We just don’t hear about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as much as we used to. Most people know that they need SEO for their website in order to be found by search engines, but they have no clue what that entails. People like that trust people like us, and other folks that work with SEO on a daily basis, to guide their site in the right direction. So why talk about SEO right now? 
Because Google released “Panda,” a major algorithm update that is changing how us web publishers focus our efforts.
SocialMediaToday.com explains:
Google’s release of “Panda”, its latest major algorithm update, changes the way we need to approach optimizing our websites for search engines. In the past, getting your website to rank well in Google search results meant focusing on keyword placement, descriptive “title tags”, unique content and backlinking. Today, after the Panda update, these techniques are no longer enough.
Panda introduces some totally new elements to Google’s ranking methodology to help people find higher quality sites in their searches. For us web publishers, our focus must shift from keywords and links to the user experience, trustworthiness and likeliness your web pages will be shared. I know. I know. It seems a bit abstract. Doesn’t it? So let’s take a closer look at Google’s new SEO guidelines.
Design and User Experience
Google now places a higher value on websites that are well designed and organized. There’s a group of people who literally rate web pages for quality. If your site has too many ads, requires a lot of clicks to navigate or if it just isn’t very attractive your rating will suffer. These factors relate to the likelihood that people will (or will not) share your site with others. It’s like a popularity contest!
Authority and Authenticity
The days of producing lots of content for content’s sake are over. Now content quality matters. Content must be thoughtful, well-researched and unique. Ranking is also affected by whether the writer is judged as an authority on a topic or not. Consequently, you do best by creating truly original content that is not scraped or paraphrased from other sites. And having an opinion on a topic that differs from the mainstream is a plus.
Usage Metrics
More importance has been given to web user metrics. Your site’s metrics will be compared with other sites within your niche. Here is something quantifiable that we can grab on to as we work to optimize our sites. In particular, the metrics that show if your site is liked best, include average time on site, bounce rate, page views per visit and click thru rate (CTR) from search result pages. Google will also be judging the diversity and quantity of traffic to your site, and how often pages are shared.
For more guidance on how Google Panda works, check out the 23 questions on Google’s Webmaster Central Blog. And to keep on top of SEO best practices tune in to SEO Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays.
