Google Penalty World

Excerpted from the article: "Over the course of the last year, we’ve heard loud cries of protest after each of the updates from smaller site owners who felt they’d been unfairly penalized by Panda.

In retrospect though, as we’re heading into a new year, it does seem that Panda is accomplishing what it was meant to do.

Towards the end of 2011, on Webmaster Radio’s Webcology show, host Jim Hedger asked each of the Year in Review panelists what they felt the biggest search story of the year had been. Surprisingly, perhaps, Panda wasn’t really on the radar of some of the more recognized names in search as one of the bigger concerns of 2011.

In the Webcology chatroom, it was generally agreed among industry vets including Jill Whalen that sites hit by Panda, whether they realized it or not, time and again were found to have areas in need of improvement that very well could have contributed to their being snagged in the updates: duplicate content, thin or shallow content, overwhelming ad placement."

Read the full article: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2135047/Search-Engines-Are-Winning-the-War-on-Content-Farms-STUDY