So Google Panda, a good or a bad thing?
For those wondering what Google Panda is, it is the name given
to the series of updates in how Google interprets search
algorithms. The tweak improves the rating of high quality websites,
and subsequently lowers the rating of low quality content
websites.
Google's Panda updates are normally minor enough to only affect
a small percentage of searches. This time however we are expected
to see such significant changes that may affect a much larger
proportion of online searches made through the giant search engine.
See this as a warning from Google that if you don't improve on the
content of your site now, then you may see your site start to
slowly fall in the ranks.
"Content farms" which are sites that have copied or useless
information are a target for Panda and would therefore be lowered
in the rankings. The bad point is some original and previously high
ranking sites are falling into this category and subsequently have
huge effects on their visitors and profits. To avoid the pitfalls
of the Panda update, sites will have to build on original content
and remove low quality links.
Google will index your site with better rankings
for original content and high quality links.
Google, "We strongly encourage you to pay very close attention
to the 'Quality Guidelines', which outline some of the illicit
practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the
Google index or otherwise impacted by an algorithmic or manual spam
action."
The quality guidelines listed by Google are not anything new,
they are however more stringent on the rules and may not list
websites at all for not obeying the rules. Cloaking is becoming a
common issue; this is where you deceive visitors by presenting
different content to search engines than to visitors.
Participation of link schemes is another guideline. Defiantly
avoid links to web spammers and "bad neighbourhoods". The use of
unauthorized computer programs which submit pages, check rankings
etc. will also suffer from a lower ranking. There are far more ways
to improve rankings, such as, if people + 1 content using Google+1
or bookmark the site, then this will inform Google that the content
is interesting and will help with rankings. On the other hand if
many people block the site then this could have adverse effects on
the site.
Google is certainly cracking down on spamming sites with the
Panda updates. When Google receives a website found of wrongdoing
their guidelines they scan through the website and will recognize
and block future spam attacks. However these algorithms are having
a knock on effect, as predicted, with sites that have previously
appeared at high rankings in Google.
It would appear that Panda is trying to take a step in the right
direction by trying to stop spammers, however as the algorithms
they use do not apply to all sites they are taking some high
ranking sites with them such as the Register's hardware site
RegHardware, Computer Weekly and PC Advisor to name a few. So to
answer the question we will just have to wait for the new release
to see what this offers.