LostOne - 7:56 am on Sep 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

Site Assessment - Affected By Panda I

After analyzing nearly all files on the site I’m noticing this:

Major keyword phrases (one keyword does not work in this industry) that were well positioned before Panda not showing on the first five pages of Google. Prior to Panda nearly all were on page one resulting in better quality traffic and time on site. 2008 and 2009 most were #1 to #3

Secondary queries on the site have dropped on average 2-6 positions with a majority still seen on page one. A very small number still maintain a number one spot. Another small group of files falling to pages 2,3 and 4 with only a handful going off “the radar” (my benchmark page 5)

I’m thinking the focus has to be on those major keyword phrases (that seems to be the tough part) and the ones that have fallen back past page two and beyond (easier). Some may be affected by Google’s focus on brands and increased competitiveness on the web. Like I said earlier, I do see a pattern.

Admittedly there are several on page 3 and beyond that are rehashed content. They number less than a dozen and can definitely be considered “weak” judging by the average time spent under one minute. There’s no reason these cannot be deleted or consolidated into an appropriate related page. Even if they did rank high, the numbers would almost be meaningless.

A little background. I’ve never chased things like keyword density because it looks stupid. Title tags are rarely changed except I may move/delete/add one word or phrase here and there, but the frequency is once every year or greater. I rarely used meta keywords or descriptions (most pages), nor do I use any heading tags except for the H1. I’ve always been against following the crowd’s latest SEO gimmicks, but did participate in some link exchanges back in 2004 and 2005.

My only problem could be from chasing the algo in 2010?