[smithoptimizer]

Cutts and Singhal revealed their process which I’ll summarize as:

• Conduct qualitative research (that’s speaking with individuals and not a big questionnaire) to find out which of a sample of sites they considered to be low quality and why.

• Use the results to define low quality sites with the factors that Google can measure. This gives Google a mathematical definition of low quality.

If we start here, we can think of a number of factors that Google might be able to measure to define low quality, including:

• A high % of duplicate content. This might apply to a page, a site or both. If it’s a site measure then that might contribute to each page’s evaluation.

• A low amount of original content on a page or site.

• A high % (or number) of pages with a low amount of original content.

• A high amount of inappropriate (they don’t match the search queries a page does well for) adverts, especially high on the page.

• Page content (and page title tag) not matching the search queries a page does well for.

• Unnatural language on a page including heavy-handed on-page SEO (‘over-optimization’ to use a common oxymoron). Eg unnatural overuse of a word on a page.

• High bounce rate on page or site.

• Low visit times on page or site.

• Low % of users returning to a site.

• Low clickthrough % from Google’s results pages (for page or site).

• High % of boilerplate content (the same on every page).

• Low or no quality inbound links to a page or site (by count or %).

• Low or no mentions or links to a page or site in social media and from other sites.

If any of these factors is relevant to Panda, it is unlikely that they will be so on their own.