Google’s Panda Update
Announced February, 2011
Target:
Google’s Panda Update was an update that targeted and penalized websites with thin content on their website. It’s intent was to punish websites with low quality content and keyword stuffing. These penalties are meant to target websites over-optimizing to rank in the search engines, rather than provide a valuable user experience.
Prevention:
- Make sure you have enough text on every page. We typically recommend 1,000 words per page in order to show authority.
- Don’t over-optimize exact match keywords. Try using synonyms and long-tailed variations.
- Have custom content throughout your website. Do not duplicate content from other websites.
- Lower your “Bounce Rate”. This means increase how much time people spend on your website. You can do this by adding more content for users to engage in, such as videos.
Recovery:
If you are hit with a panda penalty, take the following steps to recover your website’s rankings:
- Add Content: Add unique and extensive content to your pages. Create content that users can learn from and engage with.
- Rewrite Titles: Rewrite any titles and content that may be over-optimized for specific exact-match keywords. Use synonyms and other variations.
- No-index Tag: Add a no-index tag to pages that have thin content and cannot be changed.