To begin with Google Panda is a long-term algorithmic shift that involves several updates dating back from February 2011, no one is really apt to say when it will be finished. Google has been as busy as ever in pruning out spammy websites along with links (Google Penguin Update).
It is also important to note that Google Panda is aimed at improving the On-page level of optimization a website encounters as such it has arrived at the term, “over-optimization” and in essence followed by the post of Google Fellow Amit Singhal (see: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html) and has been so far the only advice given to webmasters that unfortunately brought up more questions than answers.
Upon further deduction and analysis of other approaches by internet marketers one of the most effective ways of getting back from Panda would be the following:
A. User Generated Content
- Customer Testimonials
- Product or service ratings (rich snippets)
- Product and service customer reviews
- Discussion Boards
- Customer or site driven wikis
- Product tutorials
- How to guides or FAQ’s
- Company or customer interviews
- Social Media Content (see below)
B. Good Quality Content (500-700 words)
- Content that answers your client’s questions
- Content that connects with your clients
- Content that is interactive with yours
C. Engage in Social Media & Author Profiles
Top Profiles You Need To Optimize:
a) Google+ & Facebook
- Sprinkle related keywords on the profile, you can do the same. Do not simply drop them. Mix them into your descriptions. Your profile is a professional “Name Card” that tells people who
you are. It could be the “FIRST” conversation you are going to have with your people who is interested to know about you! So do it well.
1) Ensure “Profile discovery” is set to “visible in search”.
2) In “Other Profiles”, list your other profiles. On mine, I listed my Facebook profile and pages.
3) “Contributor To” this is where you list the domains/sites you contribute content to.
4) “Links” – Give some link juice to your site from Google.com
Both FB and G+ are the most important profiles that will influence your authorship. Details on both must match. Matching and linking these 2 will build a strong authorship relevance.
b) LinkedIn
- Do the same as above
c) Gravatar
- Gravatar stands for Global Recognized Avatar. When you setup a profile picture on Gravatar with an email, every time you comment on someone’s blog with your email, you will be recognized and your gravatar image will load.
Gravatar is NOT just an avatar. When you comment on reputable sites using your Gravatar, you are building a voice on the internet, a footprint that Google can follow to know more about
you. The more you comment, the more keywords you use while commenting, the deeper the context of your comment, the more reputable you become.
Google is following everyone’s actions on the Internet. You want to create a series of actions that will position yourself as an expert in your niche, and make it very clear for Google to follow.
On your Gravatar profile, make sure you have all your other profiles listed. This helps Google recognize you. It also tells Google all these profiles are owned by the same person.
Every time I put up an article, Google knows it’s from me. Google is able to understand about my expertise from my G+, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. They collectively tell Google who I am. The keywords I target on the profiles keeps me consistent with the content I am writing.
Across my profiles, I target some keywords that I want to be noticed of. I do not target them vertically, instead, I target them horizontally. For instance, I am targeting SEO, SEM, social media, consultant, strategies, lead generation, internet marketing, wordpress plugins, media analytics, reporting etc. Targeting keywords on your profile help you rank higher and easier when you have an article that’s about the areas you target.
Every time I comment on someone’s posts, Google is able to follow me back to my Gravatar, from which Google knows that’s me. This creates a huge “knowledge graph” relationship about who I am, what I do, what I write and how I engage myself in my niche.
d) Twitter
- Twitter is the game changer in all of this it is important that every site of yours has twitter integrated for it to have a more real time communication with its readers.
e) Pinterest
- Engage in pinterest optimization product offers
f) Instagram
- Open an instagram account for marketing purposes
D. On-page Optimization
- Increase Site Speed (Install plugins in order to increase the speed of a website – “Add plugins Wp-minfy and Smush.it. wp minfy will compress your css, javascript codes, and Smush.it plugin will compress and optimize your images. Install a caching plugin and configure it correctly, we recommend w3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache. Wp-minfy, Smush.it and any of the above two caching plugins is a must.” )
- Add chat functionality
- Make menus the target keywords
- Content Rewrite for major targeted keywords (700 words with graphics ex: videos or pictures)
- Increase number of blog upload
E. Off-Page Optimization
- You might have to change your linkbuilding method to as follows:
20% – your main keyword that you’re wanting to rank for
25% – related LSI keywords (these are keywords related to your main keyword. Think of these as the “related” searches that Google shows you as you’re typing in their search field).
35% – your URL as the anchor text, as well as other combinations of “branded keywords”.
20% – generic keywords (ex: click here, for more info log on to)