Google Panda Update and SEO: A Fresh Take

The SEO community is pushing forward in the post Panda world that clearly attributes a greater value to unique and informative content online. It had been reported earlier this month that Google has rolled out Panda (and updated versions, most recently Panda 2.3) worldwide; prior to that, the seismic algorithm update was only relevant to English search queries. Businesses that primarily market online, primarily e-commerce sites, have been struggling to regain the loss in traffic and resulting sales as a consequence of the original Panda update. A lot of SEOs continue to question what it all means, while others want to identify effective strategies that can be implemented to optimize in this post Panda world, and what strategies should be eliminated altogether.

Using Google Analytics for Keyword Research

Back in May, I discussed the importance of conducting thorough keyword research as an integral part of any SEO campaign. Many rely on Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool to determine what keywords may be most beneficial to try and rank for based on search volume and competition. Others will supplement that initial work by researching what their competitors are trying to rank for. That is relatively easy, as all one has to do is analyze websites that are ranking well for the desired keywords and look for ideas.

But what if you have been running an effective SEO campaign for some time, and are ranking towards the top of Page 1 in the search engine results pages for your desired keywords? Where do you go from there if you feel like you have exhausted all of your resources? Assuming it is installed, Google Analytics may provide you with the additional keyword ideas that you may be looking for.

Yahoo! Site Explorer Shutting Down

For years, Yahoo! Site Explorer has been the primary backlink and competitor analysis tool for webmasters in the search engine marketing community. If you wanted to look in to the backlink profile of a client's or competitor's website, all you had to do was plug the URL in to the search box of the tool and it would return that data instantaneously. Earlier this month, however, Yahoo! announced that they would be shutting down Site Explorer, ultimately due to the recent merger with Microsoft (Bing). This news wasn't all that surprising for many, but has others scrambling to determine what backlink analysis tool they can rely on moving forward.

Google +1 Button and SEO Ramifications

It is widely accepted at this time that Facebook holds the reigns in the world of social media. Google, on the other hand, has monopolized search marketing but many feel the search engine mogul is inept when it comes to social media. In an attempt to catch up, earlier this year they rolled out the Google +1 button. Individuals in the world of search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) have been debating what sort of impact Google +1 will have, and whether or not the signal will be incorporated in to Google's ranking algorithm.

Bing and Yahoo Merger Not Paying Dividends

In an effort to match Google's presence in the world of search marketing, Microsoft (Bing) and Yahoo merged so that each search engine displays Bing's results for a search query. At the time, for Yahoo this seemed like a step in the right direction, as Bing has made somewhat of a strong push so far in 2011 to capture our attention through advertising and increase their market share as quickly as possible. However, Yahoo announced recently that their second quarter revenue generated from search is down 15% from last year at this same time. And it turns out the reason why may be somewhat complex.

Is Google Voice Search Accurate?

IndOn June 14th at the Inside Search event, Google introduced a search by voice feature for their Chrome web browser. Essentially, the feature mimics the application that was developed for the Android smart-phone. The feature, which Google has dubbed "Search Out Loud," has been rolled out across the United States and is available on Chrome 11 and later versions of the browser. Understanding how the feature works is not extremely difficult, and in reality, it will not have a major impact on search engine optimization. The question is, does it work and how accurate is it?