“Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible.” That’s how Google introduced its new Panda algorithm on the Official Google Blog written by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer, in February 2011. They go on about the purpose of Panda……”it will provide better rankings for high quality sites—sites with original content and information…“ SEO aficionados looked at their toolkits and began to wonder.

On the official Google Webmaster Central Blog Amit offers guidance on what constitutes a quality site. Quality sites are trustworthy containing well-crafted content relevant to the audience’s interest. The questions below are the kind that Google staff pose when assessing the quality of a site. My advice for increasing your search rankings follows.

Trust

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Does it carry authority from a knowledgeable author?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?

Who is researching, writing and overseeing your content becomes more important within the Panda paradigm. One way to build trust is to distribute original quality content throughout relevant networks online. You may gain inbound links that add to your authority.

Content

• Is the content well edited? Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

Conduct a quality content audit. Review all of your pages and improve the content or remove low quality content. Eliminate duplicate content and keyword-stuffed pages. Hire an editor. Rely on people who can conduct an interview, research and write in a voice that conveys the proper tone, insight and interest. Create high amounts of content consistently.

Relevance

• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

I thought these last questions interesting because they align with traditional publishing print practices. Imagine a magazine putting fluff on its pages to entice but not deliver to its audience or reading a published article with blatant factual errors. It wouldn’t be in business for long. Know your audience.

Google is now rewarding trustworthy, well-written, relevant content sites with top slots in its search rankings. Do you have someone you can depend on to deliver such content? Have you hired any new staff to address Panda’s quality issues?

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