What Panda Looks Like (And How To Fix It)
This is what Panda looks like.
I’ve owned the site who’s stats you see pictured above for about 5 years. It’s been my test site for just about everything, from spammy link building to auto-generated content. I’m surprised it lasted in the index as long as it did!
It ranked at #1 for it’s main keyword phrase and was dipping between #6 and #1 for a secondary, higher traffic keyword phrase. That’s what the fluctuation was before December 31.
On December 31, Google sent me this:
It was nice of them to let me know!
The problem I’m certain Google has with the site is that it’s got 400 pages of auto-blogged content, most of which came from Yahoo Answers. Not unique and not bringing added value to the market, I agree.
I haven’t had a site banned or deindexed in YEARS, so this is actually a little exciting!
Why?
Because I want to see what it takes to get the site re-included in the index!
How to Get Back In Google After Panda
Now that’s I’ve got a great test case, I can test what it actually takes to get back into Google after a Panda de-indexing.
Here’s how I’m proceeding:
Step 1: Remove the offending content
I’m using the Redirection WordPress plugin to 301 redirect all the old, auto-generated content to the blog home page. No sense wasting the link juice those pages had, even if the pages themselves weren’t that great.
Once the 301′s are in place, all that crappy, old content goes in the WP Trash bin.
There are about 400 posts on the site, so it’ll take a while to get them all redirected properly. As soon as that’s done, we’ll move on to the next step – and I’ll update you as to the progress!
Have you lost any sites because of Panda? What was wrong with them?
Good luck and this’ll make an interesting case study. Can’t name many website owners who are happy they were hit by the Panda!
redirecting might work. if it does not, then try 404s for those bad pages.
Great case study – thanks for letting us know! I had been following your blog for a long time, and am surprised that you had automated content here!
BTW, did you like the new google analytics interface? I think it sucks!
Back in 2010, I started a think affiliate site. I was amazed how easy it was to rank and start making Amazon commissions. Basic formula – keywordsreview.com content from youtube, amazon reviews re-written by me (not spun / not purely scraped).
For the type of site it is, I made sure the quality was #1 instead of the competition (mostly automated). But I’m not kidding anybody – it’s still Panda fodder.
Nov 2010 I made $250 in commissions but then dropped like a stone a month later (around the first major panda hit).
But the site has been up and down since. I didn’t update the site or build links and even with just 4 posts, it averages $1 a day.
Plan to scale up a bit and run some tests. But I’m not betting the bank at this stage.
Just not sure how long the model will last.
Good for Google. About time they caught up with auto generated content?
Thanks as always Michelle!
Cool. Is this the site you were talking about with the massive spike on the 26th? Interesting that you had a 3 or 4 day spike immediately before you got punked. I had a site drop after the spring Panda update but it was a totally legit site and returned two months later to normal. It spiked a little above normal traffic right before it tanked. I wonder if anybody else has seen these spikes before getting spanked by Panda? I haven’t seen a Google letter yet. Great case study Michelle.
This is gold! Thanks for sharing
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Was this notification inside of your Webmaster tools or did Google email you?
Seems very over the top to deindex just for some auto content. Why is this a Panda issue Michelle rathe than a run of the mill quality review?
Yes – we got panda slapped and the site deserved it… too many banner ads, some copied content… we pared it all back, reskinned it with a new template, rewrote original content for all pages and it all popped back. What was interesting is just before the slap traffic surged (for us anyway) then dipped to nothing (kind of did look like a massive panda paw had clubbed/slapped right into the chart) – but after the site had no traffic for about 40 days it popped back up and almost like we got some of the traffic we lost back in the first few days out of some kind of Google love. the site is pootling along now but although confident the site is looking the part it does seem to be all about the backlinks to get it to the next level – and we’re so nervous about doing anything to offend Google one wonders how you can succeed at all sometimes. Adwords do show some glimmer of hope though. But more organic traffic would be lovely!
I never thought that could find anything like this interesting but it has happened. Maybe I should go on a long vacation or see a shrink.
Oh this is exciting!
I come at this from a totally different perspective; it is unAmerican, and anti-capitalist to have this centralized juggernaut policing content, auto-generated, or otherwise. It is fundamentally wrong to strive to be a monopoly in search, and then claim that it is your search engine, and you can do what you want. Something is wrong with Google intimidating everyone, even if it’s by silence, all these Americans. I think duplicitous content should be none of Google’s business. If a content is in x, y, and z’s page, but I am at n’s page, what business is that of mine? Or Google’s? It’s a distraction. The true question should be, why is going passing all risk to the small guy, and the website owner? An advertiser basically gets free advertising until someone buys something from him/her, or in lenient cases, the advertiser pays pennies for clicks? That to me, is a scam. Website owners shoiuld be paid for eyeballs, period. Anything else is fraud. Liken it to TV ads, if superbowl advertisers were to pay after someone buys their product, instead of eye balls, or even, space, all hell will break loose.
I resolve in 2012 to stop pandering to Goog’s LOVE – or HATE and just cut the losses and move on. There’s an OPPORTUNITY COST to the losses a penalty or deindexing can cause. Yes, you can do cleanup tactics and beg for forgiveness – but in the meantime, $11 on a new domain targeting the same niche, written from scratch may be your best long-term plan. Sometimes they do BETTER than the original site!
I saw two of my sites go from 300,000 vistors per year drop to 3000 when google panda’ed me.
Interesting post. I gotta say…I’ve decided to finally quit wasting time with Google and commit to making 2012 the year of list building. I am so sick and tired of building sites that are within Google’s graces one month then on their sheet list the next. I have NEVER used autoblogging, duplicate content or thin affiliate sites and I am CONSTANTLY fighting to keep my sites within the first 2 pages. I was doing great till Oct. Sites that were earning me $250 a month in Adsense earnings are now earning me $5. Look…I was providing a good service to searchers or they wouldn’t bother clicking on those links….they obviously found something they were interested in…right? Or, they could just as easily have left my sites without taking any action at all. It was good for me, the advertisers on my sites the searchers and Google but hey lets just flush the whole thing down the toilet and once I figure out what the hell is wrong THIS time and fix it’ll just be a few more months down the road until it all happens again. Well, I am through with it all this year. Maybe I’ll come back to the SEO world next year after the next 12 months of site flushing is done and wade back into the debris. I’ve been doing that now since 2005. At least this time next year I will have an income from a list NO one can take…especially those greedy ba*****ds at Google. You gotta know how that works Michelle so I am preaching at the choir for you. I don’t like spammy worthless sites any more than anyone else here and none of my sites were even close to that…good luck to the rest of you who sing the accolades of how great Google is for really knowing how to clean up the web…hahahaha….you’re next…just a matter of time. Thanks for the vent…now back to building my lists….=).
It’s only going to get uglyer for spam and crap, can’t wait to start seeing auto-gen sites fall of the face of the earth.
Please keep a log and keep us apprised – I’m fascinated
Panda makes life interesting.
This makes me smile. I’m happy to know that Google is considerate enough to notify you, and I am also, for some weird reason, actually glad to know that auto-generate doesn’t work.
I lost over 100 sites to Panda — all deindexed. All on the same hosting account. Looking forward to seeing your results.