How Google Panda Update has Changed SEO Practices

In a recent article on Wordtracker’s academy blog, Mark Nunney addresses what he calls “the new SEO” in an excerpt from his new book, SEO for Profit.

With Google’s new Panda update in February of this year, many companies have had to reevaluate their SEO practices. While it still factors in keywords on website pages and in the anchor text of inbound links, the new algorithm now also includes a site’s branding, visitor behavior, and social data.

Nunney offers some tips for adjusting to the new SEO.

First, he says, you must become a leading brand in your niche. As Google chairman, and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt says, “brands are the solution, not the problem,” especially when it comes to spammy results.

So what is Google looking for? Nunney says it’s brand mentions, shares, and links in social media; brand mentions and links on highly trusted sites, and searches with brand and domain names. He adds, though, that it’s important to remember a brand only had to be big in its market.

The second factor in the new SEO is user behavior, or what content visitors are finding useful on your site. Factors include time spent on the site and bounce rate back to a SERP.

The last factor in the new SEO is social. This includes every comment, mention, shared links, etc from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and G+.

With this new form of SEO, companies need to have an all-encompassing approach to the web in order to improving rankings on their niche’s SERPs. It’s important to engage customers through not only web content, but social media and blogs as well.

The first step in adapting to this new SEO is relevant content. By offering such, you can locate and engage your target audience. Let EVG help organize an all-encompassing web plan for you. Call us at 864.241.0779 or email hello@enveritasgroup.com.

Julie Ledbetter
EVG Content Specialist