Panda Update: Does Your Site Have Rich Content?

At the end of February 2011, Google communicated on its blog a modification of its algorithm.
Code name: Panda.

Since then, we know that 12% of American sites have been affected by this update, which is described as major. Panda aims to penalize or downgrade sites with low-quality content, in particular portals referred to as content farms and thereby give the advantage back to those who invest in web writing and useful information to the Internet user. After the Americans, the application of the Panda update was extended to English-language sites on April 11. I can’t hide from you that I can’t wait to see this happen here!

• Destination of the article: Information for the informed beginner
• Tone of the article: Informative and slightly sarcastic

Content farm: definition

A content farm refers to sites that produce a large number of pages whose only interest is to attract traffic to a highly sought-after theme in the hope of making advertising revenue (including Adsense*). Articles are generally produced on a production line by two-penny editors who would have been called piss-copies in the past when they are not limited to being copycats-pasters, blog looters or spinners… Sometimeseven mechanical-computerized.

Will MfA (Made for Adsense) be penalized?

The worst of all, the height of “hollow pipes full of emptiness” in my humble opinion. They are empty of empty homes, they feed on Adsense and play internal hyper linking, see this example: before panda the query: “Drummondville geography” returned sit0vote in 1st place, ahead of Wikipedia the page being rated PR2… Disappeared since

For Google, penalizing this kind of site is both giving Internet users relevant answers and replacing the portals that return the hoped-for content while shooting itself in the foot since it deprives itself of revenue – probably substantial – . MFA is still a successful business model, will it stay that way or will Panda give it a big push? (update 2013… the MfA that have not disappeared have made efforts to improve content)

Are online article sites concerned?

These sites offer to those who wish to publish papers by abandoning all their copyrights, leaving the said authors with the possibility that these pages will be taken over by “professionals” thus creating traffic, backlinks or even buzz… These promises remain mirages and the articles are most often reduced to “advertorials” whose goal is only an improbable promo and the only benefit, a hard backlink … (but not always). We will select these sites with full knowledge of the facts… Which Panda will have a hard time doing too.

Are directories content farms?

Historically present before Google, directories, a kind of web clones of the telephone directory, have had their heyday. It is their multiplication (including a period of spammy abuse ) and the sidereal void of content (not to mention duplicate content ) of a majority of in-between, which has questioned their relevance and presence in the SERPs. (Knowing that the only beneficiaries of the business model are the directories themselves)
Google is now sorting out the good from the bad, and as long as you use them, don’t forget to write rich and unique descriptions of your activity from one listing to the next. Except in the case of duplicate content, sites with established visibility should get out of the clutches of the Panda.

Do discount coupon sites have rich content?

If the usefulness of this kind of service is “proven” (success / traffic / traffic are there), the question of the quality of the content deserves to be asked, when the article consists of 12 words describing the promo and a photo not even optimized, we are entitled to wonder what Google sees and judges of this kind of model…

Do Facebook and Twitter have rich content?

Excuse the provocation… But when you see the level of what circulates there…
It is therefore necessary to define whether the simple fact of having an audience makes a site “a portal with rich content” or whether we are talking about the fundamental qualities of a website and the information it peddles.

Panda in Quebec, content soon to be king?

You see me coming! Like many web writers and SEOs, I wonder about the definition of quality content according to Panda… according to Google Master of the Web and I continue – in the absence of any certainty (the articles on this subject are only guesses) – to recommend the best possible writing, fine optimization, relevant documentation and the thematic unity of the website.

I must say that I am impatient to see the effects of this update on French-speaking sites and its extent on a number of local actors.

A fierce defender of structured, informative, clear content committed to an editorial line, I dissuade or refuse, since I started writing for the web, clients who bring me projects

• satellite sites,
• Link Farms and
• Other content that is only intended to try to mobilize a keyword for the benefit of a company that would like to be omnipresent and unavoidable.

Too many players today consider the Internet only as a medium for mind-numbing advertising bludgeoning taking the visitor for a mononcle (Bidochon in France) ready to swallow everything while sipping his beer. Orient your website towards dense and high-end content. I am one of those who advocate a clean web that would have nothing to fear from Google

A credibility to defend…

As you can see, the search engine’s whole problem is not to scuttle its real advertising revenue while remaining credible in the natural results it returns. Content farms bring a certain amount of revenue to Google Adsens, but when these sites squat the top places in the SERPs for big brands in front of their own name, they have reason to be threatening and claim a slightly more relevant natural ranking. As the budgets they bring are more substantial, Google has to make choices, rework its copy… Hence the Panda correction.

Is your site at risk?

Google has renewed its basic advice by publishing a guide from the site to the Panda correction so that your portal respects the best SEO ethics.

PS: A content farm should not be confused with

– A content aggregator – which groups articles on the same theme – and redirects Internet users to the original pages. The aggregator brings added value through its comments, its translations, the time it saves its visitors and the debate it facilitates. Google does not (it seems) target these sites that play transparency but here again there are abuses that are close to MFA…

Other articles in the category “web writing”

• Is your compliance with the Panda update?
• Is your content rich?
• Web Editor in Montreal
• Web content writing and site architecture
• Web Writing Training