Google Panda Sandbox Q and A

The latest Google Panda update has a lot of website owners pulling their hair out and trying to decipher what they did wrong. These are tough questions but I think I can help you with some Google basics I have gleaned from some SEO articles and SEO experts.

Typically the experts will ask you to pay high fee’s to get this kind of information. I feel like anyone who is being honest in their SEO efforts and content creation shouldn’t have to guess and dig around to find the answers to get back on track.

Q: What should I do if my web site was sandboxed by the latest Google Panda update? How can I climb out of the abyss and get back to where I was?

Wikipedia Google Sandbox Definition

Lets define Active Domain Age and Keyword Competiveness. Active age of a domain refers to when Google first indexed pages on your domain. Keyword competitiveness is the search frequency of a keyword on Google’s search. Specifically, the higher the search frequency of a word, the higher chances that the sandbox filter effect will come into play.

While Google may not admit whether or not the sandbox truly exists, you can rest assured it is very real. Two resources you need to add to your bookmarks right now are :

SEOmoz is a great site in general, but this specific page tracks and adds each Google updates (including the 10/13) update.

– http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

SearchEngineLand article provides some detailed instructions on what to DO if you were hit by the last update. Even if your were not penalized, this is good reading and provides some tips on what you should be doing if not already.

– http://searchengineland.com/taking-a-closer-look-at-the-googles-panda-2-5-flux-97603

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself if you were hit by the sandbox of panda:

• Does the site create valuable content? If no, get going on making great content.
• Is your content well written? Try to avoid budget outsourcing for articles.
• Does your site have a lot of pages with the same topics? I suggest creating supporting content that links back to the main page you wish to promote. Make sure it is not duplicated, but supports the main article.
• Do you have a lot of syndicated content? Get rid of it if you do. (syndication, feeds, content that is the exact text appearing on multiple sites – news sites may find this hard to do – just be first to post it)
• Is your site easy to navigate? (Try not to cover up your good content with an overwhelming amount of ads)
• Is your site engaging? (is it socially relevant so that people want to visit, like, +1, or share with others?)