With the recent Google Panda / Farmer update, what effect does this have on small business websites and our marketing efforts?
I currently own my own business and have recently decided to ramp up our involvement in the online scene. I have been hearing a lot of buzz around this new algorithm update nick-named ‘Panda’ (and also 'Farmer") that was recently released by Google - now i’m not a huge SEO person so i wanted some expert opinions on how this will affect press releases and publicity that we want to push out into the public domain in the future?
Thanks ladies and gents, always been a fan of the advice i have seen on here!
It shouldn’t have any effect on your site at all, unless you are a low level, content stealer or scraper. Basically the panda update, devalued a whole range of ‘content farms’, which were simply commissioning very low level content, targeted purely for SEO.
Thanks for the reply, but im not sure if i clarified my answer: what does that mean around my press releases that i send out?
When i go to do my press releases my assistant has typically posted them into several online PR engines and places like that online where they seem to be picked up from there… do these count as content farms??
i guess the issue i have is that i no longer know whether these online pr sites are worth what im paying for them…
If the content you are posting is genuinely high quality and you are using real press release outlets. You will still get a benefit from using the services.
The panda update didn’t kill external link authority, it simply tried to clean away a bunch of junk sites, taking advantage of topical authority.
This update is a great one and Google users will feel very easy to find out their appropriate results. This update saves time for users, ranks the sites with quality content. This update will be helpful for both users and webmasters. Sites with rich content will get a good ranking.
With the recent Google Panda / Farmer update, what effect does this have on small business websites and our marketing efforts?
I currently own my own business and have recently decided to ramp up our involvement in the online scene. I have been hearing a lot of buzz around this new algorithm update nick-named ‘Panda’ (and also 'Farmer") that was recently released by Google - now i’m not a huge SEO person so i wanted some expert opinions on how this will affect press releases and publicity that we want to push out into the public domain in the future?
Well, did you lose any of your search rankings due to this update? If yes, then you need to work on bringing more content, and fresh links of quality to your site.
It might not effect your website if you continue on supplying good content to users - and you spread your site on the web pretty nicely - whether the links are from related websites, or from link wheel.
It all comes down to content, and executation. So, if the google panda update effected you - then you need to work on driving traffic from other methods, until your organic Google results come back.
It has devastated big sites that relied too much on content scraping or too much of content. Smaller that have too much content publishing involved may also experienced a slump. Looks like you don’t need to be afraid.
Max,
Recent Panda update only highlights the vagaries of webmasters in getting a consistent ranking in organic search results. For small businesses, it depends on how competitive the field is, for your products or services. If your business is going to offer products/services that are already well established by other online providers, it may be hard to get much traffic through organic searches. Submitting to PR sites, and other relevant websites is good, but may not be sufficient. Lot of unique and valuable content will be a plus.
Regarding Panda update here are a few links, if you are interested:
h??p://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4298972.htm
h??p://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4296934.htm
Just change the h??p with http
Best,
Hey, I was also wandering for the same question. I was also scared of panda updates after I came to know about what happened with Ezinearticles due to the updates. Now I am sorted out I got whole idea about How it works for sites. As my sites ranking are stable,that means there won’t be any bad effect on my sites.
This made me sit up. In general, at best, google devalues paid backlinks. At worst, google will penalise your website if those paid backlinks are adjudged to be for the purpose of manipulating google’s SERPs.
You don’t say which PR sites you are, in effect, buying backlinks from. If the PR site itself is generating clickthro’s for you then they may be worth continuing. But, personally, I would avoid paying for any backlink.
If you target your content at real people no update in search engine algorithms will have a long term effect. At worst your page may drop lower for a short period.
Its good to know that several members have their sites not affected by Panda update! Incidentally, there is some discussion going on in webmasterworld on layoffs due to Panda update here: h??p://www.webmasterworld.com/goog/4302481.htm (Wave of layoffs due to Panda Update) Just change h??p to http.
That is right, but, there seems to be no original left! For example, one of our product’s description was copied by several download sites. Now the web page that that holds the original content is also penalized.
Result: Google appears to be penalizing ALL the web pages that have similar content whether they are original or not! This is probably there is no mechanism to check for the original content. In the absence of such check, all pages will be penalized.
Yes, write good content, and have many sites copy your content. Now, Google has no way of knowing which is original or which is duplicate, and all pages (1 original + say 100 duplicates =101 pages) will be penalized!
BTW, if anybody could explain how Google knows the original content, it would benefit the members here. (Spammers are more likely to submit web page everywhere, like twitter, FB, etc. than the original content developer)
Well, most of the sites took a beating for couple of days (even those with top notch content), but the bizarre (a pleasant surprise) fact is that the traffic levels went sky rocketing next week!
And, some sites were penalized due to the sheer fact that content scrapers used copied content on their site!
But, if your site has suffered for this reason, try to file few DMCA complaints, and prevent scrapers from making you suffer!
It is not always the spammer that copies. It is sometimes encouraged by manufacturers (original content creator) to offer the content from their web pages to associates for branding purpose. After the update, it appears both the original page as well as the duplicate pages were penalized (irrespective of whether the content is taken for genuine purpose or scaped). Unless G has some reliable way of knowing the original content page, they should consider rolling back the recent updates.
Max.