Google Panda 4.0: improve content quality

As you may have noticed, Google just launched its lastest update: the algorithm Google Panda 4.0. As a reminder, this update is focusing on penalizing websites which have low quality content. Here are some tips to creat quality content and avoid these Google Panda penalties.

7 mistakes to avoid

Google likes quality content which is created for the user. That’s why they penalize all scam and spamy methods that help webmasters  improve their websites ranking thanks to low/poor quality content.

Don’t write texts

You have to ban abbreviations, and use adapted vocabulary. You also should avoid spelling and grammatical errors. Your content has to be structured with titles, subtitles, and paragraphs to help users understand your content.

Don’t write basic content

Your content has to be unique so we can recognize your tone and your editorial style. This is very important so we can differentiate your content from others, and therefore increase its value.

Don’t copy paste

As you know, it is not recommended to copy content from other websites so you can use it on your own website. That’s what we call duplicate content or scraping.

Don’t use scams methods

You’ve probably heard about “cloaking”. It consists in generating different pages according to the user (people, or the Google bot). Don’t use it!

Don’t index useless pages

You can tell Google not to index useless pages of your website. To do that, update your robots.txt file.

Don’t make excess

You should not sur-optimize your content. Don’t use many keywords in all your paragraphs. It will look like a sponsored post. You also have to avoid cross-linking looking like very spamy.

Don’t lie to users

You have to be honest with your users. Information that appears in the SERP (title and meta description tags) have to correspond to the content of your website. You can also use rich snippets to enrich your preview content.

Why should you improve your content quality ?

Remember that the main goal of your content is to bring added-value to the user. It has to be enriching and interesting. You can also go further and make quality content that can encourage users to share it. Use rich snippets to give more value to your content.

Here is an infographic by Inklyo that shows figures and demonstrates why quality content is that important.