google's panda - a case study
TRANSCRIPT
Jonathan StewartHead of Search & Social Media
[email protected]://twitter.com/jonaths
Google’s Panda – A Case Study
What I’m Going To Talk About(1) What is Panda?(2) How it affected Review Centre(3) The actions we took(4) The results(5) Other observations
How to Pour Water From a Pitcher
“An algorithmic improvement designed to help people find more high-quality sites in search”Amit Singhal
Panda Timeline
Panda 1.0
Panda 2.0
Panda 2.1
Panda 2.2
Panda 2.3Feb 24th
April 11th
May 10th
June 16th
July 23rd
Search Metrics
“Reviewcentre.com is in absolute numbers the biggest loser”Search Metrics
“You’re not a good SEO until you’ve been hit by a penalty.
A real big one.”
• User Metrics–Aggressive ads–Poor Site Design
•Weak Content
Panda Theories
Panda Effect
• Sitewide penalty–All pages effected–EXCEPT forum pages
• Short-tail, generic KWs hit hardest
• “Review” KWs not hit
Panda Effect
• KWs Including “review”
• KWs Excluding “review”
• Google UK traffic
What Did We Do?
• Site Redesign• Decreased Ad Density• Improved Social Sharing• Noindexed Weak Content• Removed Duplicate Content
New Website Design
New Website Design
Noindex• “In cases like this, Google’s Maile Ohye
recommended using a <meta name=robots content=noindex> …until they have unique and high-quality content on them.”
Removed Duplicate Content
The Panda Cycle
Google Crawls
Changes
Google Reruns Panda
Make Changes
4 weeks 6 weeks
5 weeks~4 months
Results• Went live on the 25th May• July 27th reverted to previous Adsense layout
• We’ve seen no reversal of Panda
23 Questions of DoomWould you trust the information presented in this article?
Is this article written by an expert…, or is it more shallow in nature?Does this article have
spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?How much quality control is done on content?Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators?
Was the article edited well?
Cumulative Panda Theory
Review Centre Tripadvisor05
101520253035404550
Pand
a Sc
ore
Websites
Review Centre Tripadvisor05
101520253035404550
Cumulative Panda TheoryWould you trust the information presented in this article?
Pand
a Sc
ore
Websites
Review Centre Tripadvisor05
101520253035404550
Cumulative Panda TheoryWas the article edited well?
Pand
a Sc
ore
Websites
Review Centre Tripadvisor05
101520253035404550
Cumulative Panda TheoryWould you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
Pand
a Sc
ore
Websites
Recap• Actions we took– Site Redesign– Blocked Weak Pages– Removed Duplicate Content
• 3 months on - no return from Panda!• Reducing Adsense– No Impact After 2 months
• What next?– Consolidating Content
Panda Resources• Google’s 23 Questions for Pandalized Websites• Is Panda Crushing Your Website• The Panda in the Room• Google Usage of User Engagement Metrics• Panda – Nothing Seems to Work• Panda Slapped Quality Sites• Traffic Trends for Pandalized Sites• DaniWeb – 110% Recovery• Google Panda Update Recovery
