Not sure if you've been hit by Google's On-Page Panda penalty? Find out how to diagnose Panda on your site, FIX Panda, Clear up your site and RECOVER. See proof that your site can recover from Google's Panda Penalty
Originally presented at Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
TAM AdEx 2023 Cross Media Advertising Recap - Auto Sector
SMX - How to Know If You've Been Hit by Google's Panda Penalty
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”
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
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