Websites around the are falling victim to Google’s new “Panda” update. It’s designed to weed out so-called “low quality” websites, but in reality it’s also taken a lot of others down with it.

Google is now claiming to favor high quality content that gives people what they want – or find unexpectedly worthwhile. And penalize sites that don’t. Hopefully this won’t require too much adjustment.

Give the people what they want. Target searcher needs instead of search engines.

Making people stay is good. Making people share something is great. Making people convert is excellent.

What Industry Leaders are Saying About Panda

In this video, SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin talks about SEOmoz’s findings on how Panda has changed SEO – and a quick overview of what the “new SEO” now looks like.

Here’s some of Rand’s key points, with some additions from us:

Quality is Key.

Build your pages for people, not for search engines.

Google has done lots of user testing and also has a massive amount of user metrics. They now feel they have everything they need to predict whether people will like your site, and to evaluate whether or not they actually do.

Content should be easy-to-read and well presented. Design needs to focus on the user.

“Good quality content” that is written needs to be replaced with purposeful content.

Conversion rates measure quality.

A conversion occurs when a visitor does something that you specifically want them to do. Though conversion rates are more often associated with purchases, downloads, subcriptions, or contact, they can also be simply assigned to key pages, or page views.

A high conversion rate is a great measure of the new standard of quality – whether or not you’re offering what people want.

When lots of people arrive at your site via a keyword and proceed to completing a converting, you probably had what they were looking for when they searched. That’s quality as defined by the user.

Social signals indicate quality.

This one is a bit tougher – how can “social signals” be an on-site quality signal? Apparently, content that people will want to share has certain characteristics to it as well. In addition, social signals are the new big ranking signal.

So, if you’re going to create content for a keyword – create sharable content and get it shared.

Try to make it content that people would share in your niche (check out what’s being shared for some ideas) and make it easy to share from your site.

Get it shared to get rank – get it into the hands of influencers, and find ways to encourage people to share.

Add the kind of content people like and the formats they like: Video, PDF’s, embedded presentations, and they’ll be more likely to share – and to stick around and read themselves.

How to avoid low-quality content

Get rid of duplicate content, whether on-site or from other sites. Avoid changing a couple words and re-using things. Avoid pages that merely define a keyword. Avoid more outsourcing to third-world content writers just to keyword stuff.

Stay tuned for more Panda-specific updates. If you have any questions or comments, please add them below.

Here is a quick keyword development strategy you can do yourself:

1. Know What Your Keywords Are! Brainstorm Your List:

Keywords are the words that internet users are using in order to find you on a search engine. It is important to get together with your team and brainstorm as large a list as possible for these.

Then vote on the top 20 or so. If there are 5 obvious ones, like your specific product category “industrial coatings” etc. You will want to identify these.

2. Use Tools to Expand Your List:

It sounds like an obvious place to start, but over half of the time we see an SEO strategy that is based on assumptions and after doing some research, we can find that the entire strategy is flawed. There are plenty of tools to help you do your keyword research and identify what keywords are actually the most commonly requested. Use your list as a starter and start using free keyword tools tools like Google AdWords Keyword Generator, Keyword Spy, WordTracker.

3. Predict Traffic Volume for Each Keyword:

Use Google AdWords Traffic Estimator to estimate search volume for each of your keywords:

Step 1: Input keywords:

Step 2: Currencies & Budget:

*(you can leave it blank for now and Google will choose maximum)

Step 3: Choose Languages & Geographic Regions:

After pressing “Continue,” Google will provide this graph showing cost per click, and forecast traffic volumes:

4. Local Versus Global

If you’re local, climbing the rankings for terms like “Business Card Printing, Milwakee” is a lot easier than trying to compete globally. Also, if you’re a small to mid-sized company that has a global strategy, but still gets the lions share of your business from one key market, consider running a  a micr0-site or sub-directory for that region and focus significant efforts in that market.

Lesson: if there’s enough in your backyard, dominate that market first, your dollars will go much further!

5. Learn From Your Stats & Get to Know your Long Tail

Chris Anderson coined the term “Long Tail” in his book about the phenomenon of the internet providing ever increasing level of targeted result for online info seekers, consumer and B2B buyers. It is important if you want to win the search engine game to really understand what niche market you’re targeting.

6. Use Google AdWords First!

Many people are poorly informed that Google AdWords is a) expensive and b) somehow cheating. The reality is that you really don’t know what keywords are the best ones to develop as your core strategy until you see some results. The best way to generate some results without over-investing in the wrong SEO strategy is to simply buy keyword placements with Google AdWords:

1. Start with broad terms that you know reflect your target market
2. Watch AdWords every day and adjust campaign budgets to ensure you don’t blow your budget in a day
3. Narrow your terms down to phrase matched specific terms that are generating the highest click-through rates
4. Track specific keywords all the way through your sales cycle to see which ones generate the most revenue

By early 2006, our most successful call to action at this point was “Call Us,” with over 70% of our revenue was done through an inbound phone call, and only 30% was done online annually.

By year-end 2006, online sales conversions were up 110%, and with compounding factors of additional site traffic and a new product release getting some press, revenue was up 250%.

The Problem: What Should Be On Our Landing Pages?

We needed at least a decent baseline landing page design from which to improve our direct online conversions! What out of the 50 key features and benefits we could put on our conversion page page to compel customers to proceed.

The Solution: Survey Recent Customers!

We called 100 customers who had recently purchased by finding us on the web, but required an in-person demo or phone call to complete a transaction.

1. We found out that the top 5 feature needs of over 80% of customers surveyed were the same, and only 3 were on our landing page. The simple question was “Can you recall what product features sealed the deal for you; what got you excited to buy RealtorPro?”

2. We found out that initial trust was low, and most customers were calling us with a “trial objection:” how many people work there, how long have you been in business? will you really honor this unlimited satisfaction guarantee?” Using testimonials to back-up those key objections and making the Better Business Bureau online symbol more prominently placed, we were able to see a 30% lift immediately.

Lessons Learned:

If you are in e-commerce, there are a few things that are actually happening.. marketers don’t talk about it much, but it’s just like a personal sales person.

1. Take A Walk In Their Shoes. Does your site answer these questions:

1. Am I in the right place?
2. Does this solution fit?
3. Do I trust this website?
4. Do I trust their claims are valid?
5. Handle my objections – make me an offer I can’t refuse

2. Find Out What Questions Are Being Asked of the Sales Team

3. Survey Recent Buyers

1. Regular & Plentiful Content

Not that volume alone will make you a star, but it’s a good start. Chances are, as long as you’re sure what business you are in, you will be climbing the right rankings wall.

Most marketers simply don’t post enough content with enough frequency!

2. Relevant & Useful Content:

Even if google can’t figure out with its spiders that your content stinks, you won’t generate many inbound links from others if it is not useful to them and their readers.

As a marketer, and a consumer I love little tidbits that I can consume in some meaningful way.. like the old standby – “10 Tips..” “5 Rules of..” etc..

3. Link to people that are ranking well, often they will reciprocate

Link to other recognized authorities in your industry, wikipedia articles, etc.. and don’t forget to use trackback urls!! These tell others that you have linked to them so they can (and most will) reciprocate.

4. Narrow your focus on your keywords

Make sure your headers, titles and copy have your keywords. Remember, google is smart, so don’t “spam the search engines” it will backfire and get you de-listed for up to 6 months.

5. Get Guerrilla!! Pick a Narrow enough term that you can own it..

Narrow even more!! It’s a jungle out there, get picky .. that’s why I’ve chosen to work only with software marketers.. not because we haven’t done more.

Once you’re on a roll, make sure that you’re not biting off more than you can chew; for example, unless you’re Seth Godin, don’t try to dominate “New Marketing, or Web 2.0″ it won’t work!!

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PART 2 – Coming Next Week! Register / RSS