What is Google Panda in simple terms?

I’ve seen quite a few forums recently where people are asking what is Google Panda, so I thought it would be interesting to try and answer that question as best as I can on here.   Essentially, Google Panda is a change to the Google algorithm (which calculates the search engine rankings) but as that probably sounds like gobbledeegook to a non-technical person, so I am going to try and explain it in non-technical terms.

It is probably best to start by giving some background information on how Google works roughly, in terms of how it decides which websites to put at the top of its search engine results, and which websites to relegate to page 10.

So how does the Google search engine work?

When you put some keywords into the Google search engine, Google then has to decide which websites are relevant to your search, essentially Google takes into account numerous factors about a website in order to understand how relevant it is to what you are searching for.  The factors may include things like how old the post or website is, how many other sites have linked to it, whether the title and body of the post contains the keywords mentioned in the search query etc.  To weigh up all these factors and decide which website posts are the most relevant to the words that you put into the search engine, Google uses a very complicated mathematical equation known as the Google algorithm.

If the algorithm is adjusted in any way, it will affect the order that websites and posts appear in the search engine results.  For instance, if Google alter the algorithm so that the age of a website is given more importance, websites that are older will appear higher up in the search engine results.  ‘Google Panda’ is just a nickname for a major adjustment to the Google algorithm.  The term “Panda” comes from Navneet Panda, an engineer who works at Google.

When was Google Panda introduced?

The first version of Google Panda was introduced in February 2011 (at least in some countries, it didn’t go fully global until April 2011).  However, Google Panda isn’t just a one off change, rather it is a series of ongoing updates, with Google Panda versions still being released regularly over a year later (v3.3 of Panda was released in February 2012).

What are the effects of Google Panda?

The actual Google algorithm is kept secret, so the only way to analyze it is to look at the effects that it is has on the search results, looking at which websites go up and which go down when a change is introduced and trying to understand the patterns.  From this analysis it is thought that the following are true:

Google Panda looks at entire websites for their importance and relevance, rather than just at an individual page on the site like the algorithm did previously.  Just a relatively few low quality pages on a website seem capable of bringing the entire site down in Google’s estimation and the rankings.

Panda seems to look at the age and freshness of a page, appearing to like newer material more than previously and effectively treating older, “evergreen postings” less favorably.

5 Simple SEO Tips for Blogger

Most people who write a blog on Google Blogger are hoping for it to be read by as many people as possible.  Probably the easiest way to achieve a lot of visitors is by people coming to the blog via the search engines, such as Google.  The techniques used for making your blog search engine friendly are known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  To some extent much of the general layout and structure of Blogger is dictated by Google, but there are still some relatively straightforward things that you can do to help your blog climb the search engine results rankings.  In this article I will give you 5 simple SEO tips for Blogger, which in the medium to long term should increase internet traffic to your blog.

(As well as the SEO tips below, there are some general considerations to make if you are trying to write a blog to earn money, which I cover in my article: Blog SEO and Blog Monetization, which you might also be advised to read.)

1.  Find good keywords.  Some bloggers barely bother with the keywords section, just adding maybe a few words that relate to the topic.  But keywords are, infact, the most important way of telling Google what your blog is about and getting search engine traffic directed to it.  Adding keywords or changing them can have a dramatic effect on the amount of internet traffic that your blog receives in the medium to long term.  The best free tool for finding out how many people search for a specific keyword or keyphrase, as well as how many people are competing over specific keywords or keyphrases is the Google Keywords Tool – it is pretty easy to use, once you grasp the principles behind it.  (See my article: How to use Google Keywords Tool to find good keywords and keyphrases for more details)

2.  Get your title right.   A good Google blog post title should fulfill two functions.  Firstly, though this isn’t strictly an SEO tip, it is useful general advice – you should make your title as straightforward as possible, so that people who are scanning a list of results in Google will know instantly what your blog post is about.  If your title is too imaginative or obscure, it runs the risk of making people think that your post is irrelevant.  Secondly, as far as SEO goes, if you want to attract search engine traffic then you would be advised to include your main keyword, or keyphrase in the title.  This may cramp your style as far coming up with wacky titles goes, but as I mentioned above, titles are generally better if they are straightforward as far as getting search engine traffic goes anyway.

3.  Get the url right.  You may have noticed that Google Blogger adds the post’s title into the url (website address) of the post.  The format is http://name-of-your-blog.blogspot.com/year/month/title-of-yourblog.html.  If you have put your main keyword or keyphrase in the title, as I suggested, then it helps if you also have it in the url too.  This will happen normally by default in many cases after you’ve filled out the “new post” page and pressed the “publish” button.  The problem only arises if your post title is longer than 37 characters, in which case Blogger will just include the first 37 characters of your title in the url, or slighlty less sometimes as it doesn’t like to break up works.  If your keyword or keyphrase occurs late in the title, it will sometimes be missed off – if this happens, then I would suggest publishing your post with a doctored title (one that includes your keyword or keyphrase) and then editing the title to the one you want after you’ve published the post (the url will not change, once a post has been published, but you can alter the title, text, and keywords as much as you like).

4.  Backlink your posts and blog.   A backlink is basically just a link on someone else’s website that leads back to your blog or one of the posts.  As well as people clicking on the link and supplying you with traffic that way, backlinks are great for helping your SEO as Google takes into account how many links a webpage has got going to it.  Generally speaking, the more links you have, the better.  However, Google does rate some websites as better than others when it comes to where your backlinks are placed.  (For more info on backlinks, see my article: How to get backlinks)

5.  Other forms of promotion – Guest blogging, Facebook, and Twitter etc.  There are other ways of marketing your blog which, although they might not be part of SEO directly, they increase the chances of people linking to your blog or post which will create more backlinks for you, which will help your visibility as far as the search engines go.  One tried and tested way to get extra traffic and followers is to write a guest post on someone else’s blog – the idea being that you expose yourself to a new readership, some of whom may come over to your regular blog and link to your posts.  Facebook and Twitter are also great ways of getting your work out there, sometimes an article can get reposted numerous times and reach a wide readership, some of whom may subscribe to your blog, or link to it.  I give detailed advice on how to approach Twitter promotion in my article: Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool

5 Simple SEO Tips for Business

Many businesses of all sizes nowadays are reliant on the internet to a large extent for sales and contracts and so they appreciate the importance of using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to rise above their rivals in the Google search engine results.  Business SEO is all about getting that slight edge over your rivals and if you can achieve that by gaining a better understanding of the internet and how search engines like Google work, then you should do it.  To help explain how an understanding of SEO can help your business, as well as practical steps that you can take, I have put together a list of 5 Simple SEO Tips for Business.  I hope that you will find it useful.

1. Obtain a good domain name.  If you are setting up a website from scratch that you wish to use to promote your business, or sell products, then you really need to consider getting a domain name (website address) that are SEO friendly (the url and website name should pretty much always conform, otherwise you risk confusing your customers).  Another SEO tip would be to consider using a generic url and domain name, if you are selling a specific product or service.  For more detail, check out my article: How to choose a domain name

2. Find good keywords and know which keywords (or keyphrases) that you are chasing.  The easiest free way to find out information on keywords and keyphrases and work out which ones are the good ones for you is by using a free tool called the Google Keywords Tool.  This will tell you how many people search for that particular keyword, how much competition there is over that keyword, and how much that keyword is worth if it is used in conjunction with advertising schemes, such as Google Adsense.  For more details, check out my article: How to use Google Keywords Tool to find good keywords and keyphrases

3. Get your titles right.  When writing an article, or blog post, your title should do two things: firstly, it should generally be direct, so that internet searchers know pretty instantly what it is about when they are scanning a results list in Google.  For example, if your article is giving essential information about tigers, it is better to entitle the artle: “Facts about tigers”, rather than “The striped predator”.  Secondly, your title should include at least one of the main  keywords, or keyphrases that you are writing about.

4. Promote your website well.  It is always good in business SEO to publicize your websites, articles and blog posts as effectively as possible.  As well as you getting direct traffic from people reading or browsing your publicity, every time that someone posts a link to your website, it helps to increase your authority as far as Google are concerned.  (For an example of how you can use social media sites to promote your business, see my article: Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool)

5. Be aware of the pitfalls of SEO.  Do not duplicate pieces of writing if they appear somewhere else on the internet, even if you own copyright, as Google will perceive you as being guilty of plagiarism and may punish you – instead, if the info is important, you should either link to it, or put the information into your own words.  Try to make your articles, or blog posts, long enough in terms of word count to be substantial, otherwise Google may consider the work to be too brief to be of value – aim at making your articles at least 500 words long and consider making them more like 1000- 1500 words long, if the subject matter demands it.  Another major error that newcomers to business SEO make is that they don’t do enough linking.  If you want Google to like your website, then you should try to put up links to your articles, both internally and externally.  Internal links mean ones that are on a website that you own and link to other pages on that are on that website.  External links are ones that are on other people’s websites, but link back to your own – these are also known as backlinks.  (For more information on links and SEO, please check out my articles: How to get backlinks and How to build links to your websites and posts internally)