What's he talking about being slapped by the panda ? The big G or Google runs a very complex algorithm which uses artificial intelligence in such a sophisticated manner, no humans outside of Google really know how it works. This algorithm update is called a panda update, the most recent update being 3.3 which took place on the 27th of February and included the discontinuation of a link evaluation signal.

In todays SEO world we all use calculated guesses and practice optimisation techniques based on the SERP we achieve through many different link building methods, ie blog posts, forum posts, article marketing web 2.0 profiles etc. as mentioned no one actually knows exactly how google will rank a site. This most recent update had really taken some of our industries players for a rough ride as some results have been dropped by 5-7 rankings overnight. Which could indicate a case of “too many eggs in one basket” as SEO is about diversification. It’s important to diversify so that when certain ranking factors are updated by google it does not throw your site around the search results. Don’t get slapped by the panda !

I noticed a certain website was completely shut down overnight as a result of google deindexing 98% of its blog network. This was a subscription network with literally thousands of members paying $50 + pm ! It just goes to show you how powerful these guys are and that there is no point trying to “trick” Google as there intelligence will catch up with you soon enough.

This most recent update seems to be aimed at providing consumers a more accurate local results and tends to be showing more local businesses, a good thing for small business however can knock around some of the bigger guys.

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