What is Panda after?

Just a quick question how many peeps that got affected including me in the last Panda update had used highly spammed blogs as backlinks?

My sites 80% of my links where from these kind of links, i dropped 4 or 5 places. Maybe Google has given them even less value or even maybe a page with 100 or more obl then has no value?!

It's not about linking, but about content.

I've analyzed my niche with tons of websites and Panda really got rid of website that don't give the searcher the solution. It doesn't really matter how many links that websites had linked to it.

I just started a website rental page a few days ago and purely do SB blasts daily and the ranks are raising everyday, slower then before but raising.

Waiting for Google to recrawl my site again because I added new content which will hopefully help more with KW's

LBrown said:

I've been holding steady at about ~75% of my original traffic, up from 60% the first day of the update. I'm still linking as usual.

I'm seeing this as a gift though. I've relied too heavily on Google traffic for too long. I knew I shouldn't but I did it anyway because I knew how to make money that way. This week I've been playing with Yahoo Answers and toying with a few twitter methods. Although my losses weren't as severe as some, a 25-30% pay cut still hurts. Lesson learned. I won't be relying on one company for all my income anymore.

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I've been getting a few more long tails over the last 2 days but not really any sign of a recovery.

I'm also just starting to get into Twitter now and once I get a handle on that I'll also have a look at Yahoo answers. I think they are both capable of driving a lot of traffic and will help ease the reliance on google.

In the long run I also think it could be a good lesson for us all to diversify and not get stuck on one traffic source. Still really sucks at the moment though.

If it stays like this through next month my profits will be down by about 70% which will only just leave me enough money to survive on..

Things can only get better! (I hope)

jsherloc said:

The problem is that Google is just about the only basket WORTH pursuing thnese days, and has no indications of decreasing their baskets "volume", only azquiring other assets/patents and becoming EVEN LARGER.

I diversify as much as possible, but at some point you really can't kid yourself. Google and Youtube are the main traffic drivers of the entire Internet at this point, with Youtube becoming "smarter" and harder to master with each passing month as they improve that algo too. Facebook/Twitter are not to be forgotten, but in my opinion and experiences can be VERY difficult to actually build a business/brand out of relying on this type of social traffic. It is great to have all the social signals in place, but making a realistic income of $xxx per day JUST from social in a typical microniche is like climbing through quicksand...good luck ya'll.

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I started doing some good old fashioned print advertising and also direct mail. It doesn't work for every type of website, but it works for some types.

I lost over 50% of my traffic yesterday from one of my hobby blogs I use to test stuff on. It's purely reliant on organic searches since I don't do any other promoting. Good thing it's not one of my primary money sites or I'll be hurting so bad.

Only thing I tested out recently was submitting my site to FreeWebSubmission.com. Not sure if that's the cause of the traffic drop, or that I'm finally being hit with panda. Hmm.

I guess there was another Panda updat on 25 October.

From what I see, sites that are hit badly the first time, are hit again the second time a week or so after, then those sites either move back in the serps, or raise a little

mmmmeme said:

I guess there was another Panda updat on 25 October.

From what I see, sites that are hit badly the first time, are hit again the second time a week or so after, then those sites either move back in the serps, or raise a little

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2 of my sites ranked higher in last few days. I added high quality content last week and I guess this are the results.

Panda says its about content, but there definitely is more to it. A lot of sites with crappy content still dominate the rankings.

Jabong82 said:

Panda says its about content, but there definitely is more to it. A lot of sites with crappy content still dominate the rankings.

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Some sites are ranking without content and fatal error in it! Search for "Purchase Structured Settlements" .

I think another Panda update is in the progress.

mmmmeme said:

I think another Panda update is in the progress.

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Very possible. What are you seeing to make you think there is another update?

Jabong82 said:

Panda says its about content, but there definitely is more to it. A lot of sites with crappy content still dominate the rankings.

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But that's probably because they already had a good rank before the update.

I am going to try to add some more content because my site had not moved in a week!

blackhataffiliate said:

Very possible. What are you seeing to make you think there is another update?

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I'm seeing a lot of changes in the search results, when most of the times (for weeks), there is no change to a ton of particular pages.

I want to be wrong, but it does seem this update is going to lower rankings again, not to rise anything.

Update your sites every day, even if you have to change something little and publish it. Google Caffeine is completed. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html It started out being more of an up to date news thing, but it looks like now it is going to affect other kinds of websites including stores.
"Frequent updates. There are also searches for information that changes often, but isn?t really a hot topic or a recurring event. For example, if you?re researching the [best slr cameras], or you?re in the market for a new car and want [subaru impreza reviews], you probably want the most up to date information. "

Expertpeon said:

Panda was quite good in my opinion, it got rid of a lot of lazy SEOing and riff raff out of the top spots.... it def cleaned up results.
It also had a lot of unintended consequences which google has "slowly" been hammering out.
Whatever they have done this time appears to be a huge mistake though. If they have decided to "lock" competitive niches' results (or make it nigh on impossible to rank), I think its the beginning of the end for google's relevancy.
Two factors, though perhaps most searchers only know of them indirectly, have made google what it is:
1) Extremely aggressive crawlers find almost all links on the web
2) Fast, relevant updates

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I don't agree like I said my BH sites are doing better, including 2 autoblogs and my authority sites are doing better. My good small white hat sites aren't. Funny thing is most of my smaller WH sites have alot better content on them than my authority sites. So it looks like panda just wants to see a site that is massive (my authority sites) or growing (my BH). Smaller whitehat sites are definitely in their sites. The thing is I dont build MFA's or snything like that. I start sites and keep adding content. However proper WH sites ad content slower than autoblogs and as a result I think they are being penalized.

I have a quick question for you panda investigators.

I was looking at buying a domain for a product and pre panda there where a variety of sites ranked, now post panda, what I'm seeing is : Amazon, Bestbuy, Walmart, Nextag etc. even wiki is down in seventh.

I read before that it was pretty easy to outrank these websites for the keyword, as these where just single pages within, so not in url not a lot of page back links etc. Now I'm wondering that post panda these sites are ranking higher, well certainly for the product I was going to try and target. Should I wait before going for this domain, or do people still think these inner pages can be beaten?

Thanks.

skadster said:

I have a quick question for you panda investigators.

I was looking at buying a domain for a product and pre panda there where a variety of sites ranked, now post panda, what I'm seeing is : Amazon, Bestbuy, Walmart, Nextag etc. even wiki is down in seventh.

I read before that it was pretty easy to outrank these websites for the keyword, as these where just single pages within, so not in url not a lot of page back links etc. Now I'm wondering that post panda these sites are ranking higher, well certainly for the product I was going to try and target. Should I wait before going for this domain, or do people still think these inner pages can be beaten?

Thanks.

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I think authority ecommerce sites are still easier to outrank than other types of authority sites.

Seems like backlinking is not helping me to get further into first page or my backlinks arent indexed. Did full mounty with senuke x trial and nothing happened in SERPS... weird.

I'm gonna check if onsite seo would bring me to first place, traffic travis says that i have 24 errors in my site which should be repaired for better onsite seo. (image ALT texts arent there and something small besides that like few H1 and H2 tags are missing.)

When one of my sites got hit by Panda with a ranking penalty I was just so pissed/angry/depressed. Not only did I lose over $10K in personal income per month, but my whole perception and understanding of SEO was turned upside down. Google has a funny way of making you feel like a rock star one day and a total turd the next.

After a few days of self pity and a couple cases of beer, I started to search for the answers. I searched through all the big SEO forums, and read for literally 2 weeks straight. I was no closer to understanding what happened two weeks later than I was when I started. Then it dawned on me...hmmm...read Google's quality guidelines and give them what they wants. Pretty simple.

For a long time Google didn't go hard after sites which were against their quality guidelines, and then came Panda. I think Google got to a point where they felt their algo was getting gamed at such a high level that the changes where necessary.

This being said, through my research and testing this is what I have found.

- Doorway pages are a risky venture anymore. I used to love creating geo targeted pages, where I would change the title tag, H1 tag, some of the content, and gear it towards a particular city or state. I got away with this for a long time and made a lot of money off of it. Then the penalty happen, and this was the reason. Even if you completely change your html and content on your pages, you could still be at risk. The best way to do this now is to buy separate domains (try to diversify names and make some private) with different C class IP nd build accordingly.

- Junk/Scraped content..I know this has been beat to death, but for God's sake this should be common sense people.

- Try to stay consistent with your link building. Google is definitely keeping an eye on link velocity. If you have a brand new site and all of a sudden one month you have 20K links from spammy type sites, well guess what?...Red Flag.

- Aged domains have always been given favor, but it seems now they are given even more credence. I have tested this out. Aged domains are not only more tolerant to excessive backlinking, but they move up faster in the serps.

- Don't over monetize your website with adsense and affiliate banners. I have read about many people who have gotten penalized and the only common theme with their website is excessive affiliate banners, and Adsense ads. Some have even said that placement is also important. I.E- above the fold is penalized more heavily than adverts below. This is pure conjecture, but something to think about.

- High PR relevant websites are big now. Instead of going after 20,000 junk links that have nothing to do with your website, try building links that are niche specific and have good PR.

Other tips that help your case, but are not necessary.

- Having an address and a phone number on your website makes Google feel fuzzy inside. Even if it is fake, ad one.

- Latest news is that Google will start to index Facebook posts. Start dropping you links there bitches.

- Seems as though if your site gets hit with a ranking penalty, it generally takes around 6 months to come out of it, and if you didn't fix what was wrong with the site it will get penalized again. My advice is..if you have a site that gets wacked, start over with a new site. Continue to backlink and ad content and try to fix the old site, but don't waste too much energy.


Overall I am glad that Panda happen because not only did it separate the men from the boys, but it made my SEO abilities that much stronger. Remember to keep it simple, and follow Google's quality guidelines and you will be fine.