What Is The Google Panda Update?

What is the Google Panda Update, and why are my sites not ranking like they were? This question had me scratching my head, and bugging out over my blogs tragic dive into the abyss.

I am an avid link builder, and I have spend the better part of the last nine months building links for other people.  It’s a rewarding, but I felt like I was letting my own blogs slide, and when Google released their Panda update, I realized why.

I had blogs with heavy advertising, little content, and they were linking to low quality sites.  I watched in wonder as Ezinearticles and Hubpages banned two of my accounts, and I am still waiting on a good explanation for that.

The answer of course is that both Ezinearticles and Hubpages rely heavily on Google Adsense revenues, and they have to stay complaint and in Google’s good graces to keep their high rankings and money coming in.

So, if you are in the same boat as me, take heed and reevaluate your blogs.  Don’t panic, just remove the overly heavy advertising, and start adding some quality content on a regular basis.  If Ezinearticles and Hubpages has banned your accounts, simply shoot off an email to them asking why, and correct the problem.  They are both known to work with you.  They should be reasonable.

Google is looking for quality and unique value.  The following is an excerpt from the Google Blog:

For many months, we’ve been focused on trying to return high-quality sites to users. Earlier this year, we rolled out our “Panda” change for searches in English around the world. Today we’re continuing that effort by rolling out our algorithmic search improvements in different languages. Our scientific evaluation data show that this change improves our search quality across the board, and the response to Panda from users has been very positive.

I also found a very good explanation about what is the Google Panda update on SearchEngineWatch that mentioned saying goodbye to low quality link building.  According to the article, Kristi Hines states that there are a few ways to determine a valuable backlink opportunity.

• If the site has lots of ads, steer clear of them, more advertising than quality content is not a good thing.
• If it lacks quality content, skip it.  If you are submitting to an article directory and they approve it right away without an editorial process, something is amiss, and they may also allow poorly spun articles, and spam which instantly lowers it’s value in Google’s eyes.
• Lots of content and low traffic.  This is a tricky one because there are a lot of high page ranking blogs that you may be tempted to comment on with this profile.  Move on because if it doesn’t have good solid authority in terms of social sharing and traffic, it is lacking.
• No moderation.  This is a big one.  If the blog looks like no one is minding the store, and spammers have taken up residence, the neighborhood is a little dingy.  You might want to shop elsewhere for a link.

So, what is the Google Panda update?  It’s the one that you, as a blogger should pay attention to.  Start writing unique quality content, and build links to your blog that are going to add value to your site.  Participate in the process of building quality links back to your blog, and use professional tools like blogs, webinars, quality article directories, and other high quality tools to attract natural, organic links to your blog.

I signed up for Matt Carter’s Rapid Profit Formula some time back, and he teaches some solid link building techniques that will help your blog to rank high in the search engines.

It’s worth checking out, and there is a $1 trial available to test drive it.