Google Algorithm Update

Google has introduced a way by which web surfers can block certain websites that showup in their search results. This can be done by using Google Chrome Extension. This option allows a web surfer to remove a website from the search result which they think is not relevant, by clicking on the “Block” option. When the block option is clicked then all results pertaining to that website is blocked. If the web-surfer wants the website to be permanently blocked forever then they have to sign into their Google Account and confirm the block request.

This data is then used by the Google’s algorithm which identified an 84 percent overlap with the websites that were negatively impacted by the Panda update.

On 24th February 2011 Google made a change to its search algorithm [Panda Update] which aimed to lower the rankings of low quality websites, and bring high quality sites to the top of the search results. This change affected 12 percent of all search results. Websites that were placing a lot of advertisements on their web-pages saw a down trend, and social networking sites and news websites saw an uptrend in rankings.

The intention behind the Panda update is to help web surfers to find high quality sites when compared to sites that are built from content farming and aggregator/spam sites. Panda’s main goal is to down rank websites that offer poor user experience.

Factors that need to be kept in mind that makes a website vulnerable to Panda

The latest version of the Panda update is 3.6 which was rolled out on 27th April 2012. On 24th April 2012 Google launched another algorithm called the Penguin Update. The Penguin update is also known as the Webspam update, and it is designed to identify those webpage’s that are spamming the Google Search Engine by using tactics that violate Google guidelines like cloaking, keyword stuffing and link schemes.

Factors that need to be kept in mind to avoid your website being vulnerable to Penguin