How Google's Panda Update Affected Websites

One of the best methods of ranking high on a search engine is to offer informative content that also contains a specific density of keywords that will trigger a high rank. However, things have changed with one search engine: Google. Without warning, Google began what was called the Panda update. This update left websites struggling to even earn a few cents a month, whereas they were earning hundreds or even thousands of dollars. This has caused websites to shut down and writers without jobs, since the majority of content mills were affected. But how were they affected and is there any hope for the future of SEO? Let's take a look at the cycle of Panda and the havoc it caused - and what we can do as website owners to reclaim our top spot within Google search results.

What Was The Panda Update?

In 2011, the best search engine Google ran what is now called the Panda update. This update was made as an attempt to filter out non-informative content from the search engine. Before the update, people found out how to gain top ranks within Google, which would place their website on the first page of the search results for a specific keyword. However, the type of content used to reach these results - such as articles laced with keywords - often were useless and provided the searcher with mumbo-jumbo. Useful content that was provided by reliable sources were forced to pages beyond the top spots. This left Google with a decrease in users since the search results often contained content the searchers were not looking for.

What Happened?

For years, website owners have worked on targeting their content using keywords intertwined within the articles. They would search for keywords that had a certain balance of searches per month plus high revenue with advertising sources. Then they would have their writers lace these keywords into the articles a certain amount of times - called keyword density - to trigger the Google bots to rank the content in one of the top positions on the best search engine Google. However, website owners started realizing that Google wouldn't look at the content itself, but would rather rank the site in the search results based on the keywords, visitors to the site and how many other sites linked to that article. Unfortunately, some website owners decided to produce junk content that offered no real information. That junk content still ranked high on the search engines and pushed the reliable content back several pages.

With Google's Panda update, Google eliminated junk content from ranking high on the search results and left the top spots available for good, valuable articles. They also kicked the rank of content that came from content mills, such as eHow and BrightHub.com. This was done with hopes that Google would regain its status as the best search engine.

Is There Hope?

There is hope for website owners that want to regain their top spot on the best search engine, Google. According to The Alternate SEO, there is a method that can be used that is not affected by the Panda update.

Are you looking for more information regarding best search engine? Visit http://alternateseo.com/blog/ today!

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Google Panda Survival Tips

Google unleashed its Panda update upon the digital world early in 2011 and it changed the landscape for the SEO community and certainly focused the minds of many webmasters on paying far more attention to particular areas of their website when going about optimisation.

If you thought 2011 would spell the end of the matter you would be mistaken. Panda 2.2 is looming on the horizon and may well create as many surprises as the original.

So in order to ensure that your website has a good SEO strategy moving forward into 2012 what sort of things should you be considering?

Good Quality Content

It makes sense starting with this as good quality content should be at the forefront of any webmasters mind and its importance cannot be emphasised enough. Without this a website doesn't stand a chance. Remember that content should be original.

Diversification

Look closely at where your website traffic originates from and explore new avenues and opportunities for visitor generation. Being well optimised on Google organic searches is great however you should not allow your business to become solely reliant on this as its source of income. Even the best SEO's can make mistakes and sometimes things can occur that are out of your control that could affect rankings such as server issues or mistakes by colleagues.

Paid search is sometimes a good route of income that is not properly explored by many people. A common misconception is that organic searches convert better than paid ones however this is not the case and is usually the result of a paid search campaign gone wrong that has left a bad taste in the mouth of the advertiser. There are some things that can be done to help a PPC campaign yield better results;

· Keywords - use words that actually describe the bargain on offer and alternate your approach for different products or services.

· Cost - calculate the actual cost in obtaining and keeping organic rankings as sometimes this can be a lot higher than you first imagine. Compare this to your PPC costs.

· Reliability - organic rankings are never certain whereas as long as you cough up, paid search will appear on page 1.

· Control - one negative thing about SEO is the inability of the advertiser to fully understand or target users behaviour when making searches.

Understanding Success

This argument has been covered many a time but its well worth repeating here. Use KPI's (key performance indicators) to measure the success of SEO and monitor if changes to your site have affected both rankings and visitor statistics.

Use caution when using Google's own webmaster tools for stats as it will give personalised results when a user is logged in.

Make Friends

Otherwise known as community building and a bit of an unknown at present and with the ongoing discussion as to whether Google will at some point use social signals from +1 to determine rank. Of course a big part of this is whether +1 reaches a size where it will be worth incorporating it in the search algorithm.

Putting the time and effort in building a community will help lessen the impact that a Panda update may have in the future.

Make it Easy to Use

Remember to write for people to read, not a machine. Google's own guidelines tell us this and its well worth addressing this early rather than leaving it until further down the line when the damage may already have been done.

SEO UK, an SEO Company UK who specialize in search engine optimisation, social media and reputation management services.

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How Google's Panda Update Changed Normal SEO Methods

If you used Google SEO techniques to gain your rank on the search engine, then there is one word that might send shivers down your spine: Panda. No one knew how Panda would affect website ranks until the damage was already done and website owners were scrambling to find a way to regain their position on the search engine giant. From an income of thousands to now barely making over a few dollars a month, Panda definitely brought havoc to the way we all marketed our websites. However, content is still king and we can recover. Let's take a look at what happened and what we can do to make sure we keep our ranks.

What is Panda?

The year 2011 was definitely a year that destroyed the hard work for those that employed SEO methods into their website marketing plan. The change was called the Panda update and it was used to affect Google SEO ranks. The goal of the update was to eliminate junk content from the search engine. You see, before the update, individuals learned how to manipulate the way Google ranked their website with the use of well-selected keywords and a certain keyword density. With the combination of the two, a website could easily rank on the first page of search results that contained the targeted keyword phrase. Although this technique was a great way to get good content in front of the searcher, website owners started getting greedy and were lacing junk material with the same keywords and density to take the top spots from others. This pushed informative content back to a lower rank since Google never reviewed the content to make sure it was actually legitimate.

What Changed?

After the Panda update, websites noticed an almost immediate drop in their Google SEO rank. For websites that were on the first page of search results for a specific keyword, they were now ranked several hundred spots back. Content mills that paid writers a flat rate to generate new content were affected since they no longer ranked high. Without that high rank, they did not bring in visitors. Those visitors would be the ones that clicked on their ads, and those ads were what paid their bills to keep going. In fact, the majority of content mills closed because of this update. Even individual site owners abandoned their websites since the cost of running the site was too much since the site no longer brought in an income. Keep in mind that sites that once had a high Google SEO rank was producing hundreds of dollars a month in ad revenue.

Can Website Owners Regain Their Search Engine Rank?

Now that the damage has been done with the Panda update to Google SEO ranks, all that we can do now is pick the pieces back up. There is a program on the market called The Alternate SEO that guarantees that you can overcome the changes that Panda made on your rank and that you can regain your position for the keyword niche you are targeting.

Are you looking for more information regarding Google SEO? Visit http://alternateseo.com/blog/ today!

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