Google regularly tweaks its algorithms in order to ensure good quality content to be displayed in its search engine results. Google has named such updates as ‘Panda’. The first update was released in Feb, 2011 in US and later, in April it was released across most English speaking regions. The release of Panda Update helped much good high-quality content to be ranked higher in the search index. The basic intention of Google is to provide users with the best, fresh and relevant information through its search engine.
Spam and the Panda Update
Spamming is usually done in two manners; on-page spam and off-page spam. On page spam consists of stuffing the content with keywords, especially in the first paragraph in order to be ranked high. Such copies are written for the search engines and not for the people looking for relevant information. On- page web spam also includes other methods such as doorway pages and hidden texts, all such techniques are officially against Google guidelines. In case of off page spam, it mainly consists of link schemes that would increase the page rank. Panda update is an automated filter that based on the relevance of the content adjusted the rankings. In case a website suffers from a Panda penalty, it is required to clean up from its spam content and post relevant high-quality content. Thus this also meant removing and replacing old recurring articles with new fresh and in-depth content and removal of product pages which did not contain any distinctive information.
Penguin Update
Released in April 2012, the Penguin Update is a host of algorithm modification churned by Google in order to address spamming issues in websites. It specifically targets keyword stuffing, backlink and cloaking which are strictly against the Google guidelines. Google aims to punish spam websites and thus provide users with quality content. Link spam is the target of the Penguin Update as links are a powerful tool in generating traffic. SEO’s misused this tool and thus Google took notice of it. Apart from keyword stuffing, links, cloaking and hidden texts, Sub domains and multiple domains containing duplicate content are also targeted by the Penguin Update.
Small Businesses Affected
The changes are bound to affect businesses that have been using various techniques to gain higher page ranks, but those who have been relying solely on the links and keyword stuffing will be affected severely. Businesses need to respond to the changes quickly and adopt methods that adhere to the guidelines.
Small businesses will be unable to react to the changes quickly as they lack the expertise as well as the funds to immediately change their SEO tactics. Search Engines are critical for small business thus when their page ranking is affected, it severely affects their business, thus it is imperative for such businesses to take notice of the changes and discuss it with their Vancouver SEO vendor.
All these changes clearly suggest that companies and SEO vendors need to gear-up for more Updates and thus apply right techniques that adhere to the Google guidelines.