Early last year Google’s Panda Algorithm drastically changed rankings for millions of keywords for both big brands and small websites. The rest of 2011, Google was busy making improvements on Google Panda – increasing the complexity of their search algorithms.
This post will be dedicated to how SEO has changed, and how your business can take advantage of it.
Website Design
A website design, now more than ever, has a direct impact on rankings. No more, will flimsy, outdated, or over-stuffed pages fly. Web design that allows users the find the content they’re looking for quickly will be rewarded with better rankings.
The Panda algorithm change was made for better user experience, which will reward better website design.
Google can track the Website Design using various tactics, including a website’s engagement metrics. Does a website have 5 page views per visitor or just 2? How long do your visitors stay on your site? Are they sharing your website and content within their social network? How fast does your site load? How does all this compare with competitors in your industry?
Content
Initially the Google Panda was initiated to combat the rising proliferation of content farms (websites that publish a lot of low-quality content – in the attempts to get rankings, traffic and ad revenues).
Content around the web was drastically hit. No longer are pages below 300 or 400 words ranking well, likewise, pages that are duplicates or near-duplicates of other websites are severely penalized.
So how do you add more original, quality content? SOURCiS Sacramento SEO services include professional content authors, which can research and create just about any content your website needs. We strive to provide high-quality content that reaches lengths of 700 to 1000 words – depending on the nature and value of a given piece.
Adding Images, Info Graphics, Videos, Web Applications and other content helps to create stickiness and boost your rankings
In-Bound Linking
Getting link popularity as well as link diversity continues to have one of the biggest impacts on your website’s ranking. Yet, Google’s algorithm change has made vast improvements in the detection of paid-links ( when marketers pay site owners money in-exchange for a rank-boosting anchor link ; a technique that is agaisnt Google’s policy).
They’ve also made changes in which links are counting toward your ranking. Websites that seem to “sell” links via directories or articles are no longer giving websites a boost in rankings.
By focusing on quality and relevant links, websites can pass through the barriers and impact their ranking.
Social Media (the new Search?)
Some experts are expecting that social search will take over web search. The question is tough to answer, but one thing known for certain, is that search engines are increasingly dependent on social metrics.
Tweets, Pluses, Likes and Recommends May Be Just As Valuable as In-Bound Links
Having content that is shared has a direct impact on that page’s rankings in the search result. With the inception of Google+, Google is now an operator of a social network, providing marketers with another avenue of garnering website attention (along with Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, LinkedIn and others).
Websites that fail to adopt social media will be severely hurt in the long-term rankings. Another benefit, is that social can provide an additional and significant traffic stream, allow websites less reliance on major search engines.
Additional Resources:
We are here to help. If you need more answers to your questions please contact us. But in the meantime, here are quality articles and videos on the highly polarizing Google Panda update:
