3 Types of Sites Affected By the Panda Update
Well the Panda update has now become old hat and now we can see clearly the exact impact of the update on the Internet. There are three basic kinds of websites which have seen a major impact, both good and bad as a result of the Panda update. Here’s what you need to know.
The Basics of the Panda Update
For those brand new to the world of SEO or those who have been living in a cave for the past six months or so, the Panda update is in essence an effort by Google to do away with the tyranny of the content farms which would put up spammy junk on their websites which targeted pretty much every keyword imaginable with piles of thin content.
The new algorithm was intended to allow Google to filter out more of this thin content and to add in better quality content which would actually have some real value. After all, that’s the main intention behind the Google search engine – to let people search for things they want to know about and get the most relevant results possible.
Content Farms
While most people expected content farms like eHow to be affected most by the Panda update, the real impact was actually felt by other sites, such as HubPages and Suite 101, sites which allow anyone to post whatever content they want to post. eHow wasn’t quite as affected as other sites were, though they also saw a certain amount of impact.
In both cases however, these websites didn’t see all of their content disappear from the first page of the SERPs for popular keywords. The question was really a matter of whether or not the individual pages had real content which was well put together and useful. The sites as a whole had a lot of junk and that had a bad effect on them as a whole, though individual pages which were actually useful did manage to stay in the rankings.
Article Directories
The other kind of site which took a huge hit from the Panda update was the world of article directories. Sites like Ezine Articles, Article Alley and all the others that we’ve all been using to distribute our content in order to build backlinks. The fact is that Ezine saw the least impact because they had higher standards for the content which was published on their site, but all the directories took a huge hit.
The reason for this is simple – people had for years been putting junk onto all these websites which had no value to them and as such, the new Panda update has had a very bad effect on these kinds of sites. The ones that survive will clean up their acts and insist on high standards for the material they post. The rest will simply disappear.
Small Sites
Finally, smaller, lesser known sites, at least in theory were given a fairer shake thanks to the Panda update on the theory that they had real content which was designed to be more comprehensive (assuming of course the content really was useful and really was original).
From what I have heard, most websites have benefited overall from the Panda Update. The sites that were abusing google and spamming alot are the main sites that got bumped down. Most important thing is to have a website that people like, not to bring bulk traffic there but misleading them.
Panda has been a total nuisance. The small websites that published genuine stuff were affected. And, the rubbish sites like loans and stuff are still there. There is no benefit. The big sites are continuing to be big players and the small are dying….!!
I’ve noticed a lot of big directories got hammered too… funny thing is, I just sat through a meeting with CBS where they were trying to sell one of my clients an “enhanced profile” on citysearch (which they partnered with) for $500/month!
Of course I discounted every pitch they had. They couldn’t even provide metrics for their claims. It’s really just amazing how many companies are selling similar services to non-technical business owners without having buffers like us to refute all there claims. I’ve seen another company go so far as to show us pictures of their CEO with a google employee at the headquarters in California… then tell us that they have inside knowledge of the algo and that for $1500/month they would add user reviews to google places, and that this would increase the rankings of their site “because Google told us it would” and we have the pictures of our CEO at a meeting with Google to prove it!! I couldn’t believe my ears. I told them, what you are doing is probably illegal for starters (using Google as an endorsement), secondly, it’s absolutely false… How do I know? because I consistently beat out my competitors that have tons and tons of reviews where we only have 2 or 3. And thirdly Google isn’t nearly dumb enough to give away secrets like that nor have the ability to influence rankings by doing something so easy like adding reviews.
Now had they altered their pitch to say, you are more likely to get clicked if you have more reviews, well then, maybe.. but certainly not for $1500/month!!!
just my 2 cents…
LOL. Yeah, sadly in this business it seems we’re surrounded by charlatans who will say almost anything to make a quick buck. But hey, I’ll take that $1500 a month if it’s on offer and write all the Google Places reviews you want 😛
Sadly, it’s definitely a work in progress. I know a number of my clients reported being affected, this in spite of my content being completely original and always high quality…
I’m not so sure. I know I have clients who said they went down since Panda in spite of having well researched, original content (I know it’s well researched and original, because I wrote it :))
I have noticed some strange things regarding websites since the Panda update. The page rank of many web pages has been fluctuating. Going up then coming down, often times dropping below their earlier PR. I don’t understand why page ranks are being effected if they have nothing to do with the search algo. But hey its Google and they do what they want.
I would imagine that some of their page rank was based on the value of links which are now considered less or more valuable thanks to Panda…
Work is a fucking scam. What kind of world is this that some people spend 60 hours a week pulling fries out of hot grease? What does a $300,000 car say to the cosmos? Please, fucking wipe us out with a giant asteroid already?, is what.
That’s one way to look at it. Another way is to say that you should work smarter.