Google's Penguin and Panda Updates: How They Impact The Way You Market Your Company

First we had the "Panda" update and more recently, the "Penguin" update. What do these updates mean for businesses who depend on high ranking in Google? Let's first gain an understanding of what each of these updates was meant to accomplish. First, the Panda update was to stop "content farms" from gaming the search engines and making sure that readers were getting good results from reputable sources when they performed a search. Now, the Penguin update is targeting keyword-stuffed, useless information that is found in blogs and on websites. What do these changes mean?

Marketers must be smarter

The first thing that marketing specialists must be aware of is that Google is looking for regular content, just as they always have. There's a catch however, no longer is spun content, low-quality content and keyword-stuffed content acceptable. Instead, Google wants to ensure that websites and blogs are providing valuable content to readers. Content must be relevant, readable and regular to be considered worthy of escaping any negative Penguin update consequences.

Why relevance matters

For those who are marketing a weight-loss program, writing about dogs, airplanes or housing developments and including weight-loss keywords into the article to make it "relevant" simply won't cut the mustard. Relevance means that the content that your readers find on your site are focused on weight-loss. The good news is that there are hundreds of angles that you can take on any given subject to write about that will be relevant.

Why readability matters

While it may be tempting to hire an article spinner to regurgitate information that is found on other blogs or websites, often these articles are very low quality and not worthy of sharing with others in the readers network. This means that these articles are likely going to languish in the search engines and fall to the bottom of the pile. Well-written articles that attract readers and encourage them to share within their network can boost a website's ranking. The end result is that the website will see higher traffic, which if all else in the process is up-to-speed (website quality, customer service, etc.) will result more often than not in higher sales.

Why regular posting matters

Google still encourages website and blog owners to post regularly - meaning regardless of any other changes, content remains king. Website and blog owners do not post regularly will find themselves losing readers since there is no reason for them to return. Lower traffic means lower sales and that will incur the wrath of Google.

While many website owners and blog owners may have a problem working within the confines of the Panda and Penguin updates, for marketers, learning how to deal with these new rules should be simple. Provide your readers with information they want to read and share, provide well-written and well-sourced material and post regularly. These are the basic requirements of overcoming these updates. Marketers who take the time to manage their sites effectively will often find that these rules are not as restrictive as they think. Only those who depend on shallow content, spun articles and articles that do not provide value to their readers will find themselves on the wrong side of Google algorithms.