We have been getting numerous questions about the impact of Google’s Panda update on PRWeb.com and it seemed like a good time to share some data as well as our general perspective on the issue to help keep you guys in the loop.

Without going into too much detail on the nature of Panda itself, we generally view the Panda update as being essentially about reducing the rankings for “low-quality” sites, or sites that Google explains as follows: “low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.”

The methodology that Google uses to algorithmically determine whether a site is “low-value” or not, is a matter of some debate however Google has been forthcoming in explaining that it involved their “standard evaluation system,” where they “send out documents to outside testers,” review the feedback and then determine how to algorithmically simulate the experience of quality evaluation.

The key in all of this is to remember that Panda is really about editorial quality.  For years, PRWeb has employed a refined set set of editorial guidelines, informed largely by standards set by established media institutions (e.g. the Associated Press), which are clearly considered to be “high quality.”  Our editorial guidelines, which have been the source of some debate in the past, are one of the main reasons we have been able to maintain certain standards for our content while enhancing the authority of PRWeb.com in search and expanding our distribution network.

It should be further noted that in addition to our editorial guidelines, we are also constantly iterating our site and the manner in which we syndicate content to ensure ongoing compliance with the evolving standards that Google and other search engines maintain.  This combination of editorial oversight and technological iteration has helped us significantly increase our traffic in the “year of the Panda” while some notable high volume content sites have been hurt.

To help illustrate this point, the following graphic shows our overall traffic over the past year, marked-up with the announcement of the Panda release.  As you can see, our traffic has trended up since the announcement / release of Panda.

 

Filed under: SEO by Jiyan