Survival Guide For Your Site: Google Panda Update

As of 24th Feb 2011, a major update by Google on how it ranks sites has affected 12% of search results and halved many sites’ visitor numbers. Named the Farmer or Panda Update it’s only affecting US Google results as I(Vivek Nair)write but if you're outside the US it is coming to you soon. Here’s how to find out if you have already been hit, are going to be and what to do about it.

Can your business handle a 50% drop in organic (non-paid) visits from Google? That’s what might be coming your way courtesy of Google’s Panda algorithm update.

Before we get into the whys and wherefores, find out if you've been hit by Panda.

Panda update: If your site gets slapped by the Panda then you are going to have to wait for the next update to find out if any changes you've made will get the Panda off your back.

Has Your Site Been Panda Slapped?

At the time of writing, Panda is only hitting US results. Here’s how to use Google Analytics (GA) to find out if your site is affected.

If your site gets most of its search engine traffic from the US then you probably already know if you’ve been affected by Panda or not. With this guide you can see the details of the damage and learn how to analyze where problems might be.

If your site is not US-centric then follow the steps below to see if you will be affected when Panda rolls out across the world.

First go to your GA dashboard.

If your site is not US-centered then you might see something like the graph below and think all is well:



But dig deeper. Go to the Search Engines report in the Traffic Sources menu (and choose ‘non-paid’):



Then click ‘Google’ to see Google-only traffic (see below):

Click the ‘Keyword’ column heading above the list of keywords.

This reveals a large sub menu (again see below) on which you click ‘Country/Territory’:



Enter ‘United States’ into the filter at the bottom of the list of countries.



Press ‘Go’ and hope you don’t see this:



That’s more than a 50% drop in organic (non-paid) visits from Google US. Scared yet?

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Hi, I'm Vivek Nair and you can get touch with me by given links:

Google Panda Algorithm Updation

Google Panda is the new and path-breaking algorithm update from Google and it is only to be expected that many may not be familiar with its nature and purpose. Of course, the fact remains that you can appreciate the true worth and significance of Google Panda as also its demerits only after you study its implications in detail. Google Panda is an innovative method whereby Google will be able to distinguish and weed out websites with substandard or plagiarized or inappropriate content. Google will also be able to suitably deal with ill-structured websites and web pages that have little or no merit and penalize sites that have high bounce rate, poor traffic, and lack of quality inbound links.

Curiously enough, Google has named this innovation after one of its engineers called Panda who was largely responsible for providing the necessary breakthrough to make this update come out in its present shape and form. Google claims that Google Panda will be ‘a redesigned document-level classifier’ that will bar spam on-page content from unjustly obtaining higher ranking. The new classifier will be quite effective in finding spam on individual web pages by identifying frequent use of spam words and the type of phrases often seen in cleverly crafted blogs. Hacked sites were a cause of great concern for Google last year and Google Panda will have improved capabilities to eliminate them.

Google Panda – A Timely Step

To know if you have been adversely affected by Google Panda, check your traffic status post 24th February and any decrease will indicate you are affected and you will find many of your URLs are removed from Google search engine purview. Of course, all is not lost as there are a couple of things you can do to repair the situation and get back into the reckoning.

Identify the pages that attract insignificant traffic and preferably submit those pages for URL removal Rewrite content avoiding plagiarism and duplicate content. You may thereafter present your site to Google for reconsideration. Also, try to promote your website on social network to minimize bounce rate.

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Hi, This is Vivek Nair and you can get touch with me by following buttons given below