Source: Woosa Media :credits-caption:
If you're a blog owner, then there's no doubt that you've heard of Google Panda by now. I've read countless articles on the subject so far and have a general understanding of why Google has instituted the Panda algorithms and how you can comply with them. The rewards for being "Panda compliant" are huge because Google will then shower you with high ranking search results, thus bringing you a healthy share of traffic.
Because traffic is what we all are after in this game, since it's quite unfulfilling to blog to crickets, it's best to follow the new Google Panda protocols as closely as possible. The following WordPress plugin will help you do just that.
One Major Tip to Being Google Panda Compliant:
Eliminate low-quality content on your blog
There are many different ideas as to what makes content "low-quality", but basically, Google Panda considers it to be anything that doesn't add value to a search engine. For mom bloggers like myself, this includes all giveaway hops, holiday well-wishes posts, Wordless Wednesdays and any other posts with similar or duplicate content, like group giveaway posts.
Be very careful that you no-index any and all posts of this nature because Google will not only label these posts low-quality, they will also label your entire blog as low-quality, which I'm sure is not the case. You'll begin to suffer big time with organic Google search traffic, which for me, accounts for up to half of my overall traffic.
Source: Techie Mania :credits-caption:
Also, make sure to rid your blog of guests posts that you know were published on more than one site. Google can easily sniff these posts out and will consider them to be duplicate content. Unfortunately, sifting through all of the content on your blog in search of offending posts like the ones I mentioned above can take some time, but I've discovered one amazing WordPress plugin that can take some of the guesswork out of no-indexing low-quality content on your blog...Post Admin Word Count.
Believe it or not, many of these low-quality posts have one thing in common...low word count. In a Wordless Wednesday post, the idea is to keep your writing to a minimum. Group giveaway posts, linkys and holiday well-wishes all get right to the point and don't use a lot of words either. So if you were able to sort all of your posts by the number of words they contain, you could quickly and easily no-index a great deal of what the Google Panda algorithm would call low-quality.
Be sure to give the Post Admin Word Count WordPress Plugin a try and see if you can't improve your blog in the eyes of the almighty Google. Also, if you found this plugin or this post particularly helpful, please give it a share and let's all get some crazy organic search traffic in the New Year! :thumbs up:
View Comments (31)
Thanks for sharing this post. As you know we are all looking for ways to improve our google traffic.
Blessings,
Deborah H. Bateman-Author
Thanks Deborah! I hope this plugin helps us all with the beast that can be Google. :)
Hi Melissa, is it just for word count or does it do more, like tell you if it's duplicate content? Thanks!
Hi Lisa,
Great question! This plugin only notifies you of how many words each post has and nothing more. It's up to you to figure out whether it's low-quality content. Personally, I just put myself in Google's position and thought long and hard about whether this particular post adds value to a search engine or not. Please be sure to only noindex the posts you're sure are duplicated elsewhere or are "low-quality" so that you don't accidentally get rid of the wrong ones and hurt yourself there. Panda is a tricky beast to tame! :)
Thank you for explaining this so clearly. I am going to try the plug in right away.
Good luck Elizabeth! I hope it helps you find those posts that Google Panda might not be too crazy about. :)
Thats really interesting, thanks :)
Thank you so much Melissa! I'm going to install the plugin right now. Googles new rules make me a nervous wreck. The things I love to post about and that generate a good amount of traffic could end up ruining my blog traffic if not done right. :0(
But it's good to know what to do and what not to do now as far as indexing them. Thank you for sharing these tips with us!
Thanks Crystal! Just be sure that you don't accidentally noindex posts that are bringing you search traffic. For me, I had miles and miles of winner announcement posts and giveaway linkys which only contained a few words and was probably nothing that anyone was searching for. Please be careful though when noindexing to make sure that the content you're getting rid of is truly low-quality. Good luck and I hope we all get a traffic boost in the New Year!
A great reminder to go back and look at those early posts and weed out the junk. Thanks for the plug-in suggestion. Off to check it out.
Thanks Connie! Once I used this plugin, I was surprised at just how much junk I had posted in those early months. :)
Shoot - the plug-in didn't work for me. After installing it my Posts page was blank. When I unistalled and deleted it everything was back to normal.
I'm sure it's just a piece of bad coding somewhere in my blog that's conflicting with it, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone else gets the blank page and panics.
Good idea though!
Oh no! That's too bad, but you're right...we all have so many different features and code on our blogs that it's definitely possible the plugin might not work. Did you happen to leave a comment for the plugin author in Wordpress so that they could try and fix things on their end? Maybe it could be an easy fix for them. :)
My daughter is thinking of starting her own blog. This kind of information is so important to her that I am now going to send her to your blog so that she is able to learn from a professional :) Thanks for sharing your knowledge in such a clear, precise manner.
Aww! You are so sweet! I'm hardly a professional though...just someone who subscribes to a lot of the top "SEO and tech" blogs and tries to learn from the real pros! :)
Cool plug in! I use Yoast SEO plug in and that one really helps with the word count too. Like Connie said it's a great opportunity to weed out the junk. For some of us that could be pretty time consuming. Loo
Thanks! I use Wordpress SEO by Yoast too and love it! That combined with the Post Admin Word Count plugin is a deadly combination, for from your posts screen you can quickly sort by word count and then look to see whether you already have noindexed a particular post in Yoast or not...makes weeding out the junk MUCH quicker! :)
Oh goody!!!! I'm just not really sure about the no indexing stuff. After 5 years on Blogger I made the switch to self hosted WP so I'm still cleaning house!
I know what you mean...with Google constantly changing this and that in regards to their search algorithms and what they're looking for, I don't know if my blog will ever be up to Google's standards completely.
Thanks, I am going to try it out. I appreciate the low-quality content tips. I am going to have to re-evaluate if I am going to participate in those kinds of posts in the future.
Hi Theresa,
Thanks! For me, I've finally realized that what my readers want is not always what a search engine wants. If I'm doing a giveaway linky, Wordless Wednesday post or group giveaway which Google might consider "low-quality", I just make sure to noindex it and then post it on my blog. That way, everyone wins! :)