Google’s Panda update has sparked a great deal of controversy. The update is the biggest change to its process Google has made in some time, and many site owners were hit hard by the update’s changes. However, there are a number of things you can do to maintain your site’s traffic, and to remain high in the search engine rankings. Here’s how you can keep the Panda Update from negatively effecting you.

1. Work to build backlinks through guest posts. In the past, it was common for people to buy backlinks, but now, doing that will only harm your site. However, backlinks are still important, and a well-written guest post should keep Google happy. Talk to other site owners in your niche about exchanging content.

2. Make sure that any low quality pages on your site aren’t indexed. For example, you may want to keep your contact page from showing up in search engines. Google looks for sites with high quality content, and these pages may give a false impression of your site. To keep a page from being indexed, you can use a robots.txt file or meta tag.

3. Cut back on ads. While ads can be a great source of income for many site owners, too many ads won’t help your site maintain a high page ranking. Limit yourself to no more than three ads on any given page. One of the best places to stick an ad is a sidebar. This is fairly unobtrusive, and will keep your site from looking like a spam page.

4. Focus on social media. Social media is more important than ever before, especially Google’s own social media site, Google+. Take the time to accumulate a number of followers on any social media pages for your site. You should also add a social media bar to your site so that it’s easy for visitors to like or +1 your content. With these new updates, a strong social media presence will take your site far.

5. Look out for copied content. Google doesn’t like seeing copied content, but doesn’t necessarily check to see what the original source of the content was. If you see your content replicated on other sites, lodge a complaint with Google immediately. These sites can have a serious impact on your own, and it’s best to fight back against them as soon as you can.

6. Keep writing quality content. Quality content has always been the most important aspect of SEO, and that hasn’t changed. While it may seem that Google’s updates are rewarding sites with little or poor content, quality content can only benefit you in the long run. When your site is full of high quality content, no search engine will be able to ignore you.

Dealing with the aftermath of the Panda Update isn’t easy. Many site owners are concerned about the loss of traffic and income. However, if you take advantage of the advice here, you should be able to keep your site in good shape. Don’t give up on SEO. Just make adjustments to your techniques.