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Google Panda 4.1 that was launched on 25 September 2014, is the new algorithm tool from Google that aims at selecting webs with low-quality contents. Since the launch of the algorithm, many online products and websites have lost their tracks on the search engine. The finishing is the result of the research conducted by BrightEdge. How exactly does this iteration of Panda affect the web content strategy positively and negatively?

The Differences of Panda 4.1 from the Previous Version

Even though Google is quite strict in maintaining the secrecy of their algorithm, but there are some explanations that can be collected from the Google representatives and from some data analyses that are distributed in the web marketing community. One difference is that this Panda algorithm version focuses on compact web contents, which means targeting on websites that are lacking of contents. It also aims at duplicate contents, especially for websites with quite big volume.

Besides that, this Google’s algorithm focuses on “spun” content or the machine-derived contents.  However, Google has stated that they will not use Panda 4.1 anymore because it has caused bad effects on many small websites and businesses. It will be replaced with the ordinary indexing method, and Google promises to use softer Panda as the previous version.

It then needs some explanations why Google announced the launching of this new version of Panda as the latest iteration of the algorithm. Based on the statement by Pierre Far, a Google webmaster trends analyst, there are some alters on the algorithm. Users and webmasters have some important roles in giving comments that make Google review again its actions. There are some other alternative ways found in identifying websites with the low quality contents more accurately to be applied on Panda. This way will help the websites with smaller to medium range achieve better ranks.

This is quite good news since many small and medium websites are still struggling to get higher position in the Google search. Following up the review, Google has made categories based on the public preliminary finding from the web and in BrightEdge. The new algorithm has classified two types of websites; those that are affected positively and those are affected negatively.

The Effect of Panda 4.1 on the Online Brands

It is not surprising that Panda 4.1 algorithm has affected most of the affiliate websites, as what Glenn Gabe writes about the updated Google algorithm. However, to his surprise that there are still some numbers of affiliate websites that still exist until today as if they were not damaged by the impacts of this Panda some times ago. Gabe has said that he has done some analyses towards some websites that are collapsed because of the new algorithm. He has witnessed many internet marketers suffered from losing their fortunes.

However, he then found that many affiliate websites still stand out firmly until now. This is quite an interesting case for him. He investigates that these surviving websites have been built since 2012. These websites only display quite small size of content and fill the rest of the page with the partner websites, including Amazon and the other e-commerce websites. The main goal of the content is to drive visitors to go to the affiliate links.

This case has encouraged Gabe to make some researches to mark the causes of the new Panda 4.1 algorithms will ruin certain websites. First, it will hardly hit those affiliate websites that do not provide information at all for the visitors, and merely act as the doors to the other affiliate links. The second thing is that if the websites use pop up pages to display their affiliate links to click. Visitors do not directly go to the pages they intend to, but driven to the affiliate partners of the websites. The third cause can be seen with the case of the appearance of a blank page or broken page after clicking. It also will destroy the websites that contain misleading contents, pop up advertisements, forced download, and security warnings.

According to BrightEdge analysis, there are some similar features, which have produced certain patterns, which can push the new Panda algorithm to act on some websites included in certain categories. Through its technology called as “Data Cube”, BrightEdge has a large data set. It then goes deeper into the affected websites in order to be able to identify the patterns that have triggered this version of Panda. First of all, the research reminds that the data are not from the websites, cheating or conduct illegal actions. This is purely one of the ways to obtain specific case samples to investigate more about the effects of the Panda 4.1 algorithm. This is very important especially for the internet marketers and for improving the performance of their websites.

The Effects of Panda 4.1 on the Informational Websites

One of the types of websites that are affected the new Panda algorithm is the websites that display general information. Websites that display various topics of information in general is the kind of websites that are affected negatively. For this kind of website, the results vary because of the quality of the content is also not uniform.

Additionally, these websites will be likely to have a hard competition with the websites, which already have specific niches. With the more specific niches, the contents will be more thorough and  usually have the answers for the questions from the information seekers with better information seekers. These website discuss certain things deeper. One example is the website of OrganicGardening.com that
appears on the top position.

People who have become internet marketers and some other related parties give the following statements regarding Panda 4.1 effects:

• Websites that have a specific theme and provide rich information for the visitor experience are considered to have full mastery of the material conveyed..
• Websites that are quite lacking of deep information and too little topics are considered as low-quality websites.

Website of Local Business

Panda Algorithm 4.1 also seems to have an impact on local businesses. Two local business websites that get the impacts are the ones, which specialize in the service industry. Some examples include a Japanese special website car repair service, and the websites of TV and the other household appliances repair service providers. One of thewebsites that get positive impact from Panda 4.1 is APlusJapaneseAutoRepair.com. This is because the website has a rich content and on some specific topics discussed deeply.

On the other hand, the website of NorthecElectronics.com is badly affected due to the overall content that is not sufficient.

There are several things, which can be drawn from the above cases. Businesses that provide in-depth content and topics that are sought by the target audiences will secure the reputation of the website. The structure of the website and the content writing is built based on SEO, which has quite large influence on the websites. Furthermore, these small business websites can dominate the market by following the rules of the Panda algorithm, because the websites have not too wide range of users and allow users to get connected to the website contents.

It is interesting to look at the websites with a variety of models affected and impacted by Panda 4.1 algorithm. It can be seen and done some searches on which websites have been affected, although it can not be seen directly the obvious impacts on each of these sites. The examples of the affected websites are; from government websites are FTC.gov, which is negatively affected and SEC.gov, which is positively affected. While the education websites; EverestCollege.edu is negatively affected and OgleSchool.edu is positively affected. From the education directory; GradSchools.com is negatively affected, while TheBestSchools.org is positively affected.

How to Change the Content Writing Strategy Based On Panda 4.1

The algorithm is not something created without clear purposes. Therefore, it should not be forgotten that the overall website content would provide certain experience for visitors. In the end, there are many things, which give an impact on the ranking of a website. Based on the analysis conducted on the websites affected by this new algorithm, other things can negatively affect the visitors’ experiences in searching for information on certain websites. For example, ads on the top side of the web page and the ratio of the image size to the text, which in turn can cause problems for visitors who use mobile phones and affect the page loading process become slow.

To understand what Google considers as a “quality experience”, it may refer to the search quality evaluation guide (version 1, 2012). This guide has been used to evaluate the quality of a particular website by the experts that Google hired. The information obtained will be very useful for the experts any time they need to test the latest update of a new algorithm. The position of a website is associated with the service quality criteria on the Google document.

In order to avoid the negative effects of the Panda 4.1 algorithm, there are some criteria to be followed as what Google regard as qualified websites.

• Website quality. It is very crucial to begin the website display with the most important page, the page with high traffic, or the page with high value. Then these criteria should be combined with the other criteria from the Google search quality evaluation guide to get the best evaluation of certain website’s performance on the Google page.
• Positive experience of visitors visiting the website. This can be reviewed using applications such as Google Analytics to collect data
• Each page should be optimized.

With the new Panda 4.1 algorithm, there should be serious improvements on the strategy to display and write qualified contents. This is because good contents, displays, and pages of a website will give visitors good experiences. This is what Google consider valuable websites to include in their pages.

Courtesy: BrightEdge