technical seo cleanup for google’s panda algorithm

searchmarketingexpo.com@ehrenreilly

#SMX #32a

Technical SEO Cleanup for Google’s Panda Algorithm


#SMX #32a

• Panda isn’t just about your content – it’s about your site architecture.

• Cruft pages caused by technical issues will harm your Panda profile even if users never find them.

• What do I mean by cruft pages?• What causes them?• How are they hurting your SEO?• How do you get rid of them?

OVERVIEW


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WHEN I JOINED GLASSDOOR…

Source: SearchMetrics


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QUALITY


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HOW DO QUALITY SITES GET INTO PANDA PROBLEMS?

Source: SearchMetrics


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#SMX #32a

March 5th, 2015

Technical SEO Cleanup for Panda

Ehren Reilly

Director of Product, Growth Glassdoor

@ehrenreilly


#SMX #32a

Now hiring SEOs & Product Managersjobs.glassdoor.com

• Sr. Product Manager, SEO/Growth• Sr. SEO Manager, B2B


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CLICK TO ADD TEXT

PRESENTATION TITLE HERE


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#SMX #32a

March 3, 2015

HOW TO COPE WITH DIRECT ANSWERS AS A PUBLISHER

Ehren Reilly

Director of Product, Growth Glassdoor

@ehrenreilly


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Annoying, isn’t it?Makes my presentation seem kind of low quality.

Imagine if you were Googlebot crawling my presentation.


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CRUFT PAGE PROLIFERATIONPAGES INDEXED % USEFUL

Time


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• “No Results” pages• Different query; same results set• URL-based duplication• Faceted Nnavigation• Meta tag implementation issues

TECHNICAL ISSUES THAT GENERATE CRUFT


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“NO RESULTS” PAGES


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“NO RESULTS” PAGES ARE EASY TO FIND THROUGH A GOOGLE SEARCH


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Benefits of noindex,followStill get credit for links to these pages.Users can still access these pages via navigation.Google won’t send users to these pages.

Why not Canonical?Sometimes you can’t figure out in real time which is the most relevant other page.

NOINDEX “NO RESULTS” PAGES

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow”>


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DOES “NOINDEX” WORK FOR “NO RESULTS” PAGES?


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DIFFERENT QUERY; SAME RESULTS


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• Normalize language (e.g., make all your category/search pages plural)

• Merge & redirect pages with the same results set• Canonicalize pages that are subtly different

DIFFERENT QUERY; SAME RESULTS? NORMALIZE, MERGE, CANONICALIZE!


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• Extra query parameters that don’t affect the content (e.g., session IDs)

• Case-insensitive URL paths & query parameters• http://www.Example.com/stuff.htm = http://www.example.com/stuff.htm

• http://WWW.example.com/stuff.htm = http://www.example.com/stuff.htm

• http://www.example.com/Stuff.htm ≠ http://www.example.com/stuff.htm

• http://www.example.com?content=Stuff ≠ http://www.example.com?content=stuff

• Multiple subdomains returning the same content• http://www.example.com ≠ http://example.com

URL-BASED DUPLICATION


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• Canonical URL tags• Parameter handing tool in Webmaster Tools• Set preferred domain in Webmaster Tools• Set up your CMS correctly

SOLUTIONS FOR URL-BASED DUPLICATION


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FACETED NAVIGATION


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• Re-use or syndicate same content without canonical tag

• Canonical URL tags use relative paths on a site with many subdomains

<link rel="canonical" href="/Stuff.htm" />

• Repeat same content on international alternate site without alternate/hreflang tag.

• Pagination without rel prev/next

META TAG IMPLEMENTATION ERRORS


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• Google Webmaster Tools:• Duplicate page content• Duplicate page title• Indexed pages: Have you got a lot more pages indexed without adding more

content?

• Traffic and & log file analysis:• Are users/bots going to pages on your site that “don’t exist”?• Are there pages of your site that bots visit, but which users never visit?

• Human discovery

FIGURING OUT THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM


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Panda Score = Σ(value of content)# unique pages

Ways to improve Panda Score:• Increase content quality without

adding new unique pages.• Decrease # of unique pages by

eliminating cruft.

PANDA FORMULA


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CRUFT PAGES MAKE IT HARD TO FIND THE GOOD STUFF


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GIVE USERS/BOTS ONLY THE GOOD STUFF

Flickr: superdupermanda / Via Creative Commons


#SMX #32a

Now hiring SEOs & Product Managersjobs.glassdoor.com

• Sr. Product Manager, SEO/Growth• Sr. SEO Manager, B2B

technical seo cleanup for google’s panda algorithm

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