How Content Penalties are Found and Fixed
Knowing how to fix Google Panda penalties became important after 2012 when Google implemented a number of new methodologies to combat and penalise low-quality & thin content and gaming the system. Their avowed goal is to improve the quality of results that appear on the search pages and to penalize those who cheat.
Website owners often remain blissfully unaware of the changes, despite their website rankings incurring a penalty. Many website’s rankings have been severely punished due to Google’s algorithmic penalties;
- Penguin: evidence of participation in manipulative link-building strategies
- Panda: Low-quality content, vague Titles and descriptions, content duplication
- Phantom: thin content – stub pages, place-holder pages – any pages with minimal content
This page is primarily focused on Panda penalty removals; AHREFS: Google penalties explained
The Panda algorithm punishes breaches of Terms of Service and/or Webmaster Guidelines pertaining to content quality. This is a core aspect of my business SEO services. There are a great many elements assessed, including
- Architectural analysis – the structure of the site, page hierarchy, use of tags and categories
- Menu/navigation functionality, consistency and ease of use
- Sitemaps – XML & HTML for search engines and visitors respectively
- Errors – 404, 403, 503 – and custom error handling
- Internal linking structure between pages, and optimization thereof
- The keywords that link content, and over-optimisation punishment potential
- Keyword stuffing
- HTML & CSS elements and standards compliance
- Page load speed – now very important and if too slow, a punishable offence
- SEO web design – mobile responsiveness of the layout is recommended and rewarded
- The pages Titles & Descriptions – accuracy, branding, compliance with guidelines
- Image Alt texts – recommended, but reckless use is punished
- Keywords – semantic search aspects,
- Keyword stuffing detected using Copywritely
- Content Quality & Quantity – duplication detected using Siteliner
- Detecting plagiarism using Copyscape
- Detecting ChatGPT or AI-generated content
- Noindex of trivial material – archive, tags,
- Removal of stub or doorway pages and placeholders
- Credibility & Trust – privacy, terms and conditions
- Business NAP data (name, address and phone)
- E-E-A-T – experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness
Other Optimisation Topics
Panda Remedial Costs
I conduct a thorough website SEO audit which reveals the aspects that are potential causes of the punishing Panda penalties.
Techniques to remedy Google penalties and improve performance:
- Identifying and adding missing trust and credibility items
- Deleting or applying noindex to trivial content
- Rewriting substandard material is all-important.
- Removal of over-optimised text anchors, and anchor texts on pages
- Toning down the excess of bold and/or italic text on exact-match keywords
My professional experience shows that Panda’s penalties are reversed very quickly. Most sites are regularly visited by Googlebot, and revised pages are re-indexed within a week in most cases.
As penalties are reversed, rankings and traffic promptly surge upwards – just like taking the hand brake off on a hill start!
(We also conduct Link Audits for Penguin penalty identification.)
Fixing Panda Penalties
A Panda penalty reversal involves a comprehensive audit of the website to assess the many aspects of “content” that Google evaluates in its algorithmic judgements. Elements such as Titles and Descriptions must be well written and adhere to length and content guidelines, or punishment is likely. Page textual content must be sensibly optimised, or it will be penalized.
The best way forward is to request a no-obligation Website SEO Audit – I can then advise you on issues, options and costs.
Google Panda Penalty Reversal Enquiry
Page last updated on Friday, October 13, 2023 by the author Ben Kemp