Let the next wave of crazy begin and shame on any SEO company that still employes the poor tactics that have hit so many well meaning companies.

It's got to be more than that! My website has 2,200+ pages of original content written by experts, minimal ads (in a narrow right column), NO duplicate pages, NO purchased links, NO empty pages. But, still, Panda took my traffic from 22,000 visitors on a good day to 8,000 on a good day. Killing my revenue and losing me my expert contributors.  
 
Doing everything I can, but NOT recovering. VERY discouraging!

Reply to SJ :) looks like you may have too much links in your site/articles, if you have 3 to 10 links on your article google don't like that, you can only link to good site (example: Forbes...) Try article without links and see... I hope it help you.

I'm always confused of what counts as a purchased link. If you pay a writer to write a guest post on another website, is that a paid link, especially since without the payment you might not have gotten a link? What about sites that actually charge you to have a guest post on their site, or to have links in their guest post? It seems with that situation, the one who gets the link gets penalized instead of the one collecting the revenue.

Thanks for explaining that. I actually never really understood about panda before. I try to make a site that I would want to be on so it's all good so far! I think!

SEO Post Panda / Penguin is so much more than what's listed here, if you went from 22000 to 8000 visits a day, I'd hire a specialist to get it figured out, and find a solution. 

Your first forget-it myth in the book: "I must submit my site to Google." True, there are other ways to have Google find your site such as by posting a link to it on another site that gets spidered or by adding it to Webmaster Tools... But otherwise how would Google know the site exists? Why would you want to wait for Google to find you when you can add a sitemap.xml in WMT and poke Google to index it?

Google and their infamous Panda updates! They frighten just about everyone and send webmasters in a frenzy. :)

This post certainly made it much more clear for me. 
 
Thanks for sharing this, great stuff...and definitely have some homework to do this weekend :)

How does Panda affect blogs? If you have old blog post pages sitting out there that don't get much traffic anymore, are they looked at as "thin content"?

So cute, so furry, so deadly. Why can't they just call it Piranha or something? I'll never look at bamboo shoots the same.

Sounds like Panda deserves its benign name to me. It serves both searchers and those who have more to say than they can fit on the page :-)

This article actually has made me feel much better. I have never really been hit very hard by Panda or Penguin over the past couple of years, but this last PageRank Update I had two sites demoted and the Google taskbsar shows almost no backlinks for my sites, so that has worried me significantly. I've been focused on creating content since then, and hopefully Panda will approve. I'm working on my link profile as well, especially focused on links for my links like my Squidoo Lenses but that's a concern for Penguin, is it not? Anyway, thanks for the great post. I am truly breathing easier.

Hi 
I am a little discouraged at the moment. My main money site has been deindexed. But I have a SEO Resurrection package to recover. I'm waiting for it to be put back on line. My point is google don't care. I was talking to a google employee and his comments were 'we're just trying to be fair to everyone!' I wonder about that as the focus as far as I can see is for their revenue with Adwords. To summarise we have to watch our backlinks and keep watching them - no shortcuts. Cheers. Eamonn http://onlinebeautystores.co.uk

You say it's possible to recover. Can you expand on this please?

Thanks for the heads up on Panda. I hadn't heard there was going to be another update. I wasn't hit by the previous Panda/Penguin updates, but then I try to post information that people want to read first, then optimize it second. Best not to get these priorities confused if you want to stay on Google's good side.

So much to keep up with for our own sites, let alone trying to help others... Gone are the days where internet marketing was putting up a site and distributing your web address. Oh well! Piranha it is! @Kate loved your comment, made my night ;)

A new beginning...

It is a shame when a regular site created for anyone that is interested in that content gets hit. A regular site being the everyday business person not knowing much about algorithm's and such builds a site to help his business along creating no foul play or black hat tactics. Those are the sites google should look for and reward :)  
I for one will continue to use Word Press for site design and keep it simple with current and useful information. I feel for those that have been slapped but not for those that have been slapped for a good reason lol Keep it real and original and you should be fine.

I guess there is something missing and this is this "authority" stuff this parameter is total nonsense but is heavy values by them and continuous nonsense. I see this very often e.g. lonly planet has a high authority with them but too often useless content which if even usually from around 3 years ago with is extremly old in this business, the same is with expedia and other, pure junk but at top at google. The other are links most of the link nonsense is still relevant , e.g.I see websites with hundreds of links only for the sake of links and even coming coming from websites the same company created so its just manipulation. Other stuff out there is are discussion boards e.g. wordpress where there is most times useless and irrelevant content, probably every in the family made a comment to give it a lift etc. this are real quality issues but I guess Google dont have a good knowledge of the real world. They are stuck in a abstraction but thats not real.

While your advice to avoid paid links is good advice, you are mistaken that paid links contribute to Panda penalties. 
 
Panda is Google's attempt to apply machine learning to determine the quality of content. 
 
Penguin is Google's attempt to apply machine learning to determine whether backlinks are manipulated. 
 
I quickly scanned the results of a search for "panda vs penguin google" and everything I saw backed this up as do the official Google posts. 
 
@Kate Your comment reminds me of an example of how punctuation can completely change the meaning of a sentence: 
 
Eats, shoots and leaves. 
vs. 
Eats shoots and leaves. 
 
I guess with Google's Panda, it doesn't matter how you punctuate.

Great article. This isn't just good for Google's SERP quality, it's good for users too. The only ones that really need to worry are the people that try and game the system.

I've found it's best to focus on increasing other traffic methods, and not to rely on SEO. In my opinion, referral traffic and social traffic are much more reliable and sustainable than SEO. Any traffic method which make you lose all your hard work, is like building your house on sand. You need a solid base, and focusing purely on SEO is not it. However, you still need to ensure you have quality content, and that your site content comply to the basic SEO rules. If you use WordPress, install a SEO plugin for the basic SEO to be in place. Great article, as usual!

Good post..!! 
Panda and Penguin, can be your best friend or worst enemy. It depends on your SEO practices. Be aware of these two animals.. they are coming soon !!

I try to find as much information about good SEO practices as possible and it all sounds as a Big Mystery. No one can give clear answer and it all looks like a grey area with opportunities for so-called SEO companies to make money on disoriented business owners.  
I am wondering why Google itself doesn't publish kind of manuals to eliminate bad SEO practices. Is it because, if they done it, they would cut their additional source of income from penalised sites which have to pay for Adwords to be found again? It's a lot of uncertainty there or am I wrong?

Great tips. I also heard that the Panda update is going to be more integrated into Google's algorithm so there will no longer be rolling updates. This will potentially be what happens with Penguin also.

good

I am also badly hit by Google Penguin and Panda.

As Panda & Penguin are beyond our control and like what you said, better follow those given tips above to avoid the oncoming impact.

I actually changes my domain name from .se to .com and did all that was said in the books of how to migrate a domain name. Them it all happened. All my traffic collapsed and now I am so confused as to how to start

really usful content to read out. M new in blogging and too much worried about Google panda. Hope everything goes good..

I'm puzzled that the Yellow Pages and other such old-world-phone-directories-gone-online who CHARGE for any listing worth while still gets a Page Rank of 7.

I have for a long time been a believer that the Google Updates are a good thing. I think there has been too easy a ride for many years, and someone like myself who has worked hard to build the best site that I can surely deserves to do better. Bring on the panda!

I would like to know how google can penalize against paid links, isn't that just what an ad is, we would not have the web without advertisers, just like we would not have TV or radio or magazines without them.

For years (2004 - 2010) I was able to dominate the searches with my Business in Berkshire community site... but it didn't drive the millions of pounds of business we are led to believe SEO will... best thing to do in 2013, PPC and measure the results, pay if you doubling your money, simple ;)

Anyone knows a tool or place to check your website for Panda / Penguin readiness??

Here is some useful info on how to avoid panda related penalties: http://seofen.com/how-to-avoid-a-panda-penalty-common-duplicate-content-issues/

It's amazing how many websites are affected. Out of several hundred of my website only a few were hit and this was due to quality control. The key to the whole search engine optimization is just being honest. You can view live Google bots catching the spammers here http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/fighting-spam.html

Haven't noticed any significant traffic movement yet.  
 
Usually a spike and then the drop if there is any penalization.

Very clever information..I have learnt many things from this article that I have to avoid from Google Panda affection

Hello guys, 
 
Has There been a Google Update Today?

Google panda is not harmful for those who has the better content quality on website.  
But i am working for website since 3 month. referral is okay but organic is not improving . 
So, how i resolve it 
and also ping me when panda will update

Anything that puts more honesty in the industry is a good thing. It's just a shame that there are some undeserving victims. No system is perfect. But this is all a huge step in the right direction - hard work is rewarded; short cuts and dishonest practices are penalised. As someone else has said though - it has hit some unsuspecting businesses hard which is probably the worst thing to come out of this - companies that paid SEO companies in good faith.

It seems to me that the best way to stay in Google's good graces is to build and manage your website as if Google didn't exist.

Regarding thin content: If you blog regularly not all of your posts (content) will be popular and get a lot of traffic. 
 
Are you saying to 301 redirect those posts? That really doesn't make sense that you would get penalized for a post having fewer than 15 visits.

@Nathan, the results from the report should be used as a guide to help find content that could possibly be considered low quality content. It's up to the site owner to then look through these and determine if there are pages that may be adding little value to the site and could be a potential Panda hazard e.g. very thin content, embedded ads etc. Of course, as you said, not all blog posts are going to be a run away success, in those cases, if they have unique quality content, you could choose to leave them be.  
The report was not just aimed at blog posts, it was aimed at an entire site. Often medium to large sized sites will end up with lots and lots of web pages that offer very little value and could certainly be trimmed down.

This is some great information on keeping your website from getting penalized in the search engines. I think websites with strong, fresh content, good links and the such should rank higher than sites lacking these things but it seems like these good sites get hit sometimes just as hard for doing everything right, as the sites that the algorithms were really meant to affect.

Building and managing your site as though Google doesn't exist is a VERY big mistake!  
 
Yes, focus on your visitors, helping them as much as you can with good, original content. Then, keep your fingers crossed, and keep an eye on Google. 
 
My site didn't get hit (again) by the latest Panda, but traffic still stinks. And, I was doing all the "right" things - turning down paid links, not plastering ads across the top of pages, focusing on quality original content, etc. 
 
Google has an ENORMOUS impact on what goes on. I think my site was "collateral damage" in their war with the spammers - maybe too much content (2,200+ pages) about one topic? Who knows. But that doesn't mean the damage doesn't hurt. It may put me out of business soon. 
 
VERY discouraging! 
 
Be careful out there. Do your best to serve your visitors what they need. Don't spam or do anything unethical. And, keep a close eye on Google. Just doing the right things doesn't mean your site won't be "collateral damage" in a new Panda/Penguin/whatever update. My site is proof of that.

I've also grown tired of Google. I write my own content every day (+ a few guest writers every now and then) and my traffic has gone down for the worst

Nice post 
 
usful content to read out. i m new in blogging and too much worried about Google panda. Hope everything goes good..  
 
thanks

I was hit hard by panda for both quality issue and linking strategy. Since then i always try to write my own articles and slowly building links. I hope next update will not affect my websites. Thank you for remind me on how to create a good website.

Oh common, stop playing google rules. I understand quality content, etc. but using slow and 'natural' link building practices you will never win with black hat competitors. 
 
Used to do that few years ago and my website got hit and lost 90% of traffic and revenue. Since then I just try to play according my rules.

Can't argue with much of this post. Going on two years since the first Panda update and one year since the penguin update. If you haven't made these changes yet you're going to be in trouble going into the next year.

as I am new in Seo so this is very useful info for me. Keep it up.. 

Panda updates have surely hit the industry hard. I have found that using copyscape is a great way to protect yourself from any Panda update. Panda updates are all about purging internet from copied content and using copyscape can help you in checking your website for any copied content.

Our site was www.wildlifesanctuaryindia.com and deepjunglehome.com, both different properties were ranking in top for our main keywords bandipur and mudumalai. On EMD update date, both sites have been hit, now they dont rank for both the keywords ( and all combinations) We have worked on removing bad links, tried reducing the anchor text percentage, reconsideration requests through WMT but google replied there is no issue with the sites. Now we are perplexed what to do. Best regards Bala

My website has 600+ pages of original content written by experts, NO ads, NO duplicate pages, NO purchased links, some pages only with pictres. But, still, my traffic is going down from 20,000 per month to 12,000 per month. Is killing my revenue. So, I need to improve, but how? Always try to write my own articles and slowly building links. Thank You for a great article.

I thought the algorithm change that affected linking was Penguin rather than Panda. Let me know. We have always relied on interesting content, and quality online PR.

As an internet user and a real life person, I like the idea of my searches returning content and not link farms. As someone trying to build a local service related business with no storefront, I am at a loss on how to build up page rank. I can't use google places, no storefront. I can't spend my days glued to the internet to actively troll g+. Is google just trying to force out small biz startups from being able to compete with those with a huge advertising budget?