Lenny2 - 6:26 pm on Oct 15, 2011 (gmt 0)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My sincerest apologies and heart-felt condolences for those that were negatively affected by the most recent rendition of Panda. I can remember my first weekend after Panda annihilated my site of 6 years... a site that I had put my blood/sweat and tears into. At the time Panda hit my first child was less than a month old and it seemed as if my world was falling apart.

The point of this post is to hopefully help others with similar experiences... I've got to feel like the experience wasn't/isn't as futile as it has sometimes felt and if I can help others it is worth at least some respite.

First the site:

1. Old site
2. All unique content
3. ecom site
4. In the original list of top 300 sites affected by Panda

Panda 1 hit, Feb 24th.

1. Lost 50 - 75% of our traffic in one day.

My Reaction:

1. Lets wait this out. (it may be a mistake/fluctuation)30 days.
2. Hid our least "helpful" pages
3. Redesign the product pages (to be more like other sites... we had a unique design that was more user friendly)
4. Start revamping product page content
5. Speed up the load time
6. Lower the bounce rate
7. Improve navigation

The Result:

Absolutely nothing. Our traffic has only marginally improved over the last 6 - 8 months. Thousands of dollars dumped into content creation and development. Our ROI is in the negative, we can't shake the Panda.

My advice

Get yourself positioned to be able to operate at the "new" levels of traffic. Don't expect a "miraculous" recovery like daniweb or cult of mac. I believe that for the most part these guys are a far cry from the norm.

Welcome to the Wild West

Guys and Gals I think that the Panda is a very good example of how we are in the "wild west" of the internet/online era. I do not foresee companies/organizations like Google being able to strip away rankings as drastically as they have for some of us in the future. For that matter I don't see them being able to "promote" sites as quickly and "easily" as they have in the past either. They are responsible for their rankings... and by building businesses up with traffic and then stripping that traffic away is irresponsible and will soon be more controlled (for better or for worse... who knows)

Historically organizations that have had power to build up and destroy businesses without much legal recourse (think Mafia in the US through the early 20th century,) have led to greater regulation... and public disgrace and legal action. Google is on the same track. Hollywood movies like to portray the Mafia as an evil organization that people feared and respected out of fear for their lives. The truth being that Mafia incorporation into society was more complicated than "just a bunch of thugs." Many businesses flourished under Mafia protection. The Mafia offered some semblance of rule in an otherwise unruly society... Google offers some semblance of rule in an otherwise unruly web-sphere. We need Google to protect us from the spam and black hat-word-stuffing-link-building creatures of the dark.

Or do we? When the sentiment changes, so will the darling of the internet.

Brin = Michael
Page = Sonny
Cutts = Hagen "The Conciliary"

In conclusion:

As you are berated on this forum and others for being "an idiot" for relying too heavily on Google for your business and well being... Realize that we are in the "wild west" of the web... and while they may have better online business acumen, there truly was no way of knowing that Google would turn so ugly... so fast.

Hopefully your business is able to withstand the Panda! Keep at it! Build a-new for your users! And finally hit the treadmill, get back into shape... call a friend or two for a beer... and most importantly enjoy your family!