After a month with seemingly few search updates from Google, the company tweeted yesterday that it has rolled out Panda 3.9. The data refresh is expected to impact about 1 percent of search results, which Google says “is enough to notice.”
Marketers should be sure to measure and monitor their organic search traffic volumes in the next few days. For those who have been impacted, Google offered a link to its blog post on “building high-quality sites” to offer insights on recovery and what type of websites will succeed in the post-Panda searchscape.
Brafton has written about these guidelines from Google in the past, noting the main takeaway is that marketers must invest in user experience and creating content that will engage their audiences. Some of the leading questions posed by Google that marketers should ask themselves when assessing site content include:
- Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
- Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
- Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
- Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
For more information on Panda, check out Brafton’s blog post about how content marketing helped one website recover from a Panda hit, or visit our glossary page that offers an in-depth look at each of the Panda updates.
