In the past Google has had algorithms to determine where a website will show up in their search results. These algorithms were based mostly on backlinking and keywords. By using a combination of techniques, web designers, developers and content writers could get better Google ranking by.

 

The problem in the past is that some sites got high ranking when using these backlinking and keyword techniques. Sites could fool the algorithm into thinking that the site was more important or relevant to the searched item then it really was. Google has found a way to solve this issue, Panda.

 

Panda is a new system that now looks at your whole site, not just one page. Panda looks for a few different things that cannot be directly controlled by the sites designer, like the way visitors feel about the site. Now I say “directly” because you can’t force your visitors to think or react a certain way. It’s not like a survey that the visitor fills out every time they visit a site. Panda tries to determine the quality of the user experience. Here are a few things Panda looks at.

 

• Time on site – When a user comes to your site, Google tracks how long the user is on the site. The longer the user is on your site, the better Panda rank you will get

 

• Bounce rate – How often someone navigates to your site then leaves without diving further into the site. This shows Panda that your site is either not what the visitor was looking for, or not too confusing to navigate.

 

• Social shares – If a site has good information or a good article, people will love to share it. Panda looks at social networking sites (that don’t have the nofollow attribute). If your site or article is being shared, your rank goes up.

 

• Page views per visit – This is like Bounce rate, but goes into more depth of how many pages the visitor is actually viewing on your site. When the viewer visits more pages on your site, it shows Panda that the visitor isn’t loosing interest in the site.

 

• Brand specific searches – Once your brand name is out there and receives a good reputation, people will start searching you by name. The more that people do this and also navigate through your site, the higher your site will show in the results.

 

These are only a few of the things that Panda looks at, but you can see the pattern. If you keep people interested and keep them coming back, Panda will give you a better rank.

 

Because Google is so secretive about what actually goes into these algorithms they will not say exactly what to do to get better Panda results for your site. What they have released are a few questions that you can ask yourself when creating and writing your site.

 

More guidance on building high-quality sites (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html)

 

Now that we have an understanding of the positive things that Panda looks for on your site, let’s look at the things that Panda considers to be characteristics of low quality sites.

 

• Lots of ads – If the ads outweigh the content of the site, Panda looks at this as not user friendly and you will get points docked for this. Try and keep the ads to a maximum of 2 ads per page. A good rule is to think back to some sites that had ads that you liked and also sites that had ads that you didn’t like. Typically you are fine with a few ads just as long as they don’t distract from the content and are not above the fold.

 

• Quality content – Do not use spun articles. A spun article is an article that has been written and then thrown into a program that will change out some of the words. It is also considered an article that someone has taken and rewrote it to change the view of the article. Make sure to use unique and relevant articles.

 

• Low traffic sites – If you use a low amount of ads and original content and you are still not moving up on your search result, it may be a result to having little traffic to your site. Panda looks at this as, “Well if visitors keep coming back then they must enjoy the site.” So try and find fresh ways to keep visitors coming back.

 

• No moderation – Lets say you have a blog and have a large community participating in the blog post. If those posts and comments aren’t moderated then you might get spam backlinks from poor sites. Panda looks at this as if you are saying you support these sites and Panda will penalize you for it.

 

Now that we have a better understanding of what Panda is and the certain things that Panda looks for on your site, lets go kick some Panda butt.