Google Algorithm Updates & SEO

Google Panda

First introduced in February 2011, with ongoing updates, Panda aims to reduce the position of "low-quality" or "thin" sites.

It penalises sites that:

• Have an excessive number of adverts.
• Have very little original or in-depth content.
• Don’t appear trustworthy (partly calculated based on the number of searches for the brand name vs. the number of times the site’s visited).
• Don’t show information when you first open the page (i.e. you have to scroll down to see anything useful).

Checklist

Panda is part of a trend of algorithm updates towards valuing high-quality and in-depth content.

To rank above your competitors in Google your site must:

• Have original in-depth content (at least 500 words per page on several pages, over 1,000 words for expert articles).
• Contain relevant information, not just a sales pitch.
• Have a reputable brand.
• Be about a specific topic, not every topic under the sun.

Google Penguin

First introduced in April 2012, with ongoing updates, Penguin aims to penalise sites that use keyword stuffing or have bad links going to them.

The following links to your site could get you penalised as a result of Penguin:

• Automatically generated links of any kind.
• Excessive links containing keywords in the anchor text (the clickable part of the link).
• Excessive links from poor quality directories or generic article sites.
• Links from irrelevant sites or sites in a different language.

Checklist

Penguin aims to motivate people towards creating quality content that others will spontaneously link to, or building natural links themselves.

After Penguin you want to build links using:

• Unique articles on relevant websites.
• Infographics or quality image sharing sites.
• High quality directories.
• Social Media sites.
• News websites.

If the link is relevant and would be considered useful by a human visitor, it’s likely to be considered useful by Google too!

Payday Loan

Certain searches like “Payday Loan” used to generate many spammy results.  These updates target specific searches to make the results more helpful.

Checklist

Is your site total spam or highly dodgy?

If not, don’t worry about this update!  If so, switch to a more ethical business.

Google Pigeon

Since Google Pigeon was introduced in July 2014, results have been more tailored for different people based on their geographical location.

Checklist

To benefit from Google Pigeon, particularly if your main interest is local clients:

• Include your address and phone number obviously on your website.
• Include the same address and number in directories listing your site.
• Focus on links from the same country as these will give you extra benefit.

Google Hummingbird

The Hummingbird algorithm update takes synonyms into accounts and tries to put the search query in context (e.g. “Hummingbird SEO” shows you results about the Google update, “Hummingbird flight” shows you results about how the bird flies.

Checklist

If previously you tried to use every possible synonym (equivalent, likeness, same meaning …) in your text, this is no longer necessary.  For optimal SEO include only the most important keywords and only use synonyms if it doesn’t interfere with how well your text reads.