Googles Panda is Dazed and Confused – 4.1 Update

Well, its that time of the year again. Google rolls out its Panda 4.1 update. Seems with older age the Panda is still dazed and confused, but maybe its just the parents! 

As always, Google makes its search engine algorithm changes in an attempt to improve its search engine results and weed out spammers and sites with poor content. The question is always the same. Did it work, who got hit, and how do I minimize potential loss?

As we all know, Google is a business. As a business its focus is to maximize its revenues and to turn a decent profit. So at the end of the day, Google’s interests firmly lie in itself and with what will make them the most money, in this case… advertising.

So in an effort to balance getting advertising clicks, and to show good enough content to keep people using its search, they have a delicate balance of serving two opposing forces. Google is not the savior nor does it care about your rankings. They keep us SEO’s in business to ensure that our monthly revenue from clients is well earned and justifiable.

As Google keeps trying to weed out bad content it seems that their own properties are still doing just fine with YouTube being a major player in search results as are news items that are feed through the Google new feed. But are Yahoo or Bing any different?

The point is that the ranking battle is always the same. Diversify your traffic generation, with a mix of SEO, Social Media, and paid traffic. Syndicate where you can for more exposure, and provide good targeted content. 

The bottom line is that Google does manipulate results. Their bots that determine good content from bad is a joke and obviously flawed.  Just look at the sites that got hit or boosted on SearchMetrics. Considering what Panda 4.1 was after, there really is not much consistency with the sites that improved rankings and those that did not.

In both camps, some have good and bad content. So where to from here? Well, the same place as before… and I am being sarcastic for a reason.

As I implied above. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Like any good investment tip. To succeed in your online marketing you must diversify and stop trying to cheat the system. This update like others of the past, just is what it is, just like the cycle of life.

My Tips to Beat Google and the SEO Game of Thorns.

• Write good content that offers value that is of mixed length
• Do not over optimize with keyword stuff that makes it obnoxious to read
• Make sure your content has a clear topic and stick to it
• Add optimized images and video wherever possible to diversify on page content
• Syndicate your content wherever you can via Social Media and Social Bookmarking
• Don’t rely on SEO rankings for traffic. Use PPC as well if you site is optimized for lead generation.
• Convert your content into other media like video, as eBooks, and other media that can leverage other high traffic sources

Originally posted 2016-11-16 15:42:24.