Whether Panda is an algorithm change or a ranking filter is irrelevant if you have been hit by the beast; what really matters is how you prepare your site to help ensure that Panda recognizes your site’s content and services as relevant and timely.

Panda updates are pushed manually by Google (which precludes it from being an algorithm change and more akin to a SERP filter).  What this means is that irrespective of your current SERPs, determined by the algorithm, your website is being re-assessed as each Panda update is pushed. If you do get hit by Panda, you are effectively being tagged as sub-standard and won’t be scored again until the next Panda update is rolled out.

Following are the primary helpful tips to remain or return to favorability with Panda:

Use Good Quality Writers for Content

Panda is largely aimed at “thin content” sites – those which have poor quality content, typically created with a poor understanding of the subject matter.  You know it when you read it, because you get the immediate feeling your 5 year old could write it better.  Google’s introduction of tracking and rating authors is a further response to finding and giving good credit to well-constructed and written content. “Content is King” has never been a more important or relevant maxim to follow.

Write for Human Users

“This is an article on replacement windows San Diego CA, and you should always choose XYZ replacement windows San Diego CA company for your home improvements.”

That line may have been OK for SEO copy a year ago, but in terms of the delivery of relevant information to the user contemplating replacing glass at their house, it is poor quality and clearly not written for human consumption.  The focus is clearly upon people and their needs, so while there is a requirement for optimized copy which search engines can use, your main priority (by a large margin) is to write in a manner clearly aimed at real people.

“XYZ Home Improvements has been proudly serving customers in San Diego for over 20 years, and carries a wide choice of replacement windows styles suitable for your budget.”

Remove all Duplicate Content

Panda initially set out to eliminate poor quality content from getting ranked, but if you are using duplicate content you are not gaining any benefit from having it on your site, and Panda is looking for this type of behavior.  Copying other site’s content is simply inviting a Panda penalty – don’t go there.

Diversify Your Traffic

Think of your keyword portfolio as a stock portfolio – you need to diversify it so you are not relying on one stock too much and you can cover losses if one does not perform well.  The same risk principle should be applied to your keywords, and the underlining principle is to diversify your portfolio as much as possible. This means increasing the number of keywords you are ranking for.

You can take this diversification principle even further and diversify your traffic. This means looking at developing sources of traffic from all search engines including Yahoo! and Bing, and continuing to invest in your paid search and social strategies to maximize your portfolio strategy.

Summary – Do Not Feed the Bear

Panda is looking for poor quality content, therefore, stay far away from someone else’s content and if you do have duplicated content on your website, (for instance with repeated product descriptions), look up and use the canonical feature, so Google knows you are not stealing someone else’s thunder.

Craft quality content for human readers, update it frequently, and you’ll be well-positioned to maintain and increase your rankings on relevant keywords, if coupled with a consistent SEO program.  Panda loves fresh, good quality content.

SOPA is a sister bill (a bill with proposed legislation which has not yet become law) to the Protect IP Act (PRO IP), which itself aims to hold hosting companies accountable for the content on sites.  For instance, if a website deals in counterfeit goods, or is selling pirated movies or music, then the hosting company could be held liable, and not just the website owners operating the business.

SOPA goes much further than PRO IP in that it provides the US Government with the power to tackle not only websites using copyright protected materials, but also the Government would have the ability to associate damages to the users of that content as well.  In addition, a website can effectively be made to disappear for just one violation.

On the one hand, SOPA is ostensibly aimed at online piracy.  However, the highly controversial segment is that SOPA takes aim at not only pirates themselves (who are typically beyond US jurisdiction), but anyone who facilitates their activities. e.g. hosting companies, and individual users who download, use or purchase the wrongful goods and/or services.

On the other hand, SOPA delivers a powerful tool into the hands of the US Government to censor the Internet. The vague wording of the Bill, together with the application of what is known as “extra-territoriality” (the extension of US law into overseas, sovereign jurisdictions by the US Government), has created many serious objectors to SOPA.

Worded as it is, if your website used a song segment or created a screenshot GIF from a TV show or movie, which may be perfectly legal under Fair Use provisions of existing copyright laws, then you may be subject to association given SOPA restrictions. Potentially, the charged website could be sued, fined, face criminal penalties, or have its’ site removed entirely contingent upon not meeting SOPA guidelines.

The current US legal framework for the Internet is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and this currently provides websites with immunity against liability for content posted on their sites by users.  For instance, YouTube is not taken down every time a consumer posts a clip of a TV show or movie. SOPA will end this protection, opening the door to websites themselves potentially being held liable for what their users post on them – just think of Facebook as well as other social networking sites, and you’ll start to see the challenges tied to ubiquitous censorship.

A website could be punished for simply not doing what the US Government perceives to be “not enough.”  This is obviously an important topic for all websites, large or small; respectively.

Over the past few days, news agencies reported that Congress has dropped SOPA following an announcement from the White House that President Obama may veto the bill. We’ll continue to watch closely on what develops, and plan to post again on SOPA as more information is released.

Google started the year dominating search, and no surprise, Google still dominates search now; although Bing was able to capture modest market share gains.  According to comScore, there were 17.8 billion searches in November 2011, of which 11.7 billion were run on Google, and Yahoo! + Bing accounted for 5.4 billion collectively.

Wake Up with Caffeine

In January, Google kicked-off 2011 with a revamped version of Caffeine, their super-fast ability to crawl and index content, allowing real-time content to be displayed in the results within minutes, and therefore, firmly establishing that content freshness will be an increasingly important ranking factor.

Social Influence Officially becomes a Part of the Ranking Calculation

In February, Google makes the “official” announcement that social signals are part of the SERPs weighted algorithm. Bing stays on the sidelines until the following month and then joins-in… a tacit admission by the major search engines that social media is here to stay.

Year of the Panda

Also in Q1, we saw the launch of Google’s Panda – a qualitative filter aimed at “thin” content sites.  Overnight many content networks see rankings plummet across the board.  The fear of Pandalization becomes every webmasters fear, as several reiterations are run throughout the year.

Google Launches the +1 Button & Google +

In Q2, the world experiences the launch of the +1 button – the Google equivalent of the Facebook “Like” icon. Google proceeds with a full-scale launch of Google +, an online social network in June.

Google Sitelinks

In Q3, Google continues to dominate the headlines – August sees the introduction of  ‘jumbo sitelinks’ – providing all brands with multiple links to help engage consumers identify deeper pages within their sites quickly to further improve relevancy and site engagement.

Yahoo! Site Explorer

Also in Q3, Yahoo! declares that Site Explorer will be sunset in 2011, and while there are alternatives on the market – Yahoo! Site Explorer was the only link graph tool produced exclusively by a major search engine.

Secure Search

In Q4, the SEO Industry sees the introduction of “Secure Search” by Google. If a user is signed into Google, their search terms are automatically stripped from the keyword data which shows up in Analytics.

November/December Holiday Retailers Cheer

The US consumer showcases online spending confidence with record sales across the board for the Holiday Sales Season – online sales surpass $30 billion.  Amazon is the clear winner.

What else?

Bing gets accused of copying Google search results, Google and Microsoft bicker. Author authority introduced and Google provides guidance on content duplication issues with canonical tags. Google embroiled in anti-trust investigation and Eric Schmidt goes to Washington to testify.

Google launches “trusted stores” and makes massive moves into the ecommerce space. Facebook ties up with Skype (and Microsoft) in a video chat deal, and Twitter severed ties with Google.

Goodbye 2011…  Hello 2012

Innovation across the Search Landscape continues to evolve at an increasingly rapid pace.  From RankPay’s perspective, we are working hard to remain current (and hopefully ahead) of continued innovation around the page design implications of local and mobile, and of course the never-ending algorithm enhancements with respect to content freshness and social influence.  We hope each of you had a fantastic 2011, and wish you continued success in 2012.

Website optimization is the art of maximizing the experience to achieve a desired outcome, such as: new customer sign-ups, registrations, sales, avg time on site, etc. Website optimization is the natural, logical complement to well-optimized search rankings.

Following are a handful of Website Optimization practices that we’ve found are working consistently:

Multiple Payment Options

Provide site visitors with multiple payment methods and promote this fact throughout the site so there are no surprises at checkout.  Make it simple – take as many forms of plastic as you can.

Provide a Simple Buying Proposition

Website visitors assess and consume information in small pieces – they are grazers over the web and look for information to be presented fast.  Get to the core value offering… and do it quickly:

• What is the problem… (which “it” your product or service solves);
• Why they need “it”… (for the problem they have);
• How much “it” costs… (upfront pricing);
• What does the prospect need to do next…  (clear next steps)

Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials are extremely powerful – they instill confidence.   Always use testimonials and do not discount their value.  Also, the process creates a great way to further connect with your customers as well.

Toll Free Contact Number & Live Chat Functionality

A toll free number should be prominently displayed throughout the site. Make it easy for visitors to speak to a human being on your side. Placing the number within the header and footer are good options, but if you have a long landing page, make sure the number either “floats” so it is always in view, or simply repeat it through the page body or sidebar.

Live Chat functionality is very powerful in providing visitors access to information for immediate settling of buying questions.

Site Security

Buying is based upon trust. Every new customer must trust in the brand, the product or service, and the security of the transaction. Users will question how secure their credit information is, and you have to answer that question with definitive integrity.  Invest in excellent security with an established leader in the industry, and make this a selling point.

Takeaway

Site promotion through SEO remains critically important, however make sure that your Website Optimization is also getting the same level of attention.  Over time, you’ll find that increasing in-market, pre-qualified visitors from SEO, and investing in proven Website Optimization practices will compound your ROI, and your long-term success.

At RankPay, our primary keyword analysis tool is Google Analytics… it has an incredibly robust feature set, provides great insight into site visitors including what search term was used to find our site, and hundreds of other reporting outputs that allows us to effectively measure every variable tied to site conversion — traffic sources, volume, avg time spent, bounce rates, time of day effectiveness, landing page UI positives/negatives, and literally every other component that impacts conversion.

Last month, Google announced the introduction of “Secure Search” within Google Analytics.  Essentially, this was a User Privacy initiative.  Google has reset reporting so that any consumer that is performing a search while signed into their personal Google Account will now have the search terms they use hidden from the sites that they visit.

This means that Google Analytics will continue to report the usage from the searcher however they now report the data and display the source as “Not Provided”.  Google estimates that this change only affects a minority of traffic, likely a single-digit percentage number of users.  Analytics still provides complete insights on this Traffic such as:  conversion rates, segmentations, bounce rates and so on.

We also continue to find value in utilizing Google’s Webmaster Tools offering for additional keyword search analysis.  Just sign in to your Google account, and click on “Webmaster Tools”, and you will be taken to the Dashboard. Here you can add your site and will be taken through a verification process (which is simple,  and as easy as adding Analytics).  Their Search Query tool showcases data over the past (30) days, so it is helpful (and free), but limited compared to Google Analytics.

Also, checkout www.RankPay.net  — we created this site to share a handful of Free SEO Tools that you will find helpful as you explore adding additional keywords to optimize through SEO, and measure effectiveness.

We’re continuing to watch the data from our “Not Provided” segment and compare it to our “Sourced Traffic” segment each month.  We recommend that all small businesses and webmasters follow this same practice to further understand your sites’ Visitor Experience Trends to better select and optimize keywords that ultimately impact your business, and help drive the most qualified visitors to your product or service.  If you’re not measuring effectiveness with Google Analytics, start today – http://www.google.com/analytics/

With Caffeine, Google speeds up the delivery of fresh web results to users – now you can expect to start seeing web pages in your search results which are only a few minutes old.

Initially touted as affecting up to 35% of web searches, the announcement was amended to around 6-10%. In other words, the majority of searches will not see a change in results, but there are some caveats to this. The change is designed to deliver fresh results, and there are (3) scenarios where real-time results are definitely preferred:

Current, Newsworthy or Trending Topics

If you were on the East Coast earlier this year and searched for “earthquake”, the chances were you wanted information on the 5.8 quake which rocked the National Monument. In the immediate “aftermath”, Twitter feeds provided the most up-to-date information on what was happening as traditional media and telephone communication went down for hours.  Google is now providing the same instantaneous, near real-time delivery of information with Caffeine.

Recurring Results

Some events recur, such as the World Series or the Olympics. If you search for “Super Bowl scores”, the likelihood is that you are looking for recent results; for instance 2011 rather than 1988. The same principle applies for annual conferences and events, publications and magazines, competitions, business, financial releases, government announcements, and so on.

Frequent Brand or Product Updates

If you are looking for a product for sale, whether regularly or not (example: cameras, cellphones, etc.), the result set presumes that the searcher is looking for the most recent offer and information. In these instances, Google will certainly incorporate how social media signals can also help improve the relevancy of this experience, in addition to the freshness of the content.

The change to delivering fresh web pages does not mean that old content will not rank in the SERPs. Instead, site owners and webmasters will need to strike the balance of regularly updating content, coupled with traditional relevant content that remains important to the consumer experience as well.

Summary

The primary takeaway from this new change is that we must continue to pay attention to the content that we’re promoting.  It’s becoming increasingly more important to invest in creating timely content, which will only help adapt to Caffeine’s algorithm.  In the process, this investment will also help keep your site and service relevant as consumers’ search behavior continues to evolve with expectations of improved relevancy and real-time information always displayed prominently on the SERPs.  Now, go grab some caffeine, and re-look at your content strategy.

Recent research has proven that ranking a video is often more likely to gain ranking increases as consumers have come to trust, engage and expect that quick videos can be very helpful.  That said, you will quickly see that video optimization relies heavily on judicious use of the right keywords – this cannot be emphasized heavily enough, so make sure you have done your keyword research properly.

Following are a few of RankPay’s quick tips to video optimization:

Create Compelling Content

This means creating a video which your target market is going to want to watch. This does not mean you over-invest in a Hollywood style production – think simple. Customer testimonials and/or instructional intros are excellent for this purpose – a two minute testimonial is a powerful marketing tool, and best of all it doesn’t cost you anything except some time.

Be brief, get to the point fast and make sure you’re supporting the core message.

Keyword Rich Title

Give your video a keyword rich title – this is extremely important for SEO purposes, additionally, the title will play an important part in determining whether the user will play the video or not.

Use Tags

If your video platform allows it (and most will) make use of the tags which will describe the video content.

Keyword Rich File Name

Use a keyword –rich filename for the underlying video file.

Optimize Content around the Video on the Website

Google and Bing-Yahoo! pay close attention to the information about the content the supports the video.  A frequent mistake is to upload videos to a web page and then provide no text content around the video itself.

Submit a Sitemap

Submit a video sitemap to Google for faster indexing and clearer context to your video.

Link to Your Video

Build prominent links to your video from your website especially if the video is hosted on third party sites like YouTube.

Redistribution

If you have uploaded the video onto your website, consider uploading the video to platforms such as YouTube, MetaCafe and DailyMotion. Again, make full use of the description and tag entries on these platforms.  This will maximize the potential audience for your video and help improve its ability to rank.  In addition, make sure users can like the video – enable Google +1, Facebook Likes and social media sharing, e.g. Twitter.

Summary

Create compelling content – this is the most important point for video optimization. Boring, over length content will not attract and retain the attention of users and indeed, it can be counter-productive.

Keywords play an important role in video optimization – make sure you have done your research properly to begin with.

Enable sharing – video is social media friendly, but you must make it easy for users to access and share with their circle of online social contacts.

Every small business and website can invest in a creative video to help engage their customers.  Once the video content is completed, optimizing the video for SEO purposes and distribution will continue to help broaden your acquisition efforts for new customers.

Keyword Opportunity is a free tool showcased on the frontpage of RankPay.com that has become our cornerstone at RankPay.  It measures dozens of variables in real-time including the competitive landscape on any given keyword, and then provides an opportunity rating inclusive of monthly performance-based pricing based on our ability to increase rankings.

Keyword Watchlist is another free tool that is exclusive only to RankPay clients… this tool essentially allows our customers to track rankings on keywords across Google, Bing and Yahoo! that are not actively being optimized by RankPay.

The list of requests for additional free tools is never-ending, so we’ve decided to share a few SEO Tools that every small business and website can benefit from.  Just visit www.RankPay.net  –  no software or browser add-on installations required.

The Website Rankings Tool quickly displays your rankings across Google, Bing and Yahoo! in real-time.

The Keyword Suggestions Tool provides relevant considerations with search volume.

Google Page Rank is a very straightforward tool to check your current Google Page Rank score.

Page Optimization checks the number of competitive results on Page 1 of Google that actively optimize with the targeted keyword in their Title Tags.

We hope you find these helpful…  we’ll continue to build more free SEO Tools moving forward.

The latest data in from Nielsen, a leading market researcher, shows that 56% of mobile cell phone purchasers opted for an Android Smartphone in Q2 2011. At the same time, 71% of those who have an Android mobile device used Google Mobile Search in the last 30 days.

In other words, with Android dominating the mobile market, the entrée for Google’s mobile search is certain. Mobile search domination appears to rest with Google, and for SEO practitioners and local businesses alike, this has real implications. Lawmakers in Washington D.C. have also picked up on this looming reality: former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, was grilled at Senate Hearings held in September. One stark statistic was thrown out – Google’s Android holds 97% of the OS market for mobile – in other words, mobile is already in Google’s hands while you are using the cell phone in yours.

Mobile search is used in a fundamentally different way than a desktop or static search. Mobile search is used “in the now and here”, as in, “I am away from home, I want a coffee, where is a good place for a cappuccino?” Mobile search is able to answer these localized and personal questions using geo-location (it already knows where you are) and pulls in data directly applicable to your immediate vicinity.

Compare this to a static search; if I am at my US-based office looking for a supplier of widgets, I may be equally interested in learning how a manufacturer in Shenzhen, China is able to price/deliver the widgets. Locality does not matter so much, unless I want it to, and I am more open-minded about the information being presented to me in that static setting.

This underscores the opportunity for Local SEO when it comes to going Mobile. You are much more likely to get convertible traffic from mobile users, because they are looking for your product or service now.

There is another major characteristic of mobile users too – they tend to search by category rather than brand name. When you want a coffee, you simply want a good coffee no matter who is serving it up.

The opportunity for local businesses is to optimize for Google mobile search. This means ranking for keyword terms which users are searching on, coupled with your locality. In addition, human input is becoming more important for the algorithms, so keep seeking testimonials from your customers, and once again, don’t forget to include social media signal generators by adding the Facebook “Like” and Google +1 buttons to your content.  There is no question… optimizing for Mobile Search will continue to be increasingly important for every business.

Larry Page, one of Google’s co-founders, who stepped into the CEO role at around the same time as +1 launched, made it clear that Google placed a lot of emphasis on the success and importance of social media. Page went so far as to tie 25% of employee’s bonuses to the success or failure of the +1 strategy.

Transformation

Despite widespread market penetration upon launch, activity on the network has recently slowed. Google is discovering is that there is disparity between numbers of accounts, and the numbers of active users.  We know that Facebook has over half-a-billion accounts, but just how many are active, and how does usage increase or decrease over time.  There is no hard data, but we do know that Facebook is not immune to this issue.

From an SEO perspective, we’re spending a lot time to better understand the +1 impact on SERPs.  Clearly social signals have the capacity to be a powerful factor, and the importance of a social signal online can be inferred by real world analogy: in a voting democracy, just how representative are the politicians put into office if only a small percentage of the electorate actually takes the time to cast a vote to begin with?  This appears to be the big issue confronting not only Google, but any search engine looking to use social signals when calculating SERPs.

The growth of +1 usage is about to take a significant jump upon the broad release to everyone.  Now the challenge becomes how to ensure that users are authentically using +1’s, and how will their influence help to provide Google with additional signals and insights to further refine the search experience.

Preparing for Change

It’s too early for any SEO Company to accurately know the weight that Google is actually placing on social signals within the algorithm, but we do know they are a factor. We have previously recommended that our customers include the +1 code (and the Facebook “Like” feature) to make it easy for visitors to share their endorsement.  At some point, Google along with Bing/Yahoo! will overcome issues associated with valuing the weight of a social signal, so the best advice for website owners is to make sure their sites offer the very best content and user experience they can provide.  Ultimately, that is the only way you will receive the appropriate recommendation.

We strongly believe that opening-up +1 will allow Google to accelerate momentum, therefore, we’re encouraging our customers to invest heavier in their own site offerings and engagement.  We also suggest utilizing Google Analytics to understand the differences between your ‘socially-engaged’ visitors –vs- traditional site visitors — it’s clear that these signals are important to Google now, and will become increasingly more valued as +1’s become more prominent and part of our everyday online experience in the very near future.