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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

April 18, 2011

Don’t Panic!…Panda’s UK SERP Attack

It has been a week after the Panda was released upon the UK and other English-speaking countries. The Panda Algorithm update was released internationally last Monday and created some much expected “panda-monium” in the rankings for many thousands of sites in the UK and the world. Data from Search Metrics compiled a list of the biggest “losers” and the 20 biggest “winners” of the update.

At first glance, it looks that the update did what it was intended to do by attacking many product comparison sites, reviews sites and voucher code sites. Many of these “low-quality” sites fared poorly in the wake of the Panda.

Ciao’s UK site lost 94% of its online visibility while the user recommendations site Qype lost approximately 96% of its search engine visibility following the update. Other sites saw some incredible gains. Tech Crunch realized a 41% increase in its rankings and site like Mirror.co.uk, ITV.com and Metro.co.uk all saw an increase of about 20%.

Top 20 “Losers” from Google’s Panda UK Update

Domain	New visbility	Old visibility	Change	%

moneypage.com	25	39231	-39206	-99.94
pricedash.com	127	55141	-55014	-99.77
njobs.org.uk	92	30693	-30601	-99.7
voucherstar.co.uk	126	38748	-38622	-99.67
osoyou.com	96	26668	-26572	-99.64
zath.co.uk	161	39768	-39607	-99.6
shoppingvouchers.co.uk	134	30056	-29922	-99.55
discountshoppinguk.co.uk	491	66270	-65779	-99.26
just-food.com	293	39282	-38989	-99.25
webdevelopersnotes.com	583	54948	-54365	-98.94
netvouchercodes.co.uk	1935	152376	-150441	-98.73
pocket-lint.com	2128	165956	-163828	-98.72
killerstartups.com	869	52717	-51848	-98.35
wakoopa.com	1334	71525	-70191	-98.13
aceshowbiz.com	907	46188	-45281	-98.04
everydaysale.co.uk	3822	175800	-171978	-97.83
hotfrog.co.uk	1124	44863	-43739	-97.49
phonesreview.co.uk	864	33418	-32554	-97.41
electricpig.co.uk	1678	60882	-59204	-97.24
kgbanswers.co.uk	1009	31427	-30418	-96.79

Top 20 “Winners” from Google’s Panda UK Update

domain	New visibility	Old visibility	Change	%

ebay.co.uk	1469346	1034302	435044	42.1
techcrunch.com	174797	124220	50577	40.7
national-lottery.co.uk	292053	209357	82696	39.5
econsultancy.com	186175	135804	50371	37.1
thisismoney.co.uk	234717	180377	54340	30.1
siteslike.com	175869	140279	35590	25.4
mirror.co.uk	275876	220937	54939	24.9
blogspot.com	1006719	819832	186887	22.8
mashable.com	295137	240714	54423	22.6
itv.com	345470	282300	63170	22.4
metro.co.uk	181507	149271	32236	21.6
independent.co.uk	471896	388280	83616	21.5
mozilla.org	146282	122471	23811	19.4
youtube.com	8856696	7446902	1409794	18.9
vimeo.com	168979	142182	26797	18.9
wordpress.com	331836	279738	52098	18.6
laterooms.com	150533	127297	23236	18.3
dailymotion.com	577590	490328	87262	17.8
soundcloud.com	150998	128569	22429	17.5

Some sites are not happy with the numbers being reported by Search Metrics. They feel that the numbers do not accurately reflect what certain they have experienced. Doug Scott from discountvouchers.co.uk has refuted these numbers saying that:

If anyone wished for me to send them an image of our analytics then please contact me. Our traffic levels have not changed.

I am pleased to say that our staff and customers are no longer worried. After Search Metrics published some false data I have had to calm fears. Maybe their data is not what they are stating. Check your facts guys.

Doug Scott, MD

Search Metrics explains how they arrived at these numbers and the criteria that was used to arrive at their findings

Despite some possible discrepancies, preliminary evidence shows that the Panda appears to be doing what was intended by attacking low-quality sites and penalizing those that warrant an adjustment of their rankings the most.

If what we saw in the US, in any indication of what is to come, there will undoubtedly be many fluctuations continuing over the next few weeks as the SERPs are reorganized in an attempt to level the playing field for all. The biggest thing to take away from this post is to remember: “Don’t Panic!” …SERPs should settle down soon.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 6:57 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News,Uncategorized
Tags: farmer uk, farmer update, panda UK, panda update, search algorithm —

April 14, 2011

Surviving the Panda-mic

As most of us know, the Panda update launched by Google in the US in February and this week in the UK has cause a lot of confusion, a lot of ranking drops and a lot of people scratching their heads wondering what to do to recover from it.

The Panda was designed to attack sites that spit out and aggregate low-quality content based on the most searched keywords on Google. The update caused a lot of shifts in the search results and helped to remove a lot of spam farms from the first page search results. This was great for publishers who were honestly trying to produce quality content. We also saw many splogs removed from Google’s index and many spun content sites lose their rankings, which in turn increased more legitimate sites up in rankings.

I have put together a few tips for webmasters that may help to offset the effects of the Panda and should help repair the loss in rankings.

We know that sites with duplicate content got hammered by the update. Produce only original high-quality, editorial or factual based content.
Domain age is important. Do not switch domain names if possible. If you do need to register a new site, then go for keyword specific terms that directly relate to your industry.
Google has clearly stated that social media is becoming increasingly important. Sites that were tied to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts fared better.
Sites with embedded video content seem to do better

Sometime the best approach is to make the most of a situation. To get the most from the Panda try the following:

Install a utilize a blog on your site. Write fresh, quality content at least 2-3 times a week. This causes the Google bots to closely monitor your site for new updates.
Add in feeds from your social networking accounts. The more links you get coming in from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites, the better.

For those sites that took a large ranking hit from the Panda, try some of the following recommendations.

Don’t ignore you rankings in other popular search engines such as Yahoo and Bing. The ranking drop you experienced in Google should not have affected your ranking elsewhere.
Setup a Google Webmaster Tools account and use it to analyze each section of your website. This tool not only helps you analyze and correct problems, but it also gives you a clear indication of the factors that Google is looking at when assessing your site.
Study and ensure that your site adheres to Google’s well established quality guidelines.

Once you have completed these steps, and you are certain that you have performed an exhaustive and thorough repair of your site, you can ask Google to take another look at your site for a reconsideration request.

Panda is by far, the largest most far-reaching changes to the algorithm in the last decade. Reports indicate that as much as 16% of all search queries have been affected. By keeping abreast of the guidelines established by Google and employing best practices, you will should be able to recoup your loses and regain your former ranking status.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 6:44 pm

Categories: Bing,Google,Rankings,Uncategorized,Yahoo!
Tags: farmer update, panda update, search algorithm —

April 13, 2011

Panda Spanks eHow

When the Panda update rolled out in the US a scant number of weeks ago, many expected to see the popular eHow site from Demand Media to be hit hard as the industry regards it as a “content farm.” Oddly enough, eHow actually managed to gain traffic after the update leaving many groups and individuals not only surprised, but angered as the site seemed to represent everything that the Panda update was targeting.

With the release of the Panda algorithm update in the UK and corresponding tweaks to the US version on Monday of this week, it appears that this time the site did take a major hit in both geographic areas in terms of visibility. According to the SearchMetrics data, eHow.co.uk took a 72,30% hit in visibility and eHow.com took a 53,46% hit. Keep in mind this is UK data, but it has also affected U.S. sites.

Being that this is only the first few days after the update, we will be watching closely to see how eHow and websites in general react after the Panda has been unleashed upon the UK and other English speaking countries of the world.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 8:10 pm

Categories: Google,Search Engine News
Tags: farmer update, panda update, search algorithm —

April 12, 2011

Google says: “Release the Panda”

Last week we stated that there was some buzz in the Webmaster Help forum from UK webmasters speculating that the Farmer/Panda had been released upon them. It looks as those the people were just experiencing "regular" fluctuations. Google announced yesterday that they have "rolled out this improvement globally to all English-language Google users," such as Google.com, Google UK, Google Australia etc. Thousands of sites were negatively impacted in the US when Google unleashed the Farmer/Panda updates in February of this year.

The main purpose behind the original Panda/Farmer algorithm updates was to directly combat the copious amounts of web spam that have been permeating the SERPs for years. By reducing the amount of low-quality and content-scraped content, the update was intended to let the cream rise to the top through the removal of low quality or offending sites that did not adhere to Google’s quality guidelines.

Google said that the new version of the Panda algorithm is designed to incorporate user feedback signals to help searchers find better results. Google also stated that they will begin factoring in the sites that people block as part of a site’s quality score. "In addition, this change also goes in deeper into the "long tail" of low-quality websites to return higher-quality results where the algorithm might not have been able to make an assessment before." Google stated that the additional updates to the Panda algorithm should only affect approximately 2% of US search queries, whereas the original update effected more than 12% of US queries.

In the press release, Google states that they are getting great feedback from searchers. They are finding better, more relevant results from many great publishers and that are getting more traffic from the original update in February. From the results that we have seen in our corner of the SEO world, we have witnessed many sites dropping significantly with very few regaining their former rankings. It may be a scenario where site owners are hesitant to say that there rankings have improved. Most are still feeling shell-shocked from the effects of the first update and are concerned of what may occur with it’s global implementation.

Google has been fairly forthcoming about what qualifies as a quality site in their webmaster guidelines. Yet in spite of the valiant efforts by many SEOs and webmasters to reach the new status quo, we still see low quality sites ranking well and high quality sites doing poorly after the update; leaving us all feeling a uneasy.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 7:03 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News,Uncategorized
Tags: farmer update, panda update, search algorithm —

April 11, 2011

Overstock’s Sales Drop 5%

In the wake of the Farmer and Panda algorithm updates early in the year, Google has publicly penalized several large companies such as JC Penny, Forbes and Overstock for participating in practices that violates the Google Guidelines.

In a story we first told you about on February 24th, "Google Spanks Overstock," it seems that since the penalty was incurred, Overstock has suffered an approximate 5% drop in sales. One can speculate as to the validity of the reported figures, but a 5% drop in sales for a large company like Overstock is certainly more substantial then when compared to a small shop or business incurring a similar penalty.

Overstock.com was penalized for utilizing link exchanges that violated Google’s policies in an effort to effectively game the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). While it is not the only site to incur such penalties, Overstock is certainly one of the biggest name brand stores accused of such tactics.

Overstock allegedly offered 10% discounts to teachers and student in exchange for links on highly searched phrases such as "futon" and "vacuum cleaners" and asked them to embed links in their college and university .edu websites.

Exchanging links for a discount clearly violates the Google’s Guidelines. Google has been very clear that they penalize sites that participate in link schemes.

However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking; disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites.

The fact that Google penalizes for such activities is not new, but the post-update Google seems to be following through on their decision to crack down on webspam by making an example of well known companies such as Overstock, JC Penny and others to considering such unsavory practices.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 5:35 pm

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: farmer update, overstock.com, panda update —

April 8, 2011

Return of the Panda

There appears to be speculation that there is another Google Update underway. Several reports from webmasters in a Webmaster World thread have stated that they are seeing some significant changes in the Google SERPs.

Often in isolated reports like this, it is usually the result of specific tests being run on isolated data centers. However, it looks that this is more widespread, leading many to speculate as to whether or not this is an update to the Panda-Farmer algorithm update.

It may be a case of shell-shocked webmasters jumping the gun and being overly paranoid due to the last update that cause massive ranking fluctuations for many sites across the board. In any case, the reports coming in are preliminary.

Have you notice any strange shifts in the Google search results over the last 24-48 hours? Beanstalk would like to know. Please drop a comment or send an email to: kyle@beanstalk-inc.com telling us what you have noticed.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 6:08 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News
Tags: farmer update, panda update, search algorithm —

March 17, 2011

2011: Year of the Organic Web

Some people in the industry are speculating that keyword rich domain names will be the next target to be hit by Google’s latest algorithm update.

When you go to register a new domain name, the first question that inevitable rises is: "DoI go with a keyword rich domain name? (www.buy-cilais-online.net for example), or something that is more brandable such as: www.zynga.com?" There are certainly arguments back and forth as to which is better for rankings and the debate swings back and forth.

It is certainly possible to have good success with a keyword rich domain name. One advantage that keyword domains do have is that if you are referring to the name of the business, you might link to it using the same words as the keywords. It depends on what your goals are. but the most memorable domain names are the brandable ones.

I tend to lean toward the more brandable terms. The case being is that if you have 15 results in your search results that all have the term “android-apps” in the url, it gets difficult to rise above the rest. If you are shooting for big success, sometime the more brandable terms are the way to go.

Matt Cutts stated:

"…we have looked at the rankings and the weights that we give to keyword domains, & some people have complained that we are giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains. So we have been thinking about at adjusting that mix a bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm, so that given 2 different domains it wouldn’t necessarily help you as much to have a domain name with a bunch of keywords in it."

Many of the most successful sites are not keyword rich at all (digg.com, redditt.com). I think this is another prime example of Google following through on their mantra of creating website for the users and not creating them specifically for rankings.

Quality services and content will always be more attractive to the user. People will be more inclined to remember you with a unique and highly brandable domain name. Unique names have inherently more marketing power. Users tend to find keyword rich domain names look spammy and this can turn people away before they ever click on your link in the SERPs.

The recent Farmer and Panda Algorithm updates, have triggered a fundamental paradigm shift in the way SEOs and website owners create and optimize their websites. 2011, is the year of the organic web and we all need to "grow" with it.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 5:57 pm

Categories: Google,Rankings,SEO Tips
Tags: domain names, farmer update, keywords, panda update —

March 15, 2011

“Do Ads Affect Rankings?”

There seems to some confusion as to whether Ads do or do not play a significant role in Google Ranking Algorithm. During the initial release of the Farmer Update it was stated that Google is now using the presence of ads on a website as a ranking factor. Of course they were quite vague regarding the specifics.

As reported from Vanessa Fox from Search Engine Land, Matts Cutts from Google made this comment regarding the Ad-to-Content ratio at the SMX West conference:

"Matt said that having advertising on your site does not inherently reduce its quality. However, it is possible to overdo it. I had noted in my earlier articles about this change that in particular, no content and only ads above the fold, as well as pages that have so many ads, it’s difficult to find the non-advertising content often provide a poor user experience."

In a related thread on the Google Webmaster Central forum, John Mu stated that:

"Another factor that Lysis mentions is ads. For our algorithms, ads generally don’t play a big role. However, they can play a role with your visitors."

So once again the SEO community is left scratching their collective heads wondering what to do. I think the best practices approach for SEOs is a matter of balance. Let’s break that down a bit…

Ads DO affect ranking
Placement of ads is important
The number of ads is important
There is an ambiguous ad-to-content ratio that determines the influence on page rank
Too many ads results in a poor user experience

One does have to speculate how Google is determining ad content from page content to begin with, but at least Google is consistent with stressing the fact that overall user experience is paramount in determining a site’s ranking.

As far as best practices go, I like to work under the premise of what would I do if there was no Google, no search engines, or rankings. AS SEO’s, what would you or I do to get people to visit, like and stay on our site? The answer is that we would provide a great user experience and develop premium content that engages our audience. We would want to distract our message an d force our visitors to wade through a quagmire of advertisements to find our content.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 10:10 pm

Categories: Google
Tags: farmer update, panda update, search algorithm —

March 4, 2011

Google Farming Update Fallout

An official Google Blog titled: "Finding more high-quality sites in search" written on February 24th, by Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal, announced a significant change in Google’s rankings of Web pages in search results. The blog post stated that this new algorithm update would "noticeably impact 11.8% of Google’s queries."

Referred to as the "Farmer Update" Google was true to its word and that the update seems to have affected many sites search engine rankings. It was pretty clear from the beginning that the new Google algorithm update was targeting content farms, duplicate content and weak or spun content. The big question now is: "Who did it affect?"

Preliminary reports show that sites with a high amount of blatant advertising or those which had a high percentage of obtrusive advertising material seemed to have dropped significantly in rankings. Site that had good layout and design, were of high quality, or considered “attractive” seemed to be the winners. One does have to consider how an algorithm can differentiate a "good" site, opposed to a poor looking or "ugly" site. This one does seem pretty ambiguous as a ranking factor.

Low quality content from user generated content sites, site with content designed to create backlinks and Article Sites such as EzineArticles, Hubpages and Buzzle all lost out. Sites that produced more authentic content or not intended for SEO or link building seemed to have fared better (LinkedIn, Facebook, DailyMotion). Articles have been a major source of link building for many SEO companies for years. This change is forcing SEOs to reevaluate content driven link building strategies for their clients.

Sites that focused on quality content that was usable and valuable did well (Huffington Post for example), whereas sites that were rich in content but was not determined to be user-friendly, or easily readable lost out. This is another indication that Google is continuing to level the playing field by trying to remove the SERPs of webspam and low value content sites.

Certainly other signals were used in the new algorithm to measure the relative success of a site based upon other quality indicators. Signals such as usage statistics; time on site, click-through and bounce rates and page load speed seem to have been employed.
Indicators such as the analysis of the content for readability, for uniqueness and relevancy, as well as for visual attractiveness, all seem to have been additional factors used in determining the overall quality score that has affected so many websites rankings in Google.

Google has always stated that content is king. By focusing on quality over quantity, Google hopes to combat the problem of webspam that has permeated the search results for so long. I applaud Google’s efforts to rid the SERPs of webspam, but I am left with the thought that all the wild fluctuations we are experiencing could have been greatly reduced. With some initial planning and foresight, Google could have greatly reduced the manipulation of the SERPs by users trying to game the search results in their favor.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 8:32 pm

Categories: Google,Google
Tags: farmer update, search algorithm —