I thought Google’s Panda update was supposed to kill bad links?

A little under a year ago, Google’s algorithm update, codenamed “Panda” was all the rage on the interwebs. And by “rage” I mean, loads upon loads of site owners were mad enough to spit nickels.

The issue was (to sum it up), Panda was meant to cull all the “bad” site, thereby improving the listings for all the “good” sites. But in the end, loads of good sites got hurt, and loads of bad sites remained unscathed. I even wrote a little post about the subject, and about how angry people were. Now, Aaron Wall and the folks over at SEOBook.com can give you far more info (and opinion) on Google than I ever could…but no matter where you opinion on the matter falls, one thing remains clear:

Google said Panda would punish bad practices.

There is no opinion, or spin on that. Panda was supposed to make SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) more relevant.

Now, as I say more than 999 times a day, I am actively seeking a new job as a web designer. One of the things I do is search for web design, marketing and advertising agencies in my area, and basically “cold call” them with emails that have my resume attached.

One town near here is Linwood, NJ. So I go to Google and search “Web design Linwood NJ”. And this site comes up 4th in my results. It came up again for “web design new jersey”. And again for “Web design Northfield NJ”. And again and again.

This site is the definition of “black hat SEO practices”. The kind of thing that is supposed to be BAD for our industry. The kind of thing that Google and their “Panda” were supposed to cure. And it comes up in the top 10 of my searches.

Again.

And again.

And again.

This is what the site has done:
They have a page that list every state in the USA. (image below)
Every state name is linked to a page that has every city in that state listed. (image below)
Every city name links to a page “about” that city. (image below)

There’s only one problem….

There is NO CONTENT on these pages. This is simply a bunch of empty pages to get people to bring their business to some company that isn’t sure if they do web design, SEO or auto-glass repair. (Seriously)

This kind of thing gives all the rest of us in the business a bad name.

Now back in the Wild West days of the interwebs, we used to create “doorway pages”, sites that had content on them, but always linked back to the real site. But nowadays that sort of thing is frowned upon as well.

But at least, even in those bad instances, the sites and pages had CONTENT. They were relevant to what the user had been searching for.

Even if they were “black hat” they didnt really waste the user’s time.

I work hard to stay abreast of what is going on in SEO, reading articles, blogs, white papers and the like in an effort to bring the best SEO practices to the freelance clients I have (and to whatever company I am working for).

And garbage like this floats to the top of the Google SERPs?

I have an idea for Google.

Instead of coming up with really cute names for each algorithm update, how about making it easier for guys like me, who are IN THE BUSINESS to tell them of culprits like this? Make it easier to report misuse of a tool we are ALL trying to use?

That would be a load more useful than any old Panda.

BAD SEO EXAMPLES:

State Listings (in footer):

City Names (long scrolling list):

City page: