Post Panda SEO -> Nonsense

[GeorgR.]

I constantly hear people saying how "post Panda" the world of SEO has changed, i just read a WSO where he talks about establishing "Social Network Circles", multiple twitter accounts and, of course, facebook.

Made it sound like "traditional SEO is dead"...and unless you promote the heck out of FB and Twitter and engage in all kinds of "social SEO" practices you wont go anywhere with your site in terms of Google rankings.

The funny thing is, i dont do ANYTHING of those things mentioned and i am still and still ranking phenomenal, even for super difficult keywords.

I dont even have a facebook page promoting any site, the only thing i do on facebook is putting my links on my own wall...and i tweet to twitter once i do a new posting or site.

I am not and i dont care about Google "+".

So..something must be off with people claiming that SEO has changed that much recently. What i achieved AFTER PANDA:

Ranked #1 in Google USA and UK for "lose weight" as well as "lose weight fast" (site sold in the meantime, new owner dropped the site in rankings).... ranked and still ranking for *extreme* keywords right now for other sites which i wont reveal for various reasons.

I understand that social networks DID become a bigger factor recently for google rankings....but to be honest this is simple stuff like social bookmarking or making the occasional WEB2.0 page. Nothing which is new compared to "pre Panda".

The other thing which should be clear, have an interesting and RELEVANT site with plenty of helpful content.

But all the other stuff i read about how one must totally change their link building and engage in excessive social networking stuff is nonsense. I wouldn't write this rant if i wouldn't rank excellent WITHOUT all that social networking shenanigans....and my link building HARDLY changed as compared to what i did before panda - although i noticed that social bookmarks and MODERATE activity on social sites can give your rankings an additional boost.

Say...if you are on position #8 for a keyword it's likely that bookmarking and social 2.0 sites will boost it up all the way. But this is also nothing new since social BM and web2.0 are not things which just appeared after Google PANDA, maybe they got a little more weight.

Conclusion:

People are reading WAYYY too much into GooglePanda....if they had crappy sites BEFORE and are now out from the rankings,, good, they deserved it. (However, there are STILL crappy sites ranking)....and it's also not true that EMD domains lost their value. You can STILL rank a rather crappy site just by getting a EMD..and can probably rank better with it than someone who has a quality site with FAR less effort.

It's simply not true that you have to be extremely active on facebook and need fanpages and many followers..and its also not true that you need (preferably) multiple twitter accounts and many followers on twitter...let alone Google +. Yes this stuff helps, but it's not the goose who lays golden eggs...you can get #1 without all that stuff. This is my own experience.

[jameskahon]

Thanks for confirming!

[Enfusia]

I agree. Google Farmer was a no harmer and Google Panda has not come to Bear upon my sites.

I do 0 twitter or FB don't even have an account with either.

Good relevant content with relevant sites with age baclinking to you is the only game changer you will ever need. (I had to use that game changer buzz word because I see it used too much as well).

A goodly number of High pr on page links from sites with really low OBL's that are actually in your niche with anchor text in text will do wonders for your rankings.

Then stay the heck away from all the scrape this thingys and nuke that thingys with all their stupid mega blasts of crappy garbage links and you will likely rank for a very long time.

But the reason everyone is screaming post Panda Google beaters is because it sell better than telling you that you have to work at it.

Patrick

[down]

Thanks for this information.

[DPM70]

Totally agree on the Social thing. Don't do any of it - hasn't affected my rankings diddly squat.

[MaverickUK]

Strange thing is NONE of my sites have been affected by Panda, all of them have high quality content that offer the reader an immersive experience. Whether it's those websites that I haven't ever created a single backlink to myself personally or the websites I continually personally backlink to - NONE of them are affected.

And the important factor here? QUALITY content and offering the visitor a pleasurable experience. Simple.

[theebookcavern]

Hey guys - I agree that you don't need to be social to rank well. However, I don't think it's as simple as saying write quality content and give the visitor a pleasurable experience and you will be find.

I got slapped in the mid-October Google Panda update. I have been writing regular, unique and quality content for my website since October 2007 and have continued to do so since getting slapped. Unfortunately, my rankings haven't returned.

I checked out a few of the sites that are now ranking above me and 1 site is a single page which just says "This site is undergoing maintenance". It has been like that for over 1 month now but it is still ranking very highly for a competitive term. I don't see how that constitutes quality content.

Before I got slapped I used to think that I would always rank well because of my quality content. Now that I have been slapped I can say for certain that quality content on its own is not always enough.

[neil_patmore]

Ranked #1 in Google USA and UK for "lose weight" as well as "lose weight fast" (site sold in the meantime, new owner dropped the site in rankings).

Convenient! :-)

[lovboa]

It's true. People are way overreacting about the panda updates.

If your site got hit by panda, it means it really deserved to get hit by panda ..meaning it wasn't worthy of ranking as high as it was ...meaning create sites that deserve a #1 rank and you won't be panicking when a new panda update arises.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by DPM70

Totally agree on the Social thing. Don't do any of it - hasn't affected my rankings diddly squat.

Same here. I think Panda is all about on-site quality factors and not backlinks tbh.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by theebookcavern

However, I don't think it's as simple as saying write quality content and give the visitor a pleasurable experience and you will be find.

Of course not. Backlinks still play the main part in the ranking process. Panda just introduced certain on-page quality "checks" or whatever. Freshness in certain categories, etc.

Honestly, if you provide regular and unique/quality content then ranking well should be a non-issue. You just have to build (read buy) backlinks.

[Iain Key]

Totally agree.
However, I have found that new domains need some social aspect where as aged domains tend not to need it so much

[egrovesys]

Still am not getting any awareness about panda, but i din know why i am not having interest and doing as usual my works so am not getting any changes for my site's keywords.