Search engine optimization today is one of the most prominent forms of marketing. It is also however one of the newer forms of marketing. What we have seen with SEO is that there is constant change and adjustments. Google would say that their penguin and panda were solutions that were created to help search engine optimization become more effective and helpful for the search engine user.  These changes are difficult to keep up with as a small business owner, but you have to understand how the changes may impact your search engine optimization.
What is it?
Google’s penguin and panda are two different algorithm updates developed to improve SEO. The first algorithm update was Google panda which was released in February 2011. The second is Google penguin which was released in April 2012.
Why was it created?
Before Google’s penguin and panda, the best way to get more traffic to your website was through ways that did not benefit the person who was using the search engine. Both algorithm updates addressed different problems.
Google panda focused mainly on

  • Thin content/content Farming

That means having mass amounts of generic content about the topic on your website

  • Having large amounts of ads compared to content

This was for websites that had more ads than they did information
Google penguin focused mainly on

  • Keyword forcing

Keyword forcing means putting more keywords into content than is really useful or needed.

  • Spam factors like link abuse

If you visit a blog or news website often times you will see in the comments section posts that don’t seem quite normal. These types of posts usually have some kind of generic filler text and at the end a link to another site.
The Bottom Line

At the time, these were the best ways to get traffic to your website. Using these methods was a better way to get more traffic to your website instead of having high-quality content. That was something Google did not want happening. The purpose of the two algorithms were to make sure that the results that came up on Google’s search engine were the results that had the highest quality to them.
What does it mean for you?
If you are trying to get more traffic to your website the best way to do that is to consistently produce high quality and helpful content. That isn’t to say however that having some keywords and links from good and relevant sources isn’t helpful anymore. They still serve their purpose, but the best way to draw more traffic to your website is with quality over quantity.  Good quality content is the most effective search engine optimization a small business can do.

About the Author: Donna Amos


I believe you can achieve anything you truly want to achieve. “It might sound trite, but time and time again, I’ve seen it happen with my clients. They overcome the fear of exposing themselves to the possibility of failure to creating profitable exciting businesses. My clients do great work, and sometimes it only takes someone else believing in them to give them the confidence to step out and take the chance.”

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