Google updates its search ranking algorithm as many as 500 times every year. Its Panda updates are a part of this continued effort. All Google wants is to provide web users with a superior quality searching experience. Since junk or low quality content is produced continuously, Google's Panda is ready to attack at the interval of every 5-7 weeks. The recent one, called Panda 3.2 algorithm update, is only the beginning of several updates that Google plans to do this year. But are you really geared up to survive these attacks?

Creating a healthy web eco-system is Google's main goal. Since Google's the world's most preferred search engine, it can never afford to dissatisfy users that use it to find solutions (results) to their problems (queries).

In short, Google wants you to create high quality websites. Here are a couple of questions that will help you define a high quality website.

Does your website have multiple articles on a similar topic (with little keyword variations)?
Do users really trust your website?
Is the content on your website well-edited?
Do the articles on your website really help users?
Does your website have articles that users can recommend to others?
Do you display a lot of ads on your website?
Do you share insightful analysis and interesting information on your site?
How would your content look, if it appears in print?

If you don't want Google's Panda to attack or hit your website, you should never ignore the issues that the above-mentioned questions throw light upon.

The second important point is to satisfy your target audience's needs. No matter what business goals you want to achieve, you can never do it at the cost of making your target audiences unhappy. In fact, you should focus on creating content that provides quick solutions to their everyday problems.

And the only way to fulfill your audience's requirements is to find out who they are. Know their interests, aspirations, likes, dislikes and other behavioral attributes. Unless you know what an ideal customer for your business look like, you won't be able to offer what they want from you. Do the profiling right away!

To make sure you don't get hit by the Google's Panda, you need to keep a close watch on the analytics of your website. Log in to your Google analytics account to get the current picture of where your site stands. Metrics like time on site, bounce rate, exit rate, visitor loyalty can tell you a lot as to whether web users really find your website helpful and trust you as a valuable resource. If you have some serious usability issues with your website, fix them as quickly as possible.

If you want to escape Panda attacks in future, you should start building a strong community of followers (and advocates) around your brand. That's one of the most important pieces of advice you can use. Though it takes time and effort, building a community of loyal followers can become your shield to ward off the sudden effects of a Google Panda update.

Don't wait or it can be too late!

Was your website ever Panda-slapped? Let's hear the story in the comment section below.

It's been confirmed that Google updated its Panda on January 18 this month. Webmasters are already busy discussing the effects of Google's recent Panda 3.2 algorithmic update, which was actually halted last year due to the holiday season. Google tweeted in December that they were not going to update their Panda since it was holiday time. Certainly, it was like a holiday present for webmasters around the world.

Though Google officials said that this is only a minor update (a data refresh), webmasters noticed alterations in their search rankings. The recent Panda update is only one of 500 ranking algorithmic changes that Google makes every year. So, you can hope to see more of such updates, usually at the interval of every 5-8 weeks.

Previous Panda Update Schedule
Counting the recent one, Google has updated its Panda ten times till now. Let's have a look at all of these updates between 2011 and 2012.

Panda Update 1.0 : Feb. 24, 2011
Panda Update 2.0 : April 11, 2011
Panda Update 2.1 : May 10, 2011
Panda Update 2.2 : June 16, 2011
Panda Update 2.3 : July 23, 2011
Panda Update 2.4 : August 12, 2011
Panda Update 2.5 : September 28, 2011
Panda Update 2.5.1 : October 19, 2011
Panda Update 2.5.2 : October 13, 2011
Panda Update 2.5.3 : October 9, 2011
Panda Update 3.1 : November 18, 2011
Panda Update 3.2 : January 18, 2012

Google has declared time and again that it strives to provide a superior quality search experience to users. All these Panda algorithm updates focus on enhancing the Google rankings of high quality sites, while poor or low quality websites are pushed down the SERPs.

What a Few Webmasters Noticed
Though I didn't notice any impact on my own sites, there are webmasters who pointed out rises or drops in their organic search traffic. Many webmasters said that they retained the traffic that was lost during November Google Panda update last year. Many declared a 30% - 40% increase in their daily organic traffic. There are others (including me) who didn't notice any big change though.

Looking for Panda Survival Tips?
Many more Panda updates will be your way this year. You really need to make sure that these updates by Google don't do any collateral damage to your website organic traffic. If your website was Panda-slapped, given below are few essential tips that you can follow.

Diversify your website traffic
Use actionable KPIs to calculate success
Devote time to building a community around your brand
Fix the usability issues on your website quickly
Conduct a content audit (and remove useless content)
Say a firm 'No' to low quality link building
Understand that good quality content is still the king

If a higher percentage of your website's traffic comes from Google's organic searches, you need to become even more vigilant. Start implementing the necessary changes to your website right away, because therer's no guarantee that the next Panda algorithmic update will also be minor one.

Local businesses work on the basis of word - of - mouth. That's how small businesses start and then gradually grow. Now, suppose that the web is the world, and your website needs a connection. The many pages on your site are the networks and must be internally linked.

It's something like one page linking to another and another page linking to another chain that may interest the reader and keep him tuned into your site.

Here are some simple steps that should help you building SEO initiatives for your internal links:

STEP 1: REVIEW YOUR WEBSITE

The first step is to know your website and ensure that you are delivering on your commitments. Understand the usability and the service you are providing. After this, you can plan to add internal links wherever needed in the Structure. These may be referred to as structural links which help in navigation. They also ensure that your pool of great content do not go unnoticed. The least people should know what all you offer.

STEP 2: DETERMINE YOUR GOALS

What all do you want to do on your site? What are you committing to provide? If your website is a music blog, for instance, you should have sections to news, blogs, interviews, current affairs, events, PRs etc. and these sections should be internally linked. A PR page should link relevant updates to previously published News articles and so on and so forth. This entirely depends on what your goals are. So, setting your goals before your aspirations is important.

STEP 3: BUILD INTERNAL LINKS

Once the initial internal structure and goals are set, it's time to start building on the internal links. Now, these internal links cannot be specific or pre planned. They are dynamic. What we are trying to say, is that, your website has many pages. These pages can be linked to each other on various grounds through content. This is known as contextual linking, which is known to do well with readers and the search engines.

For example: You are blogging about a product. In an ideal contextual linking scenario, you should link from any relevant word about the product in your text, to the product page on your website. This way, your page ranks can improve, visibility improves and users stay connected to your site

STEP 4: OPTIMIZE LINKING

The key to success is to optimize your efforts and reap the most benefits from your linking activities. Which are your prime keywords? Are they getting the correct attention? Is important information on your site not being visited by users and do you want to shift to focus on them?

These are some questions you should answer and optimize your linking strategies by linking to the appropriate keywords and targeting them better.

Moreover, while linking internally, it's also wise to make use of codes like NoFollow to avoid creation of duplicate content on your page and to direct traffic to specific pages which need the attention.

These basic steps can help improve your page ranks and visibility. But it all depends on how you accomplish the task. Too many internal links can adversely affect your website because frankly, the user is also not going to enjoy so much hyper linking! Consulting a SEO company or a consultant strategist could prove beneficial; after all, it's important to make the right moves and create a win win situation!

Even if you only have a very basic understanding of HTML and SEO, there are a few tags and attributes that are pretty common. Most people will know about rel=nofollow, for instance, as well as the alt and title tags that can be associated with images.

When you use these tags and attributes appropriately, you can gain some pretty significant SEO benefits. One attribute that many people neglect, though, is the rel=author tag that can be attached to the link in an author's byline. For instance, you'll see the author link for my name with every post on this blog.

A recent post by Jill Whalen talks specifically about this. She's saying that while the most powerful thing to do, from a Google SEO standpoint, is to link the author name (complete with the rel=author attribute) to a Google profile page, it can also be linked to an internal author page that, in turn, likes to the Google profile page.

She goes on to discuss five reasons why you should implement this code, one of which is that it helps your content stand out. Google can better understand that the various articles you have posted around the web are actually coming from the same author.

And that's exactly how Jill has taken advantage of the attribute. The search engine results page not only lists relevant content for the search term, but it also immediately brings up content that is written by the same author. That brings credibility and power to your name, which should hopefully also help from an SEO perspective.

Do you use the rel=author tag on your sites? Do you think it's worth the extra effort to go through your older archives to retroactively include the attribute?

As you made your way around the Internet today, you may have noticed that many of your favorite sites have been "blacked out" in some form or another. From Mobile Magazine to Wikipedia, these sites are making themselves unavailable or less available to readers.

This is in official protest to SOPA (Stop Internet Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). They're calling it "dangerous legislation" that will stunt free speech and the free dissemination of information online. However, you've got to wonder if these sites remembered to take the SEO ramifications into consideration.

Google sure did. According to SE Roundtable, the world's largest search engine is very much cognizant of the whole "black out" movement in protest of SOPA/PIPA and it has taken a small step to minimize the SEO impact that this blocking out may have on the rankings of the sites participating in the worldwide protest.