Hit by Panda 4.1 update? Here are quick ways to recover

The latest algorithm update, Panda 4.1 launched this week by Google works as a filter with the intention of penalizing poor content while rewarding high quality content a step further. The algorithm seeks to increase rankings of small and medium sized sites with high quality content while lowering down rankings of sites with poor content. The Panda 4.1 update is designed for greater precision in locating and impacting a smaller number of sites. It is estimated that approx 3-5% of all search rankings will be impacted by it. The update is intended to give preference in ranking to high quality content originating from small and medium sized sites, and to filter out poor content by preventing them from ranking high in search engine rankings. The idea is to give an opportunity to small and medium sized sites with good content to rank higher than bigger sites with not so great content.

Google rolled out panda 4.0 in May, with the specific purpose of identifying and penalizing poor quality content by either eliminating them totally from search ranking or preventing them from ranking high. The Panda 4.0 update was designed to penalize all poor quality content and had a major impact on sites across the board. The Panda 4.1 update on the other hand will impact a smaller cross section of content and run in an automated manner without too much intervention.

If you have not seen any change in traffic to your site since last week, you are probably lucky enough to have not been impacted by Panda 4.1 update. However, if there has been a significant drop in traffic to your site, especially traffic coming from organic search, it might be a good idea to check out the ranking of your site in search engine.  Incase your ranking has dropped significantly from last week the impact is likely to be the result of Panda 4.1 update. The only reason for  Panda 4.1 lowering your search ranking is that it does not rate the content on your site high enough to justify a good ranking. Since the Panda 4.1 update aims to filter out low quality content, the best way for you to get back your high ranking is to get rid of poor quality content and replace it with high quality content and ensure the content is updated on a regular basis. But what else can you do besides this to recover and even improve your rankings on search engines? Google’s leaked Quality Rater guidelines provide insights into the kind of content the Panda 4.1 update is likely to rate as high quality. Here is what Google has to say on what it means in terms of good quality content:

1. “High quality pages and websites need enough expertise to be authoritative and trustworthy on their topic.”– What this means is that if you get your content written by known experts, you will be rated higher than others. Also provide references to your topic and cite links to expert sources to substantiate your content and establish it as trustworthy. 
2. “In order for a site to be deemed high quality, it must contain updated information.”-This means that you need to ensure old outdated content is replaced regularly with updated content.
3. “Reputation is an important consideration when using the high rating.”– What this means is that encouraging customers to leave positive reviews on Yelp, Google+ and other review sites helps in building reputation and ranking higher.
4. “A high quality content requires supplementary content which contributes to a satisfying user experience on the page and website”– Paying attention to elements on the page like page footers, bookmarks, site navigator etc which do not form part of the main content can go a  long way in enhancing user experience
5. “A high quality rating requires a satisfying amount of website information”- What this implies is that ensuring your contact information and customer service numbers are displayed prominently can lead to better rankings
6. “High quality rating requires functional page design which allows users to easily focus on main content and use supplementary content as desired.”- This means that ensuring that your website design is user friendly can lead to better rankings.
7. “Page level checks for expertise, authority and trust are important when a website has different authors on different pages”.– This implies that Google considers the entire website even while ranking a page and hence your website pages need to abide by the same editorial standards across pages for higher rankings.

Following these practices for writing content for your site will ensure that your site is able to not only recover from the impact of Panda 4.1 update but also to improve its search engine rankings for more site traffic.