Panda, and Removing Advertising - How long?

[Uber_SEO]

As I've said here before, we got hit by Panda. When it happened, we boned up on all relevant Panda information - everything coming out of Googlers, conferences and other SEOs, and decided to make some big changes, one of which was rolling back our Adsense (not completely, but we have massively cut back). That was 2 months ago, and to be honest, it's had very little effect on our user metrics, and it certainly hasn't got us our traffic back to pre-Panda levels.

So here's what's happened:

(1) Panda reduced our traffic by about 40%
(2) That obviously reduced our revenue
(3) We then decreased our level of advertising, voluntarily reducing our advertising further
(4) We've seen no traffic increase

This has been going on for 2 months now, and puts us in a difficult situation. If we're not going to see a return to pre-Panda traffic, then we may as well just roll back to our previous Adsense configuration - after all, it didn't really appear to effect user metrics (BR, TOS etc...) However, if it's just a case of waiting for Panda 2.3, then we may as well sit it out.

How long would you sit it out for?

[jetteroheller]

I assume I am alos hit by panda.
3 AdLink
2 to 3 AdSense ads per page.

I hope to regain traffic by 1+ votings back.

The Panda algo tells "This page is less important than assumed before"
The 1+ stats should tell "This page is more important"

[goodroi]

I would look at Panda changes as permanent changes. The Google algo has been evolving for years and that is not going to stop. The old ways to rank a website are now obsolete.

I do not think that Panda penalized your site because you had too many adsense placements. I think Panda penalized your site because your site did not generate enough quality signals.

I suggest you look at how to build out your brand.
-What original content or service do you provide?
-What would help your users that isn't available already?
-Is your content current and up to date?
-Do you collaborate & cross promote with other well visited websites?
-Is your website simply good enough? Why not make it better than good enough?
-What unique value does your website provide?

[jakegotmail]

On the topic of advertising as it relates to quality signals and brand authority ...

We've looked recently at the sites that were hit by Panda -- the thin, scraper, press release/how to types -- and the fact that many seemed to be pulling (bad) traffic simply to boost Adsense revenue. Google didn't like the quality that they were providing, drop them in rankings, and their ad revenue dropped.

What if the converse were true?

What if a change in advertising (drastic changes in types of ads, budget, etc.), led to Google viewing the site as lower in quality, which in turn would lead to a decrease in rankings?

Think of it this way ... who spends the most on Adsense/Adwords?

I think it could be argued that often those are the larger, quality, and more authoritative sites ... the bigger brands. If you cut off your budget from Adwords/Adsense, all of a sudden, you look like one of the little guys.

Now this would obviously be frowned upon by the community at large, and Google would most likely deny it, but is it plausible?

[ScubaAddict]

Uber_SEO - We did the same... removed advertising, pushed the remaining ads down in the content, in addition to everything else that was 'supposed' to help with Panda months ago. Things improved 'very' slightly a couple of short-lived times, but I honestly think with each successive 'improvement' Panda would punish us further. So... I am waiting for the next iteration of Panda, then I will put my ads back up and $h!ttank the site as far as any further development is concerned and find a job.

[HuskyPup]

In my experience, for good quality sites, it's absolutely nothing to do with advertising.

The old ways to rank a website are now obsolete.

and

I think Panda penalized your site because your site did not generate enough quality signals.

This is the bizarre part, just what is it they are looking for? I have a widget trade directory that has been hit, I have widget trade B&M sites mostly unscathed HOWEVER I am constructing a new site using all my established methods and some of these pages are now actually out-ranking better pages of mine on other .tld sites!

As a widget trade professional of 40+ years I know which are the better pages yet Google's algo deems to judge otherwise.

The advertising positioning on all sites is precisely the same.