Useful - John Muller on Forums and SEO
- Thread starter Pavle123
- Start date
dethfire
Well-known member
The problem is that we need some better idea of what exactly "low information threads" really are. Otherwise you'll end up seriously damaging your community.
About 3 months ago I ended up removing near 10,000 threads with no replies and with a word count under 300. Today I don't see any difference. So what is the point. Google's advice is far too vague to be useful. We need details.
About 3 months ago I ended up removing near 10,000 threads with no replies and with a word count under 300. Today I don't see any difference. So what is the point. Google's advice is far too vague to be useful. We need details.
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
The best thing you can do in user generated communities, is do nothing. If you try and game Google, you waste valuable time with nonsense that you can't control, instead of doing positive things for your community that can have a positive effect, such as generating more great content, asking questions, philosophical discussions, newsletter content and so forth.
If you want to worry about low information threads, add a simple add-on available from the resource section to close threads after x time that haven't been posted upon. They fall backwards, and Google knows it, thus keeping all your important and discussed content up top.
Automation is key, so you stay focused on building a better community.
If you want to worry about low information threads, add a simple add-on available from the resource section to close threads after x time that haven't been posted upon. They fall backwards, and Google knows it, thus keeping all your important and discussed content up top.
Automation is key, so you stay focused on building a better community.
cmeinck
Well-known member
Any changes take time for Google to remove and process. Once that happens, Panda has to run. To my knowledge, it hasn't run since October 24th. I'm not saying that process works, but for those sites/forums hit by Panda, I don't see much in the way of alternatives.
cmeinck
Well-known member
Let me add that I've been repeatedly pounded by Panda. It started as a slow decline. When you look at the statistics from late 2012 to now, it's downright scary. I've taken many of the steps outlined by Mueller. I saw some nice gains at the end of the summer, but was hit again on October 24th. Those gains were lost and I continued a downward spiral. Now, I had a number of technical issues plaguing my site, in addition to what could be deemed Panda quality issues. All of these have been addressed. It was no easy task. The lack of new traffic flow from Google reduces new posters and interaction from older members. It's a death sentence for your forum if you can't reverse it.
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
The easiest way around Panda is: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/onlywire-automated-social-network-posting-solution.87101/
I've done the slow decline thing, and now I'm back to the slow incline thing. Well... actually... its getting faster by the week.
I've done the slow decline thing, and now I'm back to the slow incline thing. Well... actually... its getting faster by the week.
dethfire
Well-known member
How exactly does social media syndication have anything to do with panda recovery?
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
Because Google use how much your pages content is being discussed / posted within social networks to help them frame such mathematical outcomes of importance to whether your pages content is quality or not. Social network referrals is a huge part of the equation. Massive actually. Google don't determine your pages importance by its content, but how much it is being discussed, linked, so forth. Googles algorithm has simply turned into reliance as a single huge social network infrastructure.
Google make statements that building back links can hurt you, yet Google is still so easy to manipulate with just a handful of authoritative back links into your site / page, giving it massive boost. Google can't determine a pages importance any other way, thus until mathematics can be turned into AI, Google can be heavily manipulated. Social networks are just the current easiest method to do it.
My below image shows my slow decline from Panda... nearly 3 months ago I started pumping up social networking referrals, and whilst that line is just above the base line in that image due to the huge spike early last year (thousands), what you're seeing is a social activity of around 30 referrals a day suddenly jump to hundreds a day (just coming off the line), and you can see my resulting traffic increase. Slowly it's coming back... and we aren't talking hundreds here, but thousands per day.
I expect that within 6 - 9 more months, as a result of this little trial... I will have returned to my prior years peak traffic and then hopefully continue where it left off, continually climbing again.
The entire time I was still pumping out to Facebook and Twitter, and it continued to decline. It wasn't until I got out to a whole bunch of other networks that turned it around, especially Google+, as Google give their community referrals more, similar to Reddit, Pocket and Sodahead, all of which are premium social partners for Google to use. The more you get into Reddit and other partners to pump out your links, let alone all social networks, the better you will do with the current algorithm.
Google make statements that building back links can hurt you, yet Google is still so easy to manipulate with just a handful of authoritative back links into your site / page, giving it massive boost. Google can't determine a pages importance any other way, thus until mathematics can be turned into AI, Google can be heavily manipulated. Social networks are just the current easiest method to do it.
My below image shows my slow decline from Panda... nearly 3 months ago I started pumping up social networking referrals, and whilst that line is just above the base line in that image due to the huge spike early last year (thousands), what you're seeing is a social activity of around 30 referrals a day suddenly jump to hundreds a day (just coming off the line), and you can see my resulting traffic increase. Slowly it's coming back... and we aren't talking hundreds here, but thousands per day.
I expect that within 6 - 9 more months, as a result of this little trial... I will have returned to my prior years peak traffic and then hopefully continue where it left off, continually climbing again.
The entire time I was still pumping out to Facebook and Twitter, and it continued to decline. It wasn't until I got out to a whole bunch of other networks that turned it around, especially Google+, as Google give their community referrals more, similar to Reddit, Pocket and Sodahead, all of which are premium social partners for Google to use. The more you get into Reddit and other partners to pump out your links, let alone all social networks, the better you will do with the current algorithm.
