Visibility

With the intense overload of free “information” constantly streaming to just about every electronic device you own, it is becoming increasing easy to get lost in the tricks and trends of the moment when it comes to Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization for Websites. 

Let’s take a few steps back, and think about Websites and Search Engines in their most basic form and function – as Content Sources and Content Indexes.  Simply put, a Website is a source of information which the Search Engine adds to its ever growing index or catalogue. The information seeker (you) then accesses this catalogue by asking it a question i.e. go find sources about ‘green apples’, and the Search Engine then provides you with an answer, listing what it believes to be the most relevant, and thus useful, content in its catalogue first.  Task complete, on to the next question.

Obviously, the process is infinitely more complex and involved; however, one must not overlook the theme here, CONTENT.  A Website without content is useless, and a Website without unique content is just SPAM, and nobody, including a Search Engine, is looking for redundant copies of information they have already read.  Now, let’s apply this thought to your approach to SEO – have you lost sight of the forest for the trees?  Is your content truly unique and original?  Or have you created boring, useless content just to fill the page and impress the Search Engine?

Panda Update

Unless you are an SEO newbie or are located overseas, you are more than likely familiar with ‘Panda’.  You may have read about it, or seen your Website(s) rise, fall, or even disappear from Google’s SERP’s as a result of the major “update”. 

Earlier this year, Google unleashed its latest algorithm (better known as the ‘Panda’ update) aimed at fighting SPAM and returning even better Search Results for their gazillion users. According to The Official Google Blog, “This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

Google has gone back to basics with this recent change, promoting quality content and new information as part of its efforts to eliminate even more SPAM.  It is now more important than ever for you to know the difference.

Promoted Content

A good place to start is to determine whether or not you have (or are creating) “high-quality sites” according to Google’s criteria, or any Search Engine’s for that matter.  The Google blog post referenced above states that "Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world…", so let’s think about what qualifications they are specifically spelling out for us here:

1.    Original Content

Creating content that is unique from any other content on the Internet is vital, not only for the Website’s Search Engine ranking, but also for the Website’s visitors as well (I’ll address this again later).  If you are finding this task difficult, you can find ethical sources that use tools like Copyscape to verify that the content they create for you is indeed unique and thus Search Engine friendly.

In addition, you need to ensure that Webpage content is unique across the Website itself and that you are not creating “Duplicate Content” within the Website.  Remember that the less content there is on the Webpages themselves, the higher the percentage of duplication will be with each other, due to headers, footers, navigation and other site-wide content. 

Each Webpage within a Website should contain unique, original content, about a unique and relevant topic or “Market Focus”.  If your Website is about Apples for example, then your home page may primarily focus on Apples which is the general topic and the more competitive term to rank high for on Search Engines, while secondary Webpages may be about Green Apples, and even more specific Webpages about a variety of apple like Granny Smith Apples, and so on.  Think of Wikipedia here, and how each page references others naturally, within the content of the Webpage.

2.    Original Information

Yes, this is different from Original Content.  Just because your content is original, does not mean that the information you are providing is new.  As I mentioned above, Google defined “…high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”  So, take your content one step further and include original ideas, information, and data that are unique to the Website’s purpose and will keep your visitors interest as well.

Penalized Content

So, how does a Search Engine determine that Websites are “low-quality sites” when it sees them?  If we are just examining content here in relation to the new update, then Google tells us that the following are important indicators:

1.    Unoriginal Content

Clearly, Search Engines do not want to promote content that is copied and regurgitated a million times over.  Don’t take somebody else’s article and re-post it on the Website.  Instead, you could reference a portion of the popular article, and provide new thoughts and an original analysis of it for your readers.

2.    Useless Information

As discussed above, Google is telling us that their goal is to reduce rankings for “sites that are just not very useful.”  Google also announce more recently on its Webmaster Central Blog that “we are beginning to incorporate data about the sites that users block into our algorithms” so, it is more important than ever that Websites and Webpages not only be Search Engine friendly, but user friendly, relevant, and useful as well.

It is entirely plausible that Google has made some manual “edits” to their index – for example, hand-selecting certain sites that only a human can determine as “low quality”.  Regardless of whether this is done manually or through a complex set of algorithms, what we do know for certain is that being connected to these “Bad Neighborhoods” WILL affect YOUR Website.  Make sure you keep tabs on who you are connected with, and take some time to re-validate your connections so that “Panda” doesn’t affect you indirectly.

Google tells us on their blog that, “Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.”  Think about each Website and Webpage as an opportunity to grab Google’s attention.  Provide fresh new content, keep it relevant, and most importantly keep it unique!