On May 21st, Google’s head of Webspam Matt Cutts announced the release of the latest algorithm update, Panda 4.0, via his twitter feed. Google updates are normally followed by a wave of panic with most people in the Search Engine Optimization community scurrying to check their website and SEO rankings to see if they still have visibility in search results.

Google is always making changes and updating their algorithms in order to improve search engine performance for its users. The Panda 4.0 refresh mainly relates to web content: it seeks to improve the user experience of its customers by providing beneficial and informative search queries that point to well-written and unique websites.

Who is affected by this change?

Among those who will have lower rankings due to the algorithm update, you will find a large number of aggregator-type sites who provide poor quality, unoriginal content. Those who mainly ranked based on content from external sources will also lose visibility.

At the end of the day, you and Google share the same end goal because you both want to provide the best possible user experience to your customers. By writing for your target audience and by creating unique, quality content, your website will stand the test of time regardless of future algorithm updates.

What should you do to maintain a quality website?

You website should have:

  • – Fresh, good quality content
  • – Include thorough and detailed information – be an authority
  • – Present information in an organized fashion
  • – Blog more frequently – frequency is key

You website should not have:

  • – Duplicate content
  • – Keyword stuffing
  • – Low-quality content
  • – Spam content
  • – Content produced by content farms – stick with the pros

We are always making sure to keep up to date with matters regarding algorithm updates to make sure that any website we work on will always be performing at its best. If you are not comfortable creating content, seek help from professional writers who can help you enrich your website and provide your customers with relevant and beneficial information.