Introduction

If you know a thing or two about SEO, well you know that the Google Panda update was a big deal.

And for marketing agencies like us, it was a blessing. The reason that it was good news is that this update further clamped down on websites using low quality seo.

So, we all know those agencies that offer seo services for an absolute pittance, well often they can do this because they are offering spam.

But over the years Google has clamped down on rubbish seo tactics, and now most businesses know that the only way to go is to invest in quality work.

Businesses now know more than ever they need to invest in quality for one simple reason, low quality seo will mean that a business will see its rankings drop, or even worse a big fat penalty plonked onto the website.

And for those that don’t know, a penalty will mean that a website drops in the SERP’s or the business can be removed all together.

So, in 2011 a major update was released, it was a complex update, one which targeted websites using rubbish seo.

Amit Singhal, who is Vice President of Search at Google stated that Google had made the algorithm update as scientific and mathematical as possible.

The update was focused on weeding out low quality onsite seo, and as this blog post will state, the update is still in force driving up the quality of websites that are shown in the SERP’S.

Which websites did the Panda update particularly target?

The Panda update was a massive update, and it meant that websites that had the following design were adversely affected.

Content thin

Ever landed on a website, and the content is thin, meaning there’s not much substance. Possibly the only thing that stood out was a title, that was written purely to get that page to rank for that term.

Then if you were looking for say a local business, you may see a long list of areas mentioned, in a vague attempt to try and get the business to rank in a massive area.

This is poor quality seo, and this is the type of websites that Panda would strike with a penalty.

 

Poorly constructed

Websites which don’t have any direction were also affected. We believe that a website should have a clear navigation of all the pages. So if the pages were all over the place, and no clear way of getting to the page you wanted, we believe these websites were negatively affected by Panda.

 

Spammy

This is the best word we can think of to describe really poor onsite seo. That’s to say every title, meta title, meta description and alt tag are often crammed with words the business wishes to rank for.

There is no, or little attempt to offer information that will have any meaningful use, instead the business has just focused on trying to get the website to rank for a bunch of terms.

These websites would have been penalised by Panda.

 

Duplicated content

Websites that have duplicated content will be affected by Panda. This is why its so important that your seo business creates original, high-quality content marketing.

 

Keyword rich

It’s simply a really old seo tactic, that no longer works, and that is to write phrases that you wish the business to rank for over and over again within the text.

However, this is now a sure-fire way of your website incurring a Google Panda Penalty, and also the website to drop in terms of where it ranks.

 

The Panda update is improving and sophisticated

Sometimes some business owners think that an algorithm update is rolled-out, and if their website doesn’t get hit by a penalty straightaway, that the business is home and dry.

However, the Google Panda update can affect websites at any time, that’s to say just because your website hasn’t already been hit by the update, that it won’t in the future.

So good quality white hat seo is an absolute must!

So how should our business be creating content marketing?

Your business should be investing in high-quality content marketing that adheres to white hat standards.

Your seo agency should keep their seo knowledge up to date in regards to implementing white hat work.

 

Google’s set of questions

This article written by Search Engine Land is also well worth a read:

Quality

The most important thing that we cannot stress enough is that all seo work must be focused on implementing quality work.

Whether that’s writing a blog post for your website, or perhaps building backlinks, quality does truly matter.

 

Must live up to expectations

This point is really important, that’s because so much content marketing has been written just for seo gain.

So, for example, you may be looking to fix an annoying leaking tap within your home, so you go online to find an answer.

Yet instead of finding an answer to fix a leaking tap, you are presented with web pages that you think will answer the question, yet are just promoting say a new set of taps, or bathroom products.

This can be annoying for a visitor, as they want to fix their tap, they don’t want to shown a page on your website that poses as if its going to answer the question, but really doesn’t.

So, what will happen is visitors will simply leave the website quickly, this in turn means that the website will incur a sky-high bounce rate, which many agencies believe can adversely affect a websites rankings.

 

Lower the bounce rate

Therefor when creating blog posts for your business, or creating content marketing is important not to write for just SEO gain.

It’s important to offer useful information to your perspective customers, and by doing so they are likely to spend longer on your website, and this will be picked-up by Google.

So, in a nutshell, creating really useful and high-quality content marketing, that is crammed full of useful advice, this is often where the real seo value can be gained.

 

Partner with a true white hat agency

Does your business need help with it’ seo? If so, we are the white hat seo agency that can help.