The recent update on Google Panda hit many sites hard. The purpose of this update is to basically weed out all the junk online and provide a better user experience. However lots of sites that were legit were affected as well. So to keep your site on the right side of Google Panda here are 5 things you need to do to your site.

1. Take the time and design your site right

This does not mean you need the fanciest graphics, flash images, or things that will "wow" your visitors. This means your site needs to be easy to use, a clean efficient design, fast load time, and easy to follow navigation. Websites or blogs that appear like they were just thrown together or look like a throwback from 1994 is what you want to avoid.

2. Please your users first then target the bots

Your first priority should always be to your users. After all their the ones who will visit, click, comment, and revisit your website or blog. To do this take the time to learn your audience and what they want, then provide them with what they want.

3. Have great content

Good content is not enough you need great content. Content that's been copied and pasted, scrapped, spun, and stolen will get you a kick down the search engine rankings fast. Take the time to do proper research; use proper grammar and spell check everything. Make your content interesting and provide something useful or entertaining to your users. And last but not least throw your personality into it.

4. Make changes when needed

Modifying your site to improve its performance and visitor experience is something you're going to have to get used to in the post panda world. Study what your visitors are doing and how they visiting your site. Promote pages that are popular to help drive targeted traffic. Pages that do not perform well should be fixed, updated or just deleted.

5. Become an authority in your niche and instil trust

Your visitors need to feel comfortable giving up any personnel information especially if your site is business related. One way to do this is to provide clear contact information and your credentials (if required) to prove that your site is not a fly by night scam.

As for being an authority this will not be an overnight process. The key to doing this is writing the best content or getting others to write the best content possible. This way other site owners will want to link to it.

Source by Gerald Thomson