience across the online and offline brand assets.
Websites indulge in Content farming
‘Content farm’ is a term used to describe a network of websites that produces bulk content for different search queries.
The intent of content farming websites is to increase visibility in search results through generic and wide variety keywords/queries rather than niche ones. Therefore, manipulating search engines to rank a website for multiple keywords is another factor for the panda algorithm to act upon.
Websites focusing on ads rather than the original content
Websites that focus more on monetization through ads on page and less on providing useful information to users are affected by the Panda algorithm.
Panda algorithm considers user experience as the prime factor in search engine rankings.
And if ad monetization is one of the multiple revenue sources for your website, then make sure to maintain a healthy ad to content (Ad/Content) ratio.
As per research, your website’s organic search is affected if you include more than 2 ads on your web page. The maximum number of ads you may include is 6, beyond which the bounce rate increases significantly.
Poor affiliate network
A website that receives and gives backlinks to websites with low-quality content and uses paid promotions to build visibility gets affected by the Panda algorithm.
Blocked websites by site users
The websites that are blocked by the online users in their search engine settings or by using any browser extension are an indication of a bad user experience.
The Google Panda algorithm impacts such blocked websites.
Websites with content mismatch issues
To receive maximum click bait on a search result, often, websites mislead their users with different titles but irrelevant content present inside the page.
Such websites with mismatch queries and results are considered under the panda algorithm and lose ranking in the SERPs.
How to know if my website is affected by the Panda algorithm?
If your website noticed a sudden drop in organic traffic, after the algorithm’s effective date of implementation, then it could potentially be a result of panda penalization on your website.
However, one thing to consider is that there are various ranking factors that could affect your organic search results. Therefore, it’s important to keep a track of all the factors that affect organic search and not only the panda algorithm.
It’s imperative to consider that the loss in organic traffic could also be due to the following reasons.
- seasonal offerings on your website which are about to end.
- Impact of a new update on your site other than the Panda algorithm.
- Any existing penalty on site which you can check in your Google Search Console
- Or, increase in your competitor’s organic search efforts.
Therefore, it’s important to be aware of all the Google and search engine updates that come from time to time. This would ensure that any of the practices you include in your brand’s online presence, is abiding by the industry guidelines to avoid any penalties.
How do I recover my site from the Panda algorithm?
If your website has been affected due to the Google Panda algorithm, it might be difficult to have the right recovery process however not impossible. Therefore you can focus on improving some of the factors that Google considered for Organic ranking.
Below is a list of remedial actions you can take to recover slowly from the Panda update.
- Avoid posting duplicate content on your site. Include articles, posts, or blogs on educating your users with unique and original content. And, include canonical tag in all your original posts.
- Avoid networking with spam websites for paid promotions and ranking.
- Give links to websites that users trust. Focus on backlinking and receiving links from high-quality sites that resonate with your audience.
- Avoid content farming strategy.
- Optimize your web pages for content and ads (if your site includes ad monetization). Make sure to maintain the right number of ads on your page (As mentioned above, keep less than 6 ads on a page.
- Timely overhauling of your website content for relevance and usefulness for users.
- Optimize the content for the right user query. Make sure to optimize your meta description with information about the genuine content present inside the page and not any misleading content.
- Using the redirects, nofollow tag, noindex tag, you can avoid the risk of spam URLs potentially harming your domain.
Conclusion
Google Panda Algorithm was developed in 2011 to increase the presence of good quality websites in organic search results. And, to decrease the low-quality sites from appearing in top SERPs.
If your website has been affected by the Panda Algorithm, it may take time to recover its ranking. However, you can include the right set of practices that abide by the guidelines and focus on improving the user experience as a whole on your site.
