At the start of 2016, Google surprised website owners with new updates to their Panda algorithm. Normally, Google is exceptionally secretive about changes made to their algorithms to prevent spammers from tricking the search engine. The recent comments have allowed webmasters to gain better insight into the way the search engines are structured.
Focus on Quality Content
While it can be amusing to see the keywords people search for, the main goal for webmasters should be quality content. When someone clicks on the link, the content should directly relate to the keywords that brought them to the page. Other than making sure the pages are relevant to the keywords, webmasters have to make sure that quality content is left on the site.
After the last round of Google updates, many websites removed content that they thought would be dinged by Google. Penalty experts often recommend removing a site’s content that is older or that they feel will hurt their rankings. Although some content may need to be removed, websites need quality content to rank in Google. Widespread removals can actually end up harming the website. There is not a single magical technique that works to improve search engine rankings. Instead of getting rid of a large swath of content, consider the page’s current ranking. If Google is already sending a lot of visitors to the page, there is an excellent chance that it is already viewed favorably by the search engines. Removing high-ranking content will only cause the website to lose potential traffic. Hire Phoenix SEO experts to improve your content and SEO results.
Single Pages Still Rank
According to Google, poor quality content will not hurt every page’s ranking in the search engines. Although it is normal for a site to have similar rankings for every page, this is not always the case. If there is good, relevant content on a few pages, these pages will continue to rank in Google. The only time the entire site will be hurt is if the majority of the site has a poor quality of content.
Check Google Analytics
If your site has taken a hit when it comes to traffic, then you can use the Google Search Console’s Analytics to figure out where you went wrong. This feature lets you look at the queries for specific pages to figure out if the content does not match the search query. Being proactive about this aspect will help you to ensure that your site focuses on accurate, relevant keywords.
The easiest way to fix your search engine rankings is to make sure that your content matches up with the queries. Often, you just have to rearrange a paragraph or add some content to make it useful for the readers. Plus, relevant content will ensure that your visitors stay on the website and check out other articles.
Watch for Duplicate Content, But Don’t Panic
Nothing makes a local Phoenix SEO webmaster panic more than the possibility of duplicate content. While you should avoid having duplicate content on your site, it is not the main thing that Panda focuses on. Your first goal should be to clean up the rest of your site and focus on quality content. When you have time, fix the duplicate content problem.
Until you have your site ranking well, you can save this step for later because it will not hurt your website as much as other factors.
Comments
Managing comments and responding to users takes time. Due to this, many sites have gotten rid of the comment section. You should avoid doing this whenever possible. The comments show Google how users interact with the website and if the site is relevant. While some comments can hurt your site, they are not necessarily bad. Beyond showing Google that your users care about the site, allowing comments encourages visitors to return to the site to answer responses to their comment. Focus on avoiding spam comments while encouraging high-quality commentary.
Advertisements and Links to Affiliates
Advertising and affiliate links are not necessarily a bad thing. Google mainly cares about the type of links and the number of them on the site. If there are affiliate links present, the website needs to have excellent content that is useful for the reader. Website owners should be discerning about the links they choose to use and focus on having as few as possible. As long as the links are presented in the right way, it will not be a problem with Google Panda.
User-Generated Content
Although user-generated content has a bad reputation, it can be effective when used correctly. User-generated content can be used when it is well written. Using editors to fix and approve the content can ensure that only the best articles make it onto a website. As long as your user-generated content is well written, you do not have anything to worry about. It does not matter where the content comes from as long as it is relevant, high quality and original. You can choose to block specific articles or forum pages from being indexed so that they do not hurt your overall rankings.
Overview
Technical issues will not hurt your rankings, and comments are fine as long as they are relevant. Even duplicate content will not hurt your site too much as long as you have other content that is original. Like previous Google updates, Panda is just designed to weed out spam and low-quality content. As long as your website has high-quality, relevant articles, it will transition through the latest updates without negatively affecting your SEO campaign.
