eCommerce sites should clean up before Google unleashes Panda

Hot on the heels of its algorithm update to combat duplicate content last month, Google has followed up with ''Panda'', another algorithm change that hits purveyors of ''low quality content.''

Generally perceived to have been designed to tackle content farms, it destroys the rankings of sites which many Google users are sick and tired of seeing in the search engine results pages.

Although currently alive and kicking in the US, going by the trend of previous Google algorithm roll-outs, it could, at any time within the next three months, hit UK sites and swiftly move beyond.

How should businesses prepare?
To avoid any negative impacts, the content on websites should be well written. Businesses should aim to attract as many clicks as possible when ranking in Google, by optimising the message being put across to users with the page title, meta description and URL. 

And once users land on the site, they should be kept happy through the provision of a rich experience, with as much supporting multimedia as possible, and clear options for where to go elsewhere on the site if the first landing page does not "do it" for them in the first instance.

Regardless of what Google is doing, these are all the basic requirements for almost any online business, which get at the heart of what Google algorithm updates, and indeed SEO (search engine optimisation), are all about.