Google’s Latest Panda Update Means Quality Website Concerns Are More Important Than Ever Before, Says Punch Communications

Google announced via Twitter the roll out of its latest Panda algorithm update 3.9, which continues its aim to reward those websites that deliver ‘high-quality’ content in the organic rankings. Therefore it is more important than ever for companies to be familiar and comply with Google’s quality guidelines if they want to become or remain visible in the search engine’s results pages says integrated PR, search and social media agency Punch Communications.

The Panda algorithm is intended to penalise low-quality sites whilst returning higher-quality sites near the top of search results, a change that reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 per cent of all search results after its original launch in February 2011.

Google’s quality guidelines all point to rewarding sites that are well designed, trustworthy and secure. In the tweet in which Google revealed the Panda 3.9 update, it linked to a post on its Webmaster Central Blog from May 2011 that offers guidance on building high-quality sites. Therefore to make the most of the Panda update Punch is recommending website owners to reacquaint themselves with this advice, and ensure website content is original, informative and relevant. Google will rank sites higher that people want to read and which contain information that is compelling and interesting.

Pete Goold, managing director of PR, social media and SEO agency Punch Communications, commented: “The changes to the Panda algorithm can have a positive impact on a company’s website ranking if taken into consideration, however the negatives of not adhering to the guidelines can be costly; ultimately, leading to a lack of online visibility which can affect a business’s bottom line.

“Apart from becoming familiar with the guidelines that Google stipulates, running a regular backlink profile on your website, which could unearth links that Google considers untrustworthy, is now paramount to embracing the new changes. This is especially important if, for example, there have been staff changes over the years; historic activity that the current web or SEO managers don’t know about may be deemed as a quality concern by Google.”

For more information on how an integrated approach to search, social media and digital PR can benefit your business, visit www.punchcomms.com.

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