Important Points to Panda - Proof a Website

Panda refresh took place again by Google in 2013 where it struggles to fight on spam using all major

algorithm updates. First Panda hit which took place two years back had its impact worst on site owners

who have not taken Panda seriously. Most of the site owners whose revenue was in six figures have

seen a sudden drop in their revenues over night. If any site has not been hit by Panda still, now needs to

follow certain instructions before another Panda update takes place.

Over-past one year a huge number of site owners have been recovering from Panda effect. Site owners

also need to Panda-proof their website with certain steps which help them to be away from effect.

Following are the steps which help site owners to Panda – proof their websites which are at risk.

Purge Duplicate Content:

Duplicate content has its impact highly on websites, it has always overwhelmed websites as well as

SEO’s. Panda update has proved that Google treat sites with duplicate content seriously. While pre-

Panda update used to have its effect only on particular piece of content but now situation has changed.

It means that duplicate content will shrink whole website. So there is a need for site owners to take this

issue seriously and have to work on duplicate content issues to Panda – proof entire site. To avoid these

duplicate content issues we can take help of ‘Screaming Frog’ which identifies duplicate content. This

tool gives a report on what can be improved further on site.

Here are some of the suggestions on improving duplicate content issues:

1. Meta Directives can be used. For example: no index, follow.
2. Use of “Canonical Tags” (example rel=”canonical”)
3. 301 redirects
4. Blocking of pages using Robots.txt.
5. Removal of URL’s using webmaster tools
6. Choosing a preferred domain in webmaster

Cleaning up entire content issues now may be difficult but if necessary steps are taken to prevent then it

can help from serious effect on site.

Eradicate Low Quality, Low Value Content:

Objective of Google with Panda updations is to help users in finding only “high quality” sites by moving

back visibility of low quality content sites in SERP, this can be achieved perfectly only with help of

algorithms. So, now it is an important task for site owners to eliminate low quality content. But what

does low quality content mean?

Google has guided us on how to access page-level quality which in turn helps us in guiding editorial road

map of our site. To help site with thousands or hundreds of pages a much more realistic approach has

been used by looking at user engagement signals which Google basically uses it to recognize low quality

content. It includes key behavioral metrics which is most efficient way to sniff-out low value content

such as:

1. Low to no visits
2. Anemic unique page views
3. Short time on page
4. High bounce rates

Here are ways in dealing with low value and poor performing pages:

1. Deleting content with low to no user engagement signals.
2. Merging content of thin pages in to thicker and making them as useful documents.
3. Adding more internal links which results in improving visitor engagement and these internallinks have to point high quality pages.

Pagination is another most important aspect that will often be overlooked. Appropriate pagination

effects hugely at distributing link equity throughout site. Following are tips for Panda – proof pagination

1.“No index, follow” paginated pages.

2.Tag paginated content with “rel=prev” and “rel=next” to indicate documents in a sequence.

Thicken – up Thin Content:

Thin content on site is not appreciated by Google and it acts seriously not only on spammed or thin

affiliated sites but also at sites without original content or with little content. The best idea is to thicken

1. up thin directory pages with original content. Some suggestions include:
2. Write original content of thousand words, it should be value added content on every page as each page should be treated as comprehensive guide on a specific topic.
3. Pipe in API data and content mash-ups (excellent when you need to thicken hundreds or thousands of pages at scale).
4. Encourage user reviews.
5. Add images and videos.
6. Move thin pages off to sub domains, which Google hints at. Though we use this as more of

a “stop gap” approach for sites that have been mauled by Panda and are trying to rebound

quickly, rather than a long-term, sustainable strategy.

By checking word count we can understand thin content issues. If it is wordpress site then there

are couples of plugins which help in accessing word count for every document on the site.

1. WP Word Count
2.  Admin Word Count Column

In most of the cases, we can observe that thin content pages after thickening will undergo a drastic

change in ranking and SERP visibility over competitors.

Develop High-Quality Content:

It is much important to publish only high quality content on the site. “Quality Content” is described by

Google as “content is that where your child can be sent to learn something”. Frequency of publishing

content is not so worth if content is not of high quality. It is always good to have high quality content

even if it is published once in a week. If sites are publishing content frequently then they need to

recheck it because sites should slow down and publish better, longer, concise content less frequently.

If site owners are in race with competitors about “publishing content everyday” then it just means

polluting SERP’s with quick, thin, low value posts and dragging down entire sites quality score.

Panda Proofing Wrap up:

It is best to take precautions before another Panda update effects our site. Most of the site owners

have recognized problem and have taken necessary steps to avoid Panda update effect. And these site

owners are making good revenue by following necessary steps to avoid Panda update effect.