How long to recover from Panda Update

[BlueTree_Sean]

Hi there,

I think I was affected by the recent Panda update as I had a lot of duplicate content for my product descriptions (about 300). I'm going through and rewriting these to be both helpful and unique. I was ranking quite nicely for a big spread of keywords, but have been seeing my rankings drop day after day since the update.

Is it possible to see my rankings improve again after Google re-crawls my site, or would a penalty have been applied to my site preventing me to re-gain my positions for sometime. It's probably worth noting that I have a lot of unique and helpful content, it was just my product pages that had duplicate content, but I've seen my rankings across the board drop.

Any discussion and insight would be much appreciated.

[Andy-Halliday]

Hi

Yes it is possible to recover, but it wont be an overnight solution.

You are doing the right thing and tackling the issues of duplicate content. I think this update will have affected quite a few e-commerce sites as a lot I see always use the manufacturers description (duplicating content) usually for the reasons is easier and cheaper.

And good way of improving might be to ask previous people to write product reviews on the page. This is a good way of generating good unique content.

Not sure what platform you use or whether its custom built, but there is usually some good apps that will automate this process, sending emails to customers after a certain time to come and leave a review.

[BlueTree_Sean]

Hey Andy,

Thanks for your response. Yep, you hit the nail on the head. Duplicated from the manufacturer to save time as I wanted to launch quickly. Invested my time in creating new content rather than revisiting my product descriptions. I'm pleased I'll be able to recover.

I will look to get product reviews implemented ASAP.

Many thanks,
Sean

[Andy-Halliday]

Hi Sean

I used to have a shopify store as well and there are plenty of apps, try this one I have used previously and liked:

http://docs.shopify.com/manual/more/official-shopify-apps/product-reviews

Investing in product descriptions and unique content will pay off in the long run.

I've noticed you have got some great content on your category pages (hopefully these still rank as its the time of the year when I guess you get a lot of sales) so its just the product pages which will require work.

[Kingof5]

I'd be surprise if you were hit by Panda for duplicate content on product descriptions. Matt Cutts is on record saying it's not a big deal for ecommerce sites.

[BlueTree_Sean]

Thanks Andy, that's the app I'll be using.

I've seen a drop across the board for keywords, but not a complete failure. Yes this time of year is when I make the money. I've just started so put some of the fluctuations down to that too. Just need to keep plugging away at it I guess.

[BlueTree_Sean]

Hi David,

I appreciate your input. I only made that assumption as the drop coincided with the update - literally the same day of the update after having massive gains for weeks (and months) prior. A lot of my rankings that dropped were for category pages and my homepage that are unique and actually quite useful for readers.

Do you think you could pinpoint the reason for the drop if it isn't due to duplicate content?

[Andy-Halliday]

I would defiantly say its something to do with Panda

Your drop as seen on the graph, is your search visibility and while its not a great indication on its own, it still pretty useful. Your drop in % terms in the same as Ebay's.

http://imgur.com/8XojR8P

Generally speaking people are saying Ebays drop is down to poor quality content, so if David is right about Matt Cutts saying its not affecting product descriptions I would take a look at your blog and add more content (however that does all seem unique).

I will still work on the product descriptions and making them more useful for the user, plus you win twice, higher ranking and more customer converting and they are getting the advice they need without leaving your site

[David-Kley]

Once its all fixed, you should see start seeing changes in about a month or so. There really isnt any specific timeline, and all you can do is get the errors fixed, and resubmit the sitemap and use the "fetch as google" option in Google WMT. Sometime changes can happen in a week, all depends what your crawl frequency is set to. In your sitemap, do you have it set to daily, weekly, or monthly?

[BlueTree_Sean]

Hi David, I think I have it set to weekly. I was guestimating it might take a month for it to start resolving itself. Gutted really as I was just about to invest time in more content and outreach. Ohwell.

[BlueTree_Sean]

Thanks Andy, and everybody else. I think I have a clear action plan to move forward now. Get the product descriptions unique - and written to be more helpful and better for converting customers, adding more to the blog (bit thin at the moment with just news rather than useful info) and creating great resources to help customers (+ giving the site linkable assets)

Many thanks

[David-Kley]

Weekly sounds about right. Dont forget to take a look at your places listings, and other elements while you are in the mood to update and improve!

I understand how frusterating it can be optimizing an ecom shop or store. Lots of pages, lots of time, lots of typing. Just got done doing a site that had over 3000 pages. Keep your heart in it, and you will see the results you want. I took a look at the site, seemed like you were going in the right direction.