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Panda: Algorithm Analysis and Social Capital

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Posted 22nd January 2012 at 08:38 PM by fractal0107
Updated 23rd January 2012 at 09:48 AM by fractal0107 (grammar errors)

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Yet again the proverbial Google Panda hit us with yet another update. Even though this was small enough to pass by most people, Google's maid algorithm still rolled out its ongoing quest to clean up the web.

Search Engine Marketing has always been an industry that has faced many challenges that are different each year, requiring a careful eye and a wealth of knowledge to help create success for many different types of organizations within the search engines. With 2011 bringing many new algorithm changes, particularly for Google, that have affected millions of websites and how SEO's plan and carry out each and every campaign.

2011 Algorithm Recap
Each and every year it is well known that there are around 400 to 500 algorithmic changes with
several being publicised. And 2011 was no exception, there were many big announcements that made the news such as the introduction of the +1 button that launched in March. The +1 button created a social element to the search engine results page (SERPs), that had a direct influence of the results of organic and paid search of every user that has a large amount of members in their Google + circles. As expected the social icons have now become apparent and as standard on many websites that promote sharing to other well known social websites such as Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon.
Another area of the algorithm that gathered a lot of attention was Panda updates that finished with Panda update 3.1, by late November. The initial update involved the rolling out of Panda to all English queries worldwide. Along with many other new signals. Further updates involved many minor changes that lead to the international roll out of Panda for both English and non-English queries, mid-August.
Surprisingly, mid-June support for schema.org was announced by all major search engines. With the goal of creating support for structured data, among all of the search engines. But, the biggest news story of the year was no doubt the announcement of encrypted search that supports SSL. It was made clear that many search queries would become encrypted. Therefore, anyone signed into their Google account will have all their search queries encrypted and any site visited through Google SERPs will no longer be able to access 'referrer' data, such as search terms. With a percentage as little as 5% of searches this would account for was given. But many found it to be much greater as the days went on.

2012 Algorithm Predictions
There are many different areas that could become targeted throughout the duration of 2012. But one of the most increasing markets is no doubt mobile. With mobile search rising at a staggering rate there will no doubt be major changes ahead, along with social playing a large role as it did throughout 2011. With Google+ still growing month on month it will no doubt begin to challenge Facebook and Twitter as the year progresses but to what extent no-one knows.

Speculation has arrived at the possibility of Google merging different services such as either
replacing or combining Google Places and each companies Google+ page. Much similar for
Google places becoming combined with Google+. With over 62 million users and a predicted 400
millions users by the end of 2012, this is half of current Facebook followers and only took one and a half years compared to Facebook's eight.

Therefore there is more than enough understanding as to the reason for doing so.
As mentioned above, Google's encrypted search is believed to rise from more than the originally
given figure of 5% up to 30%. This will be directly correlated to mobile search that will rise
throughout 2012. Can we be sure? Only time will tell.

With the exception of search engine developers, no one knows what that the future holds for search engine optimization (SEO) but 2011 was an important year for all in the SEO industry and 2012 looks even more exciting, with the star no doubt being mobile search. The 2.6 update was basically some minor tweaks to the recent September release of the Panda updates of 2.5. The original updates in September did send some web-sites reeling into obscurity at the same time it gave a needed boost to others. Google were very quick to react to the mass changes within the algorithms and rolled the release back.

Once again, Google has also turned up the heat on video content sites and rewarded them accordingly. This comes as no surprise, as the implementation of the search by reading level never really took off. The problem with the literacy level, was that to aim a web-site at the masses you have to use a reading level of the 5th grader in terms of comprehension. Which in Google's eyes, did not sit well.

So the rise to video content is a definite move, away from literacy. Giving more weight to visual
presentation of content, rather than the readability of the said content. It has been no secret that Google's algorithm has been evolving in this direction for some time. Those that took heed to Google's changes in the past, did in some respect turn out to be winners in the new updates.

Social Media and Algorithms
Google is again pushing the Google +1 point home yet again, which with due respect we all
should have seen coming. They have reached a point of now outwardly promoting web-sites that have high +1 on their web-sites. Could this be a play into abolishing small web-sites throughout the internet? I do not think so, I think it is a clear message from Google that in order to stay in the game you need to make sure your content is relative to what people want and like. Conversely, social search only factors into 1/3 or even possibly 1/8 of the entire equation set.

The only downside to this is as a marketer, starting out with a new web-site; it is going to take a lot longer to gain any weight within the search engines for the +1 rankings, which could replace the Page Ranking that Google have used for years. It is inevitable, but a fact that Page Ranking is going the way of the dinosaurs, extinct! Now many of you will disagree with me over that statement, but take a look at past actions by Google and tell me that you can not read anything into the inheritance of the algorithm evolving into a more social search based engine derived from +1 likes. However, social search may never evolve beyond 50%. Thus, preserving the Page Rank equation set.

The down side I see to the +1 social factor is you need heavy traffic to sustain it. Out of every 100 visitors to your web-site you may have one that will give you the thumbs up or +1 like. Once again the big players have an instant advantage now of using their leverage over the next few years to build higher +1 likes than the smaller website, due to the large volumes of traffic. Another point to the +1 likes is that we need to once again train web surfers into using this system.

The Google Panda update was a tsunami for search engine marketers. Some people love the
changes made while others can't stand it. Whatever your view of the big changes, the important thing to understand is there is no going back and, in fact, things are going to continue going in the direction of Panda at least according to Matt Cuts of Google.

What did Panda really do? Well, it did a number of things, but the real key seems to be that it did a number on spammed content sites that offer no real value to anyone. You know what I am talking about. We've all been frustrated by sites ranking highly that have content that is clearly duplicate content or spun articles that are barely readable. This was so maddening because Google supposedly was focusing on the readability of the content on sites, something that was clearly not happening.

The Panda update finally appeared to address these issues. Junk sites were pounded and either de-indexed or dropped massively in the rankings. This expanded to article directories which almost always contained the same articles in their databases. Unfortunately, this meant some of the better article directories were downgraded just as much as the weak ones.

Trends

So, what can we take from the Panda update in relation to the future? Well, nothing has really
changed when it comes to the emphasis of the search engines. Specifically, content is king. Google has always said "invest in original, quality content." Google is going to continue to emphasize social media marketing, which is hardly surprising given the challenge facing the company in the form of Facebook, which plans to go public with it's IPO sometime in May.

How do you plan for the future with your site given these changes? Simple. You must tailor your site towards exclusive, original and engaging content. On top of this, you need to actively engage in social media and generate a bevy of different types of links for your site. Sadly, the days of just pumping out articles to build links and gain rankings are long gone.

One of the biggest things forecasted in search engines this year 2012, have been the Google Panda Updates. Panda is an attempt by Google to reward high quality sites with better rankings. It involves an algorithmic change that began in the US early 2011 and has since been rolled out to the rest of the English-language world. Whereas most changes to algorithms are minor and pass unnoticed - Panda noticeably impacted 10-32% of queries. Panda was designed to improve rankings for high quality sites thereby connecting searchers on
Google to the most relevant information as quickly as possible. The converse effect was to reduce rankings for low quality sites such as content farms and those that just copy content from other sites without offering any real value add for users. For many websites Panda went unnoticed. Some increased in rankings and traffic without making changes and some dropped. The initial update saw about 12-32% of US queries affected. There were some webmasters waking up with Panda eyes. Website rankings left looking as much of a mess as the eyes of women who've gone to sleep with their make-up on. Google reports they are receiving positive feedback with searchers finding better results. However some webmasters report high quality sites with expert articles and content have been hit. After playing with the sites which were certainly not thin on content or unique information it would appear that user behaviour such as bounce rate may have played a big role. The site offering very long, detailed content and not what most searchers of keywords they ranked for were actually after. Ongoing Panda updates have been incorporated into the rollout to English language Google users. User feedback signals have been included. User feedback is difficult to measure by machine so it relies on things like bounce rates, time on site and return visits. Mentions and links in social media networks are increasingly important as is traffic moving to and from. While the algorithm will continue to be tested and refined, there is a belief at Google that the algorithm changes are very accurate at detecting site quality; almost as if websites have a quantum field, or frequency, which Panda itself is able to detect. Of course, that would defy what we currently know about quantum fields, would it not?

Offer great content and value to users branded to your business. Encourage sharing, likes and
activity.

Have a wide ranging approach to search engine optimization to sure up your rankings - not rely on one stream such as article marketing. Know, understand and follow Google's website quality
guidelines. Encourage user feedback and activity.

Ensure the content on page and keyword searches are aligned. Use the toolbar data like bounce rates and time on site to find page and keyword combinations that are not working for searchers. Fix any design issues that negatively impact the user experience. Thus ensure users can easily access content, can easily find related content and find the best content to tempt then to stay above the fold.

Give readers the opportunity to easily share the content they like. A lot of people have been saying lately that article marketing is dead. They say it is a lost art... a waste of time... a waste of money... something that can not make you any money anymore. Well, I flat out disagree and I honestly feel the people who say this are completely uniformed, or they don't see the big picture of what Google did, which is to bring only the best results to their customers.

Let me explain...Back in February 2011, Google shocked the Internet world and turned it upside down with a HUGE update called the Panda update. The basic premise of the update was that content farms (duplicate content websites) were hit the hardest. In fact, some websites lost 75%-100% of their traffic overnight.

A content farm basically was a website that posted duplicate content on their site instead of only having original quality content. So here was the main problem before the Panda update happened.

The silver lining in all of this is the people who were ethical and created original content actually benefited from this update, not got hurt by it. You see, if you're the author of an original piece of content, you can actually put your content wherever you want, as long as you are recognized as the author for that piece of content, no matter where it goes.

As long as you understand the ramifications of where your content gets indexed first, you should be benefiting from the Panda update, not getting hurt by it. So, is article marketing dead? Not in your wildest dreams. In fact, if you do article marketing right, you can use that strategy as your best source of high quality traffic for your online business.

Google unleashed its Panda update upon the digital world early in 2011, and it changed the
landscape for the SEO community and certainly focused the minds of many webmasters on
paying far more attention to particular areas of their website when going about optimization.
If you thought 2011 would spell the end of the matter, you would be mistaken. Panda 2.5 patch came in Dec. 2011, the next big 2012 update (3.0) is looming on the horizon and may well create as many surprises as the original.

So, in order to ensure that your website has a good SEO strategy moving forward into 2012 what sort of things should you be considering?

Good Quality Content
It makes sense starting with this as good quality content should be at the forefront of any webmasters mind and its importance cannot be emphasized enough. Without this a website
does not stand a chance. Always remember, content should be original. Bots are smarter than ever these days.

Diversification
Look closely at where your website traffic originates from and explore new avenues and
opportunities for visitor generation. Being well optimized on Google organic searches is great
however you should not allow your business to become solely reliant on this as its source of
income. Even the best SEO's can make mistakes and sometimes things can occur that are out of
your control that could affect rankings such as server issues or mistakes by colleagues.

Paid search
Personally, I do not use it, nor do I endorse it as a "necessary" way to earning anything online. Perhaps, it is sometimes a good route of income that is not properly explored by many people.

Make Friends
Otherwise known as community building and a bit of an unknown at present and with the ongoing discussion as to whether Google will at some point use social signals from +1 to determine rank.

Of course a big part of this is whether +1 reaches a size where it will be worth incorporating it in the search algorithm.

Putting the time and effort in building a community will help lessen the impact that a Panda update may have in the future. Remember to write for people to read, not a machine. Google's own guidelines tell us this and its well worth addressing this early rather than leaving it until further down the line when the damage may already have been done.

In 2012, Google will be implementing more Panda. There is a Panda 3.0 coming out any day now. And for you website to succeed this year, it's essential to know the effect Panda has on you. I've listed the top two SEO changes that Google is focusing on this year, after scouring the web and pages of techie advice.

2012 SEO SECRET #1: Google wants at least 1300 words. There's a reason: Google does not want less content. Make sure you or your writers are shooting for 1300-2000 words in every website page or blog. Rank higher by simply adding more quality content, articles or blogs to your existing website.

2012 SEO SECRET #2: Most Importantly. Absolutely NO article spinning, farming, or copying.

Google is not tolerating any of this in 2012.

Countless websites were penalized for this when Google Panda 2.5 came out in the latter half of 2011. Get rid of your article spinning software, and if you're not sure what "farming" means, its better that way.

This is the most important statement in this article; if you want your website to succeed - make sure, above all else, you [or your writers] are using 100% original content and plenty of it.
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