The Google Panda Update: Part III

The Panda remains the talk of the town even after a year of its spectacular appearance. In the concluding installment of our treatise on the Google Panda, we recommend a number of sure-shot and winning strategies you should consider adopting not only to protect your Google rank and status but also move up the search hierarchy owing to the incredible vacuum that has appeared recently.

In spite of the fact that there have not been any Google Panda updates from Google in 2012 and that Google now chooses to announce its algorithm updates once every month, the Panda continues to reign supreme. The cumulative impact of the Panda has been experienced by one and all across cyber space. If your website or e-commerce portal has not fallen victim to the Panda roar, you are among the fortunate ones because the Update has touched millions of websites in one form or another. Here are a few steps you can and should implement on a war footing to ensure that you continue to remain untouched.

The Duplicate Content Syndrome

We have known for a while that duplicate content, especially in the form of content farms, can hurt our websites in more ways than one. This was true even before the arrival of the Panda. Some called the Duplicate Content Penalty from Google a myth and chose to ignore it until, one bright and sunny morning, they found to their chagrin that Google had dropped their websites altogether from its master index. To make sure that you continue to remain squeaky clean, you should ensure that you:

• 1. Do not, knowingly or unknowingly, copy content from a published source with or without permission
• 2. Immediately take action against a website that copies your content because you are subject to a Google penalty even if someone else copies you
• 3. Never use auto blogging tools and APIs such as scraper websites do because all they do is to generate duplicate content
• 4. Attempt sincerely to transition from a "thin site" to a "thick site" as per Google's norms with tons of original, meaningful and relevant content that adds value to the search experience from a user's perspective
• 5. Refresh your content on a regular basis so that Google has a good reason to index you on a schedule
• 6. Avoid duplicating your content even within your website as diligently as possible

Focusing on a Genuine and Positive Search Experience

Google's primary customers are the millions of searchers who visit its various search sites daily. It remains committed to providing them with an enriched search experience. In spite of the fact that much of the process continues to remain automated, human intervention from the various Googleplexes around the world is a known reality today. Odds are million to one that you will know when your website comes up for human review. Therefore, the sooner you take action, the lesser the likelihood is that your website will be singled out for any negative repercussions from the universal search master.

We will conclude this series with a quote directly from Google itself which also tells you what to do if you believe that Google has been unfair to you:

Sites that believe they have been adversely impacted by the change should be sure to extensively evaluate their site quality. In particular, it's important to note that low quality pages on one part of a site can impact the overall ranking of that site. Publishers who believe they've been impacted can also post in our webmaster forums to let us know. We will consider feedback from publishers and the community as we continue to refine our algorithms.