Google’s notorious Panda algorithm update was an attempt to clean up the search engine results pages from low quality websites. Content farms and sites which contained an overloaded amount of poor quality information on various topics were hit hardest, this included various well known article publishing sites like Ezine Articles.
Websites with a higher percentage of high quality unique content generally survived the update and even saw an increase in rankings where others lost out.
Does this update affect any of our link building activities? How can we develop a link building strategy which takes account of this latest algorithm change?
Link Building Losers
It’s fairly common practice to write articles on other sites to get a link in return, and many people aren’t particularly concerned about maintaining standards. As a result some article distribution sites were badly hit, Hubpages is another site which has seen many rankings fall in the SERP’s. The main sites hit have been forced to clean up their website to increase the quality of their sites; this has forced some sites to completely limit the number of submissions made to the site.
Highly generic directory sites have also lost out (as they generally don’t have enough unique content); this would result in the weakening of any link on the site but is unlikely to cause any loss in rankings.
The Winners
As there were many losers, there are bound to be many winners as well. It is hard to spot a correlation between the different winners; one obvious observation would be that a high number of recorded winners are high profile websites or brands. This could be because each site is quite specialised in its own industry and provides great content. Here are some of the known winners:
- Ebay.co.uk
- Econsultancy.com
- Mashable.com
- WordPress.com
- Laterooms.com
There is a chance that these were picked out because they are very high profile; it doesn’t necessarily suggest that all the winners were larger companies/brands.
Current Link Building Techniques
After the algorithm update, link building methods haven’t changed that much. Where possible you should seek to build a good variety of links from a wide range of quality sources.
Article sites are still a good way of creating backlinks for your website, but the focus should be on writing longer, unique content to prove your knowledge in your niche. It is even better if you can find a niche article site within your industry for improved relevance.
The same goes for directories. There are still a decent number of directories that are worth submitting to, if you can source these links from a directory which is built around a niche subject; these would provide greater value in the long run.
The Importance of Content
It’s now more important than ever to create good quality unique content for your site. If you create quality content relevant to your sites subject/industry this will help you build relevance to certain keywords and improve your overall authority in that niche.
To improve the variety of backlinks to your website you can create external links which points to this content. An example would be to use the different social media channels to let people know you have a new blog post. Good content will always naturally acquire links (link bait) around the web.
What You Should Do Now
Following the recent changes, it is important to make an extra effort to create your own high quality content, try and be as creative as you can with the content produced. When sourcing links, you should try and find good quality sites within your niche. Think about where you could reach your target market and it is likely that there is a good quality link prospect to be uncovered.
Remember: Quality is better than quantity and a greater variety of links looks more natural to the search engines.
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