Google panda is a specialized software running on top of the search engine ranking modules to further stream line websites rankings based on “new rules”.
Secret 1 – new ranking formula
so, the revised ranking algorithm in simplified form is like this:
- website rank = [panda quality score/100] x [old ranking factors]
it means: “acieving good rank for new site is really hard now!”
Secret 2 – google now hits cheap sites
so, how to make sure your website does not categorized by “google panda” as a cheap site, here are few tips:
- the articles on your website should have ‘clear focus’. instead of random articles on different domain you should focus on specific ones. how “google panda” comes to know relevance on topics discussed- ‘articles interlinking’ is a major indicator of a well focused site with relevant data.
Secret 3 – time spent on site
so, if a user spends more time on the website, its ‘quality score’ will go up – “google panda” is happy!. interlinking of articles plays major role here.
another factor that increases time on your website is the fact that perople see ‘topics’ not a ‘keywords’. for example, a person searching ‘butter chicken recipie’ will stay far lesser than the one searching ‘bbq cooking website’. tip: so, mix keywords and topics based articles
Secret 4 – user experience is now part of ranking formula
panda ranking = [static links] x [user experience]
user experience in terms of page load time is defined as:
- avg. page load time
- avg. redirection time
- avg. domain lookup time
- avg. server connection time
- avg. server response time
- avg. page down time
tips:
- except header and footer – add dynamic links in the right and left menus. site wide static links be removed, instead category specific dynamic links should be shown. so, it will increase the time on the site much longer.
- increase page load speed by decreasing image sizes, optimizing page for css, code etc loading with the page.
Secret 5 – how does google know visitors time spent on your website?
google has numerous sources to collect information.
- google analytics
- google adwords
- google advertisement
- google chrome i.e.21% of browser market – ask for anonymous user experience data submission to google.
- google toolbar – ask for anonymous user experience data submission to google.
- visitor coming to your website from search result link and then refering back to search engine page.
so, thinking about turning off google analytics to blind google from ‘time spent’ measure doesn’t work.
Conclusion
what we discussed here opens new doors of opportunity for your website to gain prominent place or even regain its lost top level rankings with google search engine. focus on the topics not just keywords when you write articles helps add more magnet for users to stay more on your website. side menu links should be tempting visitors to stay on your website, so make them contextual matching the section or category customer is inside. make your articles interlinked to create an expertise hub impact to “google panda” and score your site higher. last but not least make your website content light weight to be loaded as fast as possible.
so, good luck with your efforts for increasing webite ranking!
Whats next
our experts are writing more on the science of marketing today. so, stay tuned and subscribe to our team blog via rss or email. you can subscribe by clicking the links in the upper right corner. thank you!
