Lenny2 - 6:26 pm on Dec 19, 2011 (gmt 0)

I like Ted's advice: "find out why panda targeted YOU and fix that..." I have to say in my own case DanO I did find that I in fact only have about 5,000 useful pages on the site... the rest of the 15,000+ pages are all basically search functions and alternative ways of "seeing" the site. So, my decision to de-indext the 10,000+ pages was based on my realization that the content was basically duplicate and not necessary for the search engines. This "cleaning house" is also why I am willing to lose an additional 20% of our Google traffic... (no matter what happens I know my site is more sound by making the change.)

On the other hand, losing authority status could also be a major issue... In my case I assume that Google still "likes" my site because NEW pages get indexed fairly quickly (within a day) and fairly well (on the first page for just a mention on the site - less competitive key phrases of course.)

I'm not trying to hijack your forum intent Dan0... but, would it be helpful for some insight into how other webmasters test the authority of their websites? I know it would help me! Sounds like it would be a more productive approach for you too... since it seems like your site is primarily all very good content!