1.
Helen M. Overland
Diagnosing
& Repairing
Panda
VP Conversion Optimization, On-Page SEO & Analytics

2.
Who is Search Engine People?
• 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 PROFIT100 ranking
• Over 1000 clients worldwide
• Amongst top 13k most visited sites worldwide

3.
Types of Google Penalties Panda
Google penalties come in many flavours!
Manual
Links
“Unnatural
Links”
Content
“Low Quality
Pages”
Algorithmic
Links
Penguin
Content
Panda
“Ads Above
the Fold”

4.
Types of Google Penalties Panda
Google penalties come in many flavours!
Manual
Links
“Unnatural
Links”
Content
“Low Quality
Pages”
Algorithmic
Links
Penguin
Content
Panda
“Ads Above
the Fold”

5.
What is Panda? Panda
An algorithmic update that appears to have the objective of eliminating poor
quality content from Google’s index.
Panda looks for:
• Light content (too little info on page)
• Content too similar to existing content
(affiliates)
• Spelling/grammatical errors (sign of
cheap content)
• Low user engagement
• Article Syndication
• Scraper Sites

6.
How Bad Can It Be? Panda
Panda typically drops your unbranded organic traffic from
Google by 40-60% in a single day

7.
How Bad Can It Be? Panda
If sites don’t fix the issues, they can be hit consecutively

8.
Signs You’ve Been
Affected by Panda
Panda
1. Unbranded Organic traffic from Google drops 40-60% in a single day
2. You’re still ranking for your headline keywords
3. You lost your long tail traffic
4. You are struggling to maintain your traffic,
and don’t know why
5. You are actively promoting the site, but
traffic seems “flat”

9.
How to Find It.

10.
First, Check Google Analytics Panda
• Google will always want to rank you for your brand name!!
• Find out if your unbranded, organic traffic from Google has dropped
• Use Google Analytics
1. 2.
3.

11.
First, Check Google Analytics Panda
• Exclude your brand name from the results – because you’re likely still
ranking, and include only organic Google traffic:
4.
5.

12.
First, Check Google Analytics Panda
• Exclude your brand name from the results – because you’re likely still
ranking, and include only organic Google traffic
• Identify if there were any days where traffic clearly and sharply dropped

13.
Second, Check Panda Dates Panda
• Here, traffic was reasonably normal until March 23rd, 2012
• Now, find out if Panda was run around this date
Visit the “Google Algorithm Change History” page
on SEOMoz:
seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

14.
Second, Check Panda Dates Panda
• Here, traffic was reasonably normal until March 23rd, 2012
• Now, find out if Panda was run around this date
seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change
There WAS a Panda update run during this time

15.
A Few Notes Panda
• This isn’t perfect!! Is vulnerable to “false positives” (you think it’s
Panda but it’s not)
• A few false positives we’ve seen over the year(s!):
o Google Analytics code dropped from the site on a “Panda day”
o 2nd GA code removed from the site on a Panda day
o Content removed from the site on a Panda day
o Site hit by Penguin during initial Penguin roll-out in April, 2012 - Panda
run a few days before and a few days after = diagnosis more difficult

16.
Next: Fix It

17.
Case Study:
Recovering from Panda
Panda
You CAN recover from Panda!!

18.
Case Study:
Recovering from Panda
Panda
You CAN recover from Panda!!

19.
How to Fix Panda Panda
BE QUALITY
• Improve the usability of your site – decrease your bounce rate, make
people “stick” and recommend your site to others
• Spell check and grammar check your content – rewrite if needed
• Create quality content people want to share with their friends
• Consolidate your pages – don’t have your content spread over
multiple domains or URLs

20.
How to Fix Panda Panda
BE ADMIRED, NEVER DUPLICATED
• Identify pages on your site where you have “empty” pages, or pages with
little content on them – these are “thin” pages
• Identify pages on your site that have text on them copied from elsewhere,
even if you have permission to copy the content (product descriptions, etc)
• Re-write or remove the thin or duplicate content, or have the
duplicate content on other sites removed
• Write new, good-quality content and add it to the site
• Wait for the next Panda update – if it recovers good, if not,
rinse and repeat

21.
Good Luck!

22.
Thank You!
Questions?
Helen M. Overland
VP Conversion Optimization, On-Page SEO & Analytics