Google Penguin & Panda

Google have been constantly upgrading the Panda Update and are now up to 3.9.1 with the latest update on 20th August 2012. We have been researching this upgrade and have noticed that a lot of Web directories have been hit. Although there doesn’t seem to have been any Penguin upgrades since 25th May 2012 there has been an improvement on Google Webmaster Tools; this new update sends you links that Google sees as unnatural – Google Unnatural Links

Google Webmaster Tools – A New Look

Google have been making changes to the structure of the Data Dashboard in Google Webmaster Tools. The most exciting change is the different level views into your website structure. This starts with the overall site view then drills down to individual pages.

Overall Website

site-level-view1

Individual Page

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Find out more about the new Data Dashboard

Google URL Parameters

Google now allows you to configure your own parameters. However this is something that you need to work on with your website developer.

For most websites Google has done this for us but for some it hasn’t. You should check to see if Google has or hasn’t on your website. This is done by logging into your webmaster tool: Click on your website then click Configuration then URL Parameters. If the message states that Google has no problems then you are fine; however if you get the following message you will need to configure your parameters.

url-para

URL Parameters – Briefly Explained

Parameters are attributes that are passed in the URL of pages and can be used in a number of different ways. They are mainly used to control what and how information is displayed on your website (although they can be used for tracking as well). Sometimes the URL Parameters simply alter the way that the same data is displayed on your page such as ordering alphabetically or by price. Other times the URL parameters may completely change the data on a page such as displaying a different product.

Why Use this Tool

The tool will allow you to tell Google whether the URL Parameters are going to show completely new information or re-ordered information. This allows you to reduce the number for URL’s Google spiders with duplicate content.

Here this is explained further: