Google didn’t make Panda and Penguin sound so adorable when they decided to track monkey business online. These two algorithms have been kicking butts of poor online practitioners for over a year now. While it certainly is a new kind of battle, it doesn’t mean you can’t have weapons to fight them.
Below you’ll find what Google Penguin and Panda are all about and what you can do to remain on their not-so-ass-kicking side. So if you’re one who’s running a business online, you may want to take a closer look.
What is Google Panda?
Google Panda was created last year and has already affected 12% of websites. It aims to investigate those websites that have poor, low-valued content. If a website is high in ranking but very low in quality content, it can easily be booted out and will face ranking penalties.
What Panda hates:
- Poor content
- Content farmers
- Thin affiliates
What is Google Penguin?
This year, Google launched Penguin and has made an impact on about 3.1% of websites. It focuses more on detecting black hat SEO and spamming practices. You’re in for a lot of trouble if yours is a website that cheats their way into comfortable rankings.
What Penguin hates:
- Keyword abuse
- Hidden links and text
- Duplicate content
How were businesses affected so far?
A questionable thing about these algorithms is that it managed to hit or miss websites all at once. Others complained that despite their website being “good”, they still had to suffer from it. Anyone could’ve been taken by surprise, which weren’t exactly well received by certain SEO practitioners.
Many were forced to lay off employees, others lost their jobs and a lot are enduring financial losses. Some online marketing practitioners threatened to sue Google, but this case remains to unfold.
What can your business do about it?
The only way for you to win this battle is to make the Panda and Penguin love you. Here are two weapons that spell nothing short of your victory:
Social Media
Google announced that the best weapon you have is to have significant social value. Is your website being bookmarked by others? Do you have a lot of Facebook likes? Are your posts being retweeted or pinned by other users? Are you considered as a thought leader? Having a good amount of online influence solidifies your ranking thereby securing your online presence.
Powerful Content
Brilliant, original and well-anchored content is yet another armor you can put on. Never repeat your content, do significant amount of research and have a good grip on your links and keywords. Everybody, even the Panda and Penguin can’t resist well thought and well executed content so make yours count.
As long as we want our businesses to succeed, we need Google to be on our side. Panda and Penguin may sound too cute to even bother putting up a fight but they’re very much determined to change the game. So always keep in mind what they hate and love and you’ll always be on the right track.
