Panda Algorithm
Panda, is the official name of Google’s Algorithm which was created to target short and low-quality content. Panda Algorithm decreases the chance of displaying low quality content in search results and rewards high quality websites and content.
Panda Algorithm was introduced at a time that everybody was complaining about low quality search results and content farms. Panda uses an algorithm that that assigns pages a classification, based on human quality ratings to deliver better results for users. Today Panda is a part of core Google Search algorithm.
Websites that recover from the impact of Panda do so by revamping pages with low-quality content, adding new high-quality content, eliminating filler words and above the fold ads, and in general improving the user experience as it relates to content.
Why Google created Panda?
In 2010, the Google Search was facing a fundamental problem. It was filled with farmed content and low quality search results. This crisis exposed Google’s business model which was based creating uninspired content, making it viral through social software and make money from ads.
Panda is solitary and shy They live alone for most years of their lives.
Following the problems Google was facing, In 2011 Business Insider journal published the headline:
Google’s Search Algorithm Has Been Ruined, Time To Move Back To Curation!
All the negative press about Google Search was undoubtedly a contributing factor in creation of Panda algorithm.
Google Panda Algorithm Updates
The first version of Panda algorithm was introduced on February 23, 2011. A day later, Google published a post stating that they: “launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries.”
This was the blog post by Google expressing the purpose of this update:
This algorithm was created to diminish mediocre and farmed content. Mostly content that did not bring any value to the user. However, on the other hand, this Algorithm improves the ranking of websites with useful content; and websites with original, high quality, unique, useful and research content will be ranked higher.
The Founder of Search Engine Land website minded this update as ”Farmer”. Although later on, it was announced by Google that this algorithm had been known as the Panda algorithm from the very beginning.
After this algorithm was published and updated, a research was conducted by the Search Metrics Institute, titled “Winners and Losers,” which showed that the sites that ranked the lowest really deserved it. after this update some of the famous websites, like WikiHow, tried to follow the correct instructions and improve the quality of their websites.
The most obvious change was the introduction and improvement of Algorithm Panda in which completely destroyed the ” Content Farm”.
Content Form was a method in which site administers were publishing high or low value articles in high numbers and they were making destructive linking on those websites.
According to statistics, most downgraded websites had at least one of the following issues:
- Inappropriate design
- Annoying advertisements
- Consumedly repetition of keywords on the page
- Failing to observe editorial and grammatical tips
- Using repetitive phrases
- Low-quality content
Being released from Panda’s penalty; a heavy price for making Panda angry
If Panda algorithm fines your website, it would not be easy to resolve.
As long as this Algorithm, regarding to the quality content, improves the quality of the site’s performance and function, the best solution would be novel and unique content production and betterment of previously published content.
In many cases, it can be seen that a website has been able to get rid of Google’s penalties by eliminating non-value contents and production of useful content.
At the beginning of Panda’s activity, some of the fined websites produced new pages by combining and merging contents that had common subjects together. They also retrieved their rank and got rid of penalty by editing and renovating the content and structure of these pages.
Panda Algorithm had many changes in these years. firstly, this Algorithm’s look was at the entire site and the quality of the content was on all pages, but continuously, focused on each page of the site.
Panda may only remove one or a few pages from your website from Google results, but if the number of penalized pages by Panda is high, all pages on your website will be downgraded.
My Website has been penalized by Panda, What I’m supposed to do?
If your website has been fined by Panda Algorithm and you are totally sure that this degradation has been due to this fact, you will have a complicated process to get rid of it. The first step is to decide whether this site is worth to spend money and time or not?
The Websites that sell worthless contents are divided into two main categories. The first category will be the ones that, along with their valuable and rich contents, publish a large number of articles and news that have been collected from others websites.
The second category will be the websites that have no valuable contents and what they have is a collection of contents which have been amassed from other websites automatically and manually.
If you are in the first category, my suggestion is to eliminate extra pages and low-value contents from your website and use Remove URLs tools in Google Search Console to eliminate them from Google Search Results as well. So If your site is in this category, the impact of the Panda algorithm on that would be the same as the page below:
If you are the second category, you have nothing to lose. you haven’t got into trouble a lot to create these pages or set up this site and losing it cannot be a problem. We suggest completely forget this site and its domain and launch another site with a correct SEO strategy and content production. The following image is a sample of site penalties by the Panda algorithm for these websites.
Now that we can completely grasp the importance of content production, it would be great to learn standard methods for creating high quality content as well.
How I can make valuable content?
The answer is so simple but the implementation is so difficult.
Producing valuable content requires a lot of time and money.
If you got the habit to copying content, it will be difficult to start writing.
But do NOT disappointed; there are so many people that started writing and then became triumphant.
keep these points in mind if you want to produce valuable content
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Do not sacrifice quality over quantity
No matter how many articles you publish per day or if your articles contain couple thousand words. It’s important that the content published by you is valuable to the user. If you set a specific rate for content creation, you will have actually affect its quality.
It may take some two weeks to create proficient content, but be aware that its worth would be more than 5 routine articles.
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The criteria for your success are not just Google’s rankings
We’ve gotten used to quickly review an article’s position in Google results after publishing one. Our goal for content marketing is not just SEO or gaining a place in the results.
Our main goal is to satisfy the audience
The main criteria for measuring your success in content creation should be the number of users comments, sharing on social networks or direct feedback from friends and users.
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Think about the audience’s needs before writing
Instead of focusing on the search for words and targeting short and general terms, it’s best to focus on the user’s actual needs and long phrases.
Currently, 75% of searches in Google have more than 3 words
Be careful when writing content, instead of focusing on a specific word or phrase, try to explain a specific concept to a user. By doing this, instead of constantly repeating one word, we will address all phrases and related issues.
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Know Google’s standards for understanding the content of the pages
The content is written for the user, but to be more successful, Google robots must understand it correctly.
Content marketing means content creation for the user with respect to SEO standards
Google uses a variety of algorithms to recognize the subject matter of a page. If you understand them and follow the standard writing structure, the content of the page will be valuable both from the point of view of Google and the user. These standards and techniques are taught during the SEO strategy and content production at the NetWarestudio blog.
The following image is an example of the success of a Website after being released of fines by the Panda algorithm. As shown in the chart, this site is experiencing an abrupt jump and afterwards, a consistent slow growth.
The rate of views of a Website after being released of fines by the Panda algorithm
What factors does Panda algorithm investigate?
Matt Cutts, former head director of fighting against spam on Google, said about Google Panda: “We designed a questionnaire before designing and developing the algorithm, and then, according to these questions and their answers, we developed this algorithm.” By being aware of these questions, you can plan the content of your website in a way that satisfies both the users and the Panda algorithm.
These questions were included in the questionnaire:
- Do you think this site is valid?
- If an article is published in a bestselling magazine, is it enough be attractive?
- Was there annoying advertisement on this website?
- Can I trust the information displayed on this page?
- Does the site contain duplicate articles or articles with the same content but with different keywords (Duplicate Content) used?
- If you wish, would you like to give your credit card information to this site?
- Are there problems with writing, editing or many errors and mistakes in this article?
- Is the content of the site based on the needs of users or to gain high ranks in search engines?
- Does this page provide impressive and compelling added value compared to other web pages in search results?
- Has this article examined different aspects of the subject?
- Is the site well known and an expert in its subject? (Authority)
- Does this site produce a lot of content which does not have much valuable content?
- Has the content been well edited or not?
- Is this article a complete and conceptual explanation of the topic in question?
- Does this article include rational analyzes and intriguing and interesting information?
- This article is so valuable that you need to bookmark it or share it with your friends? (Social Signal)
- Does this page use excessive advertisement that causes distraction?
- Is this article too short and is its content not useful? (Thin Content)
- In the preparation of this article, was there sensitivity and attention towards the details or not?
- Are users not annoyed or frustrated by looking at these pages?
Panda’s algorithm tries to detect high-quality content from duplicate or low-value content. To do this, we will examine many factors. As a result, Panda is not just looking for pages or content, but it can also check the quality of the content.
Even if the content is entirely proficient, it may not be able to gain a place because of incorrect writing or lacking the ability to deliver the message
Google has never published a specific checklist of factors which are investigated by Panda, but the answers to the above questions are what valuates your content.
Wrong assumptions about the Panda algorithm
Usually due to the multiplicity of Google algorithms, some are mistaken and cannot distinguish their performance differences. Here are some of the most important misconceptions about the Panda algorithm
1- Panda only looks at copying content!
The first and foremost false belief about Google’s Panda algorithm is that some people think the Panda algorithm is just about duplicate content. Google users have repeatedly emphasized that, while Panda’s algorithm encourages websites to create unique content, its duty goes beyond prevention of duplicate content.
The duplicate content problem is a separate and independent problem from the Panda algorithm. What the Panda algorithm is looking for is providing content with unique and valuable information to the user.
Google is looking for pages that are distinct from other web pages and convey new content or concepts to the user
- The content generated by the user isn’t valuable!
Another wrong belief is that Panda does not consider the content created by the user worthy.
This belief is incorrect. The Panda algorithm has no problem with the content created by the user, and only decreases sites with weak and unworthy content.
For example, if the content made by the user on your website is worthless or of little worth, Google may also consider it worthless, but this does not mean that Google is in general difficult with the user-generated content. The difference is that whether the content is a comment, an article or any other type, the only important thing is the quality, value added and the absence of any spam in the content.
For example, sites like (Quora) and (Yelp) all get their content from users, which in many cases are similar to each other, but these sites are not penalized by the panda, because this algorithm is able to understand their difference and value.
3- The panda algorithm does not pay attention to the technical affairs of the website!
Some mistakenly think that this algorithm also looks at the technical affairs of the website. The panda algorithm only focuses on the content. Although technical affairs are of great importance to SEO, Panda does not pay attention to the technical affairs of your site, including the speed of the site.
