Identifying a Panda Hit

The first step to take to save your site from the Panda hit is to identify symptoms. Why? For starters, it will measure your progress in your efforts to reduce the Panda effect. You will also need to make sure that the traffic fluctuations you are noticing are indeed because of the Panda update and not because of some other random factor. This will enforce your faith in the steps you will be taking. Now a straight 40 percent traffic decrease that never returned can for sure be attributed to a Panda hit. If you didn’t experience such massive phenomenon in your website’s traffic, there are still quite a lot of subtle but sure hints that will tell you that your website is indeed suffering from the Panda effect. Mentioned here are the most important of those factors.
This chapter is just meant for you to identify your problem; subsequent chapters will help you in rectifying them.
Losing Long Tail Keyword Traffic
It has been established that the Panda update has caused the loss of long tail keyword traffic for many sites. Mind you, the primary keywords’ ranking would stay unchanged. The question is, why only long tail keywords? The answer to this question lies in the quality of your content. If Google feels the quality of your content is not up to the mark, your long tail keywords will get devalued resulting in less traffic.
Another explanation could be that since content farms provided a lot of back links to web pages for long tail keywords, those links have been devalued because Panda has hit those content farms the hardest. Since the primary keywords normally receive the real link building, the traffic due to those remained largely unchanged after the update.
Extended Ranking Fluctuations
After every algorithm update there is a fluctuation or bouncing of rankings noticed for a while. This is mainly because Google tries to reevaluate rankings and update its index. Earlier Google Dance used to occur about once a month when Google updated its index, but since the adoption of continuous index update, Google Dance became less prominent. Even after an algorithm update, the bouncing around lasted only for a short while. However, if you notice the ranking of a few keywords keep fluctuating wildly and don’t seem to settle down, then you most probably have been hit. One of the causes may be that you have done aggressive link building through content farms instead of relying on natural linkbuilding.
Traffic Increase, Then Decrease
Use a tool like Google Analytics and check your site statistics for the time around the Panda release. If you notice a spike in your website’s traffic right after the Panda update rolled out followed by an immediate decline; you most probably have been hit. The general consensus is that the rise and dip signify that Google is assessing your webpage in accordance to its new algorithm. If the dip you experience is permanent, it means Google has just reduced your site authority.
Check for Content Indexing
Use the site search feature provided by Google to verify if your content is being indexed by Google since the latest update. There are various tools provided by Google to check this. For example, check your indexed content by Google searching site: www.your-domain.com. This will give you a fair idea if Google has stopped indexing new content, and if it has, then you are a victim of the Panda update.
Major Decrease in Website Traffic
This is the most dreaded symptom of all, and it means that you have lost around 60 to 70 percent of your traffic in the post-Panda period. If the traffic increase right after the update was temporary and after a while, your traffic becomes consistently low, you are staring down the barrel of the gun. This occurrence definitively tells you that a major overhauling of your site is required. It is better to build your site from the ground up, following the steps given in this book, making sure you follow the white hat practices for long-term sustenance.
Later in the book, more will be discussed about building a search-engine optimized website from scratch.
Ranking Decrease for Specific Keywords
This symptom describes the event when only a few keywords saw a ranking decrease instead of your whole site being affected. If you think your site receives most of its traffic from a few specific keywords, it is likely to be hit hard after this update. Websites that paid more attention to the content quality instead of generating keyword-specific traffic did not experience much decline.
Ranking Decrease for Exact Match Domains
Google used to place EMDs or Exact Match Domains in high regard. For example, if your site is about country French rugs, the EMD will be www.countryfrenchrugs.com and it will be ranked high. EMDs are almost always based on a primary keyword that receives a lot of traffic, or in other cases, it is a slight variation of the main keyword (for example www.countryfrenchrugs1.com).
Many junk websites with poor content achieve good SERP ranking because of EMDs. With the Panda update, Google set out to fill this loophole. Surely the domain of a website is one of the important features of a website, but Google aims to downplay this factor so that there is no room for misuse. Therefore, if you noticed about 30 percent drop in ranking in your EMD sites, it means you need to stop depending upon EMDs so much in this post-Panda era.
It is quite likely that you have experienced all or some of the above-mentioned symptoms and now can relate to them. Now that you have pinpointed your problems and are more aware, you can proceed to the next chapter where you will learn everything you need to know about bringing your website back on track.

What is Google Panda?

Since Google Panda rolled out in February, it has been the major topic of discussion in various online forums and SEO professionals. In the rare case you have happened to miss all the buzz surrounding this update, here we tell you in detail what exactly is Google Panda, and why is it so important.
The very first Google Panda update, dubbed as the Farmer update, was released on February 24, 2011. This update marked the biggest change Google had ever made in its search algorithm, and this update decreased the traffic of websites by as much as 80 percent. According to Matt Cutts, the Panda update was designed to affect nearly 12 percent of all searches. He further stated that around 500 of search improvements were slated for release this year. The key areas where Google has struck hardest with its new update are listed below:
Content Farms – Websites that act like content farms have been devalued by Panda. This is mainly because they stuff low quality and outdated content into their web pages for the sole purpose of gaining traffic and raising their search engine ratings. Oftentimes, they provide content of zero value, and yet are ranked higher than sites that offer genuine information.
Quality Content – Quality content is more important now than ever. Google does not like affiliate sites, and having longer articles really helps. Articles and pages on your website should contain 700 words or more. Google loves quality content and proving it to Google's spiders is going to boost you in the rankings quickly.
Spammy Links – Google has always had trouble separating pure spam from genuine links. Google Panda has hit profile links and blog comments, and they no longer pass much quality onto your site, according to Google.
The following has gained importance after the Panda update:
Social Sites – Facebook and Twitter are among the top websites now, and so Google understands the power behind these social platforms. Google now recognizes that people hold in high regard what their friends tell them; lending credence to these sites as pertains to SEO practices after the Panda update.
The algorithm update did not stop at the 1.0 version. Whereas the first Panda update was for the United States only, Panda 2.0 rolled out for all English searches worldwide on April 11, 2011. Even in non-English speaking countries, the update affected all searches made in English.


The third and fourth updates were released on May 10 and June 16 respectively. The current version is 2.2.
But before we discuss the technical aspects of the various versions of Google Panda, you should familiarize yourself with the technical aspects of the Google’s search algorithm. Since Panda is essentially a ranking update, a basic knowledge of Google’s ranking mechanism can come in handy.
Google’s PageRank
Larry Page and Sergey Brin published two papers to describe their innovative and patented PageRank algorithm. The PageRank of a web page is essentially its importance (or rank) with respect to the other pages on the internet. The rank is a numerical value, calculated by a mathematical formula which takes into account the number of links that lead to that webpage, and the number of links that lead from that webpage. The principle is, if a lot of links lead to a single page the importance of that page automatically becomes high. Now this means that your website should be really well connected. Pages which are likely to be useful to the searcher should be made easy to be reached. Just to satisfy your curiosity, there are not a lot of pages which have a PR of 10. Apart from Google itself, Facebook.com has also reached a PR of 10. Google uses the PageRank algorithm to assign each webpage a numerical rank, and then uses that rank to determine the rating of that page on its results page.
Site Authority
Unlike PageRank, site authority is not a numerical value. Google decides the authority of a site in its own way. A good PageRank does not mean that a site has authority, but many of the factors that make up page rank give a site authority status. To give an idea to its users and SEOs, Google has laid out some guidelines to tell you which sites are given a high authority status. These guidelines are available on Google’s blog and are quoted here word for word.
Just ask yourself these questions:
 Would you trust the information presented in this article?
 Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
 Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
 Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
 Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
 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?
 Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
 How much quality control is done on content?
 Does the article describe both sides of a story?
 Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
 Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
 Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
 For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
 Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
 Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
 Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
 Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
 Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
 Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
 Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
 Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
 Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
Now this is how Google thinks your site should be. And if you are able to please Google by following these guidelines religiously, you shall be rewarded. One question arises here; do you need to do anything apart from following the above points? There are various tried and tested techniques which complement the Google guidelines. They are meant to give you that extra edge. The fundamentals, however, have to be first strong. Therefore, the above guidelines are to be followed by everyone.
In the due course of this text, you will come to know how your site footprint, link count, PageRank, and Speed of Indexing are all factors in defining your site authority.