SEO: Google Panda, what it is and how to defend yourself

The name recalls that of the cute animal, Google Panda is one of the biggest bogeymen for webmasters. Subject to hundreds of annual changes, the algorithm that rewards interesting sites is an enemy to fight.

Google Panda is a filter, based on an algorithm developed by Navneet Panda, the company's technician, which analyses web pages and penalises unattractive or sites lacking quality content for visitors. How it works is not entirely clear.

 

Google Panda is based on the analysis of an almost emotional component, and takes into account, thanks to the latest changes, the actions of Internet users. Increasing or decreasing a webpages score are navigation data, searches, the "bounce rate" as well as the time spent on the individual pages. The first findings show an imperfect predictability of the logarithm. In some cases, well-made sites with valuable contents have been penalised and, vice-versa, there has been an appreciation of pages of minor importance. Being very attentive to circumstance, Google has given users a form to report any anomalies. Although defending yourself from Panda is not easy, it is not impossible.

 

The immediate and most important action is to improve your sites quality and follow the same questions that the logarithm answers, which Mountan View company makes available to use as an example. Aspects to work on are page layouts and content. Panda not only penalises sites that have a high concentration of duplicate content, but also the presence of non-original elements (in short, "echoing" to other more known sites note does not scale up the Serp), an excess of advertising especially at the top of the screen, an insufficient presence of true contents in relation to other elements (the presence of a few lines of text and many images can be penalising). What's fundamental is the "involvement" of users and "reputation".

 

A lack of visibility and brand recognition, the number of users who leave the site after viewing a single page (rebound), a low stay, a limited number of returning visitors, are all aspects that significantly lower the rank.