Generating Content post Panda – Quality over Quantity
Google’s Panda update has had a dramatic effect on many websites and caused stirrings among the Internet and SEO community that is still rumbling to this day. Sites that used to rank on the first page of certain keyword searches, found themselves buried several pages in, resulting in a dramatic loss of traffic, reduction of revenue and leaving the website owners with worthless Internet strategies. In fact, the notorious Panda update, aimed at reducing content farms and poor quality content, was not one but a serious of algorithm changes that is still not over. We can expect further tweaks as Google continues to reduce the amount of worthless content that search results can generate.
Some high profile sites were hit hard by Panda, such as Ezine.com, the article-marketing website beloved by many SEO andInternet marketingcompanies as a way of building back links and driving traffic through long tail searches. While many have decried Google’s Panda update as being ruthless and having a dramatic affect on their incomes, we need to look at it from Google’s point of view. While by far the most popular search engine out there, it does have competition looming over its shoulder. Microsoft’s Bing, which recently joined forces with Yahoo in attempt to drive more traffic away from Google, is becoming increasingly popular, and engines such as Blekko have made it easier for users to eliminate worthless content from its search results. And this is the point. When Google users make a keyword search and the results page consists of poorly written, uninformative or spun content, Google is not giving those users a quality service.
Post Panda Strategy
So what can websites that once relied on article sites, spun articles and other methods to drive traffic to their website, do? The answer is simple, listen to Google. Rehashing, spinning, duplicating, scraping or paying some offshore article writer a few dollars to churn out tons of content is not going to work anymore. Sure, for some really obscure long tailed keyword searches, this type of content may still rank fairly high, but that doesn’t mean you should continue churning it out. Think quality, not quantity.
Look atWikipedia, a website that ranks at the top of page one for almost every conceivable search term. Wikipedia doesn’t have an SEO team, it doesn’t have a link building strategy – its success is down to just providing quality and informative content that has relevance to a searchers request. Of course, websites reselling goods or providing Internet services are not going to be able to create encyclopedic content of this nature, but they can ensure what they do put out is relevant, informative and of good quality.
Blogging
Perhaps the best method of delivering content is to use a blog. Rather than churn out dozens of poorly phrased, uninformative articles and splashing them around various article sites, put one or two quality articles up on the blog each week. Make them keyword relevant, but don’t overdo the density -Panda will punish those that do- and if the content is relevant to the website and offers good quality information, it will not only eventually rank higher than anything posted on a content farm, but will also build links as people start to trust the content. It may take time to generate this trust, but eventually Google will start to look at the website as a place of quality, informative and relevant information.
It’s also important to make sure there is no duplicate or relevant content lingering about. Just rehashing the same articles over and over again is not going to work. Think of new angles, think of the information people want to see. Be informative. Be helpful. And if you are paying someone to generate content, pay somebody to write something decent. This may mean the cost of an article is going to rise dramatically, but you’ll get much more bang for your buck. One decent, well-written, relevant and informative article is going to be worth more than hundreds of poorly constructed ones.
The same goes for links too. Try to build relationships with others in the industry. Swap links with quality blogs and similar sites. Guest blogging is a great way of generating links and driving traffic. Sacrificing something that could go on your own blog and giving it to somebody else, will not only get you a link, but will also get you a share of the traffic built up by that blogger.
By Brad Bombardiere 9-29-2016
CATEGORIES: Google, SEO, Social Media
