Google Panda hasn’t made too many friends since its inception back in 2011. Even though it’s not well liked, it does have a purpose: determining how happy users are with websites. In order to do this, the algorithm takes various factors into consideration, but it obviously has its flaws. Because of this, webmasters have watched their organic traffic dip after Panda updates for the past 3 years. With Panda 4.0 released back in May, you may have seen another drop in traffic. Is there anything you can do aside from the general stuff? Actually, there is.
Think about how you’ve handled previous Panda updates. When an update is rolled out and you see your traffic decrease, where do you go? It’s likely you head straight to your computer and start poking around. Unfortunately, viewing your website solely on the computer is limiting. What are you missing? MOBILE.
Your mobile audience is growing every day, so you must take into account what the experience is like for these users. While many websites only get about 20% of their traffic from mobile users (which is still a good portion), there are some that actually see 50%! Can you imagine what would happen if a website with half its users coming from a mobile device were essentially ignored?
It’s possible that usability issues, functionality, content loading and so on are not up to par for your mobile audience, and this is what’s hurting your organic traffic when the Panda updates are launched. What can you do? Visit your website from your smartphone and check out some of the potential issues for your mobile users. Remember, what’s bothering your users is also bothering Panda. Then, move in the right direction by fixing these problems so that your site is up to speed.
There are a number of tools you can use to determine how many of your users are coming from mobile devices (Google Analytics) and how they may be impacted by Panda (Google Webmaster Tools). But, nothing is better than firing up a mobile device and seeing how your website operates. Think of yourself as the user. How quickly does the site load? Is the content easy to read? Can you navigate the site flawlessly? The better you understand what your mobile audience sees, the better you can make your site – and win over Panda.
