Part of every new year is a reflection on the previous years. I didn’t reflect on the things that I didn’t do or accomplish but I spent more time looking at my website’s analytics. Here’s a screen shot below:
The previous months before May 2012 were on a steady climb and then all of a sudden something happened where I started loosing hits. This site used to be on the list of images if you ever searched for ratatouille. Here I was thinking that there must be some kind of glitch until I heard something on the radio about Google’s Panda search engine algorithm. After doing a little more research it really seemed like Google wanted higher quality sites near the top and what is this site? A brain dump of my thoughts or events that happen throughout my day. A coworker told me the other day that I need to be a little more focused on this website where I only blog about certain topics. I’m still considering it but I’m not good at specializing.
I experimented and tried to setup a specialized site but I only added content to it twice a year. So for now, I’m going to have to dump everything here until I find a new passion in one particular thing.
As part of my new years resolutions I planned on blogging more and came up with a simple recipe on how I was going to do it. The steps were: add picture, write, add backup, add picture, add links internal and external, and add references. Then I dug around to try to find out what Panda wants to see and this is the list from Google’s official blog.
- Would you trust the information presented in this article?
- Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
- Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
- Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
- Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
- Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
- Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
- Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
- How much quality control is done on content?
- Does the article describe both sides of a story?
- Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
- Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
- Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
- Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
- Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
- Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
- Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
- Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
Am I using this when writing? Definitely. Here’s a little video to explain what Panda is all about.
