The Google Panda update has made its presence known, with some sites dropping dramatically in the rankings. And the rollout isn’t over yet. The web is filled with reports of websites that once topped the listings, but are now struggling to get any traffic from their new positions far down the ladder. More to the point, their profits have gone south, too.

The hard truth is this - these changes are permanent and mark a major turning point in search engine algorithms. What you’re now look at is Google’s new standard for rankings in their index, and you’d better learn about it now if you want to stick around.

What exactly do you need to know about Google’s new ranking formula? Let’s go over some important points that your SEO should take very seriously.

You need to work on original content even more now. Nothing wrong with using articles from outside sources (like this one, for example). But if that is your main or only content, that’s a bigger problem than it used to be.

Google wants ‘uniqueness’ more than ever now. That doesn’t mean that you have to come up with something absolutely, positively new and exciting. It means your content needs to be in your own words.

For example, Google’s Panda update is being discussed all over the Internet. This article isn't the only one about it. It is, however, written by me and in my own words. This article is uniquely mine, even if the points are completely original. The old SEO days of Copy & Paste content are over.

NEW SEO FACTOR: CONTENT QUALITY

Unique is important, but that’s only half the battle. Google is now looking for not just unique content, but unique, quality content. How does Google measure quality?

They’re seeking content that visitors spend time on, that they linger over because it’s delivering what they’re looking for, whatever that is at the moment. What do you do when you get to a page that’s confusing, is written sloppily or doesn’t actually have what they promised in their search listing? You leave. Fast.

Google is also seeking content that people talk about, tweet about, ‘Like’ or even quote. Those are signals to the search engine that this is the kind of content that should be ranked higher. It has value and therefore deserves to be delivered to searchers using Google.

Does your content pass these 2 tests? It’s time to take a hard look at your website, especially if your rankings have dropped recently. This is the new age of SEO that goes beyond keywords and SEO By-The-Numbers. And it’s not going away.