Google updates: pandas and penguins
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Monday, November 9th, 2015 In SEO & links By Jorn
Another blog post by our one of our Blogging PM’s Georgi:
In 2011 Google launched their first Panda update which was against low quality websites and websites with “thin” content. The update was named from Google’s engineer Navneet Panda who was one of the key guys that made it possible for Google to create, and implement the new update. *Websites with thin content: Thin content is that with little or no added value.
The update was launched in February 2011 and in April it went worldwide. The Panda update hit 12% of websites with duplicated or poor quality content. In fact, if you have a generally great website, but with a few pages of low quality or duplicated content, then your whole website could be punished by the Panda. To avoid this make sure to find a guide to local search engine optimization services. The former head of the web spam team at Google, Math Cutts said that it might not be enough just to re-write the duplicated content to original, in order to recover from Panda’s punishment, but you should invest the time to create higher quality content which brings an additional value to the web and which is useful for the reader. It means that crappy texts with the sole purpose of SEO were going to be part of the past.
Just a year after launching the Panda update, which hit the websites with low quality content, the new update came: the Pengiun update. It fights again spammy linkbuilding tactics. In order not to get punished by the Penguin, you must stay away from the spammy linkbuidling techniques like buying links from link farms, forum spam, blog comments spam, blogs with a single post, press release syndication for the sake of getting backlinks and linkbuilding automation. As you can already guess it depends greatly on your attitude if a backlink is spammy or not. For example a blog comment such as “I like your post” left by somebody with the username “Superman” is 100% spammy, but if you stay behind your real name and add a really valuable comment which is relevant to the actual blog post, then you have a good backlink. It’s very important to have something good to say, because you probably want to position yourself as an authority in this niche, right?
What other quality content factors should we keep in mind?
1. Your page should be informative
If you have a bar, you can write the hours of operation, the menu & prices, special offers, and a list of events and bands who will perform in the near future. What else would your clients would want to know about? I guess you know your clients better than I, and you can answer this question better. Ask yourself, what do my customers want to learn visiting my website?
2. Be better than the others
You have to stand out from competitors by serving what they don’t serve to their readers. Just for the sake of example, let’s say you have a website for paid betting tips. Many of your competitors would focus on writing about statistic and the past games between the two clubs which is absolutely useless information in order to make a decision and to predict the outcome of the game. Much more important would be things like the form of the team now, the importance of the game for each team, and the physical condition of the key players in both teams.
3. Credibility
If you don’t mention a few names of colleagues in your industry who have the same opinion as you about a topic, you make your readers doubt if you are right or not. You can use other’s credibility by quoting them or giving a link to articles which support your point of view. If you are in business and you claim that you offer a fantastic product or service, it won’t be enough. Showing a few testimonials of existing clients is much better than “Blah blah I am the best” talk.
4. Would you share it?
Ask yourself if you the content in your page is so interesting, unique and useful to make you to share it on your profiles in social media. Try not to be biased, because it’s your website.
5. Write details, write for people, and forget about word counting
Google loves text written in details with a lot of information, because they are useful for readers, so remember- Google loves what readers love. There is not an exact amount of words your text should have, but the more detailed the better.
6. Proofread it
It does not matter what a perfect writer you are or how long you have been doing this. You always have to check your text for mistakes before publishing.
7. Make your page look good
Well structured text, with paragraphs, headlines. Infographic, video, pictures… It’s all something that people prefer rather than just plain text.
In Copypanthers we are experts in high content quality creation and copywriting. Let us take care of your content while you are focusing on more important tasks for yourself, like chasing new clients.
In 2011 Google launched their first Panda update which was against low quality websites and websites with “thin” content. The update was named from Google’s engineer Navneet Panda who was one of the key guys that made it possible for Google to create, and implement the new update. *Websites with thin content: Thin content is that with little or no added value.
The update was launched in February 2011 and in April it went worldwide. The Panda update hit 12% of websites with duplicated or poor quality content. In fact, if you have a generally great website, but with a few pages of low quality or duplicated content, then your whole website could be punished by the Panda. To avoid this make sure to find a guide to local search engine optimization services. The former head of the web spam team at Google, Math Cutts said that it might not be enough just to re-write the duplicated content to original, in order to recover from Panda’s punishment, but you should invest the time to create higher quality content which brings an additional value to the web and which is useful for the reader. It means that crappy texts with the sole purpose of SEO were going to be part of the past.
Just a year after launching the Panda update, which hit the websites with low quality content, the new update came: the Pengiun update. It fights again spammy linkbuilding tactics. In order not to get punished by the Penguin, you must stay away from the spammy linkbuidling techniques like buying links from link farms, forum spam, blog comments spam, blogs with a single post, press release syndication for the sake of getting backlinks and linkbuilding automation. As you can already guess it depends greatly on your attitude if a backlink is spammy or not. For example a blog comment such as “I like your post” left by somebody with the username “Superman” is 100% spammy, but if you stay behind your real name and add a really valuable comment which is relevant to the actual blog post, then you have a good backlink. It’s very important to have something good to say, because you probably want to position yourself as an authority in this niche, right?
What is a high quality content in 2015?
Today we live in 2015, and the web abounds with even more information than 2011. There are hundreds of resources in the Internet where a person can find what he needs, and there is really no point in re-writing somebody’s blog post or how-to article. Yes, you will have a unique text, but will it be valuable to the reader? What is the additional value? Do you have something NEW to say? Think about it, if you don’t have something new to say, you’d better say nothing.What other quality content factors should we keep in mind?
1. Your page should be informative
If you have a bar, you can write the hours of operation, the menu & prices, special offers, and a list of events and bands who will perform in the near future. What else would your clients would want to know about? I guess you know your clients better than I, and you can answer this question better. Ask yourself, what do my customers want to learn visiting my website?
2. Be better than the others
You have to stand out from competitors by serving what they don’t serve to their readers. Just for the sake of example, let’s say you have a website for paid betting tips. Many of your competitors would focus on writing about statistic and the past games between the two clubs which is absolutely useless information in order to make a decision and to predict the outcome of the game. Much more important would be things like the form of the team now, the importance of the game for each team, and the physical condition of the key players in both teams.
3. Credibility
If you don’t mention a few names of colleagues in your industry who have the same opinion as you about a topic, you make your readers doubt if you are right or not. You can use other’s credibility by quoting them or giving a link to articles which support your point of view. If you are in business and you claim that you offer a fantastic product or service, it won’t be enough. Showing a few testimonials of existing clients is much better than “Blah blah I am the best” talk.
4. Would you share it?
Ask yourself if you the content in your page is so interesting, unique and useful to make you to share it on your profiles in social media. Try not to be biased, because it’s your website.
5. Write details, write for people, and forget about word counting
Google loves text written in details with a lot of information, because they are useful for readers, so remember- Google loves what readers love. There is not an exact amount of words your text should have, but the more detailed the better.
6. Proofread it
It does not matter what a perfect writer you are or how long you have been doing this. You always have to check your text for mistakes before publishing.
7. Make your page look good
Well structured text, with paragraphs, headlines. Infographic, video, pictures… It’s all something that people prefer rather than just plain text.
In Copypanthers we are experts in high content quality creation and copywriting. Let us take care of your content while you are focusing on more important tasks for yourself, like chasing new clients.