Published: July 30, 2015 Last Updated: February 09, 2022
Google Panda Is Back Out Of The Cage
Google Panda is the name given to the algorithm tweaks aimed at weeding out websites with poor content. These tweaks have come out at different intervals over the last few years and the latest (version 4.2) has been announced. According to Gary Illyes (a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google), the refresh was released last weekend and will take a few months to fully roll out.
This update will slowly review all websites on the web for whatever elements Google has decided to check for and will affect your rankings accordingly.
So if your website starts to show a drop in its' rankings, it just might mean that the Panda has caught up to you.
Does your Website have poor Quality Content?
Ah, the million dollar question. What exactly does Google mean when they say a website has poor content? How do you know if Google would consider your website as having poor quality content?
There are the obvious examples of poor content where a page reads like it has been written by someone who has English as a second language (a very minor one at that). These very often are written by someone who does have English as a second language; or by an article spinner program that takes an article and replaces words with synonyms to make it seem original. In these cases, Google would consider them poor quality.
Another example would be the web page that has a keyword used too many times and in places where it really doesn't make sense. There is a fine line between ensuring Google knows what you want your website to rank for and going overboard. Exactly where this line is nobody knows; not even Google it sometimes seems.
Google posted a blog back in 2011 on what it considered poor and high quality content. They include 23 questions you should ask yourself. So if you want more information straight from the horses mouth, read the blog here .
Find out more about search engine optimisation .