Panda is named after Navneet Panda, an engineer who came up with a way of using artificial intelligence and machine learning to determine the quality of a website. In order to do this a group of volunteers tested and rated thousands of websites for usability and quality. They rated sites on design, trustworthiness, speed and how useful they found the site. The results were then used to determine the criteria of high quality and low quality sites and incorporate this into the algorithm that Google uses to rank sites.

The good news is that in theory this should make sites that contain relevant and interesting content rank more highly than sites employing expensive “SEO Gurus” to dupe search engines with tricks and short cuts. A long term strategy of creating good content that gets shared and read should pay off.

In the latest changes to the way it ranks sites Google has come out in favour of quality sites with relevant content.
The key elements to getting it right with Google are now focussed around prioritising the visitors to the site, rather than trying to rank highly in search by using SEO tricks.

An important element of Google’s decision to rank your site highly is how long people spend on the site and the pages that they visit.

Your site needs to load quickly and so good well managed hosting should be a priority alongside clean code and design elements. Google uses the speed pages take to load into account for it’s ranking calculations.

Most important and the way to achieve a high vote from Google is to have relevant, engaging, useful and interesting content. Content that is linked to and shared will tell Google that your site is worthy of a high ranking.

The way to make your site rank highly for a specific subject is to make sure that your content is focussed around that subject. If your users are looking for good quality locally produced cheese, then make sure your site is all about good quality locally produced cheese.

Every page on your website needs to be treated as though it’s the first page that your visitor has landed on. After all you don’t know where that visitor has come from, they may have come from search, or a link from another site or from someone sharing on Facebook. Whatever the source you need to make sure that your visitor is guided to other relevant and useful pages within your site. Your navigation should point your readers to the main areas of your site and be present throughout and you should link wherever possible from within your content to other parts of the site. Don’t forget to use your main keyword phrases in the links, but only when it makes sense to the reader.

In conclusion, if you build a site full of interesting and useful content, that’s relevant to your subject and your users, there’s no reason not to rank well in Google and continue to do so. Using tricks and shortcuts might work well in the short term, but may be short lived.

The only way to achieve this is to write good subject lines. Good subject lines are just like good headlines, they need to grab your readers attention and make them want to know more. The inbox is a highly competitive place, with lots of emails begging for attention. Hopefully you’ll have the edge by being recognised by the “from” field, if the recipient has given you permission to email them.

The Basics:

Here’s a handy check list for writing great headlines from Brian Gardiner of Copyblogger, a recognised authority on writing good copy. Next time you write an email subject line, check on the four U’s and ask if it is:

• Useful: Is the promised message valuable to the reader?
• Ultra-specific: Does the reader know what’s being promised?
• Unique: Is the promised message compelling and remarkable?
• Urgent: Does the reader feel the need to read now?

These four essentials should help to get your email opened.

There are however some more detailed elements to consider with subject lines that don’t necessarily apply to headlines

Who goes there?

Make yourself know, either by using the “From” field in the email to identify yourself, or by keeping a specific phrase in the subject lines of all your emails. This will help people to recognise your emails and not delete them as spam as they skim down their inbox.

Of the four U’s above, useful and specific are perhaps the most important, don’t leave anyone in doubt as to whether they want to read further.

In the age of twitter, we need to quickly learn the skill of getting a message across in a very short space, this also applies to things like Google Adwords. Your subject line needs to convey just how useful the message is and what it’s about in a very compact line of text.

Only make the message urgent when it actually is urgent. You may have an offer that has a deadline or you may be reminding people to book for an event, this  is the time to convey urgency, not under false pretenses.

Don’t write spammy sounding subject lines or the chances are your message will be zapped by an enthusiastic spam filter, most email marketing packages have a spam checking application that will allow you to check before sending. Things to avoid are words like “free” and uppercase subject lines.

With most email marketing packages you’re able to measure open rates and with time you can measure how effective your subject lines are with your particular audience. As you gain trust you may find that the subject line becomes less important, but it’s still good practice to get into the habit of writing something compelling.

You need to demonstrate in your content that you know what your talking about and that you have the ability to solve their problems and meet their needs. You need to build confidence and trust with your audience and show that you’re an authority on the subject.

A good start might be to write a short tutorial about your area of expertise, maybe your a chef and you could write a piece explaining some of the techniques you use in preparing particular dishes. Tricks of the trade and short cuts are always well received and may well solve a problem that your potential customer has been having. If you can produce a video to demonstrate, even better, not only could you use it on your own site, you could allow others to share it or put it on YouTube (but don’t forget to make sure it has a link to your site in there!).

There’ll be some things that you’ll want to keep as trade secrets, but you shouldn’t be afraid to pass on most of what you do. For the chef, just because you tell someone how to prepare a chicken for roasting, doesn’t mean they won’t come and try yours.

Don’t be afraid of including marketing messages in the content that you create, but keep them subtle. No one minds being reminded of how you make a living, but the message should have relevance to the reason for the piece in the first place.

Your content needs to be interesting enough for others to want to share it. That’s how your going to spread your message after all. You need your audience to read it and then re-tweet it, comment on it, blog about it or share it with friends. Seth Godin calls this content “remarkable”.

By creating this type of content you can gradually build an audience of “fans”, who will visit your blog or subscribe to email or follow you on twitter… who knows they may even buy something from you.

Join us for more of these articles over the coming weeks.