If you're looking for SEO tips related to recovering from Google Panda 3, then chances are great that your webmaster tactics included some that Google isn't overly fond of. For many people, this resulted in a dramatic loss of rankings. For others rankings for some keywords were dropped while previously untargeted keywords were boosted. Whatever the case may be, if you were affected by Google Panda 3 these SEO tips will help you get quickly back to where you rightfully belong in the SERPs.

SEO Recovery Tip #1: Review Google's Webmaster Guidelines

This is one of the most overlooked parts of search engine optimization, when in reality it should be the first item that web masters learn. And while this might not apply to websites and businesses that do not rely on traffic from search engines, the fact that Google still has 70% of the search market means it's a powerful source of traffic, conversions and - ultimately - income.

Whether you agree with all of Google's policies, changes, vagueness and so on isn't really an issue, because the fact of the matter is that if you're in the SEO industry, it's Google's game. This might rub some people the wrong way, but most experts and logical thinking people agree that when it comes to search, it's in Google's best interest to return the most relevant results possible. The more relevant the results returned for each query, the more money Google makes. So in the final analysis of the issue, it's in everyone's best interest to provide quality content and for Google to return quality results.

This means that the best playbook available for webmasters to use is the Google Webmaster Guidelines. This is especially true for those who were affected by the most recent Panda update at the end of February. Click here to review Google's Webmaster Guidelines now.

SEO Recovery Tip #2: Remove any offensive links

If your site was affected by Panda and you've never purchased any paid links or worked with certain private blog networks, it might seem irrational to you that your rankings tanked. However, many people find that upon some basic testing, these links do indeed exist, and they're usually linked back to a lazy webmaster. The first step is to find these links.

Majestic SEO offers an excellent tool to check your backlinks, although there are a number of other programs that are effective as well, including Link Assistant and Market Samurai. By using one of these programs to find your backlinks, you can analyze them to determine if you have any paid links and where they are.

Paid links often appear on home pages where there are a number of unrelated posts with large numbers of spammy outgoing links. For instance, a web design company's links might be featured in a post next to a scrap gold buyer's links. Overall, these sites don't appear to have any theme, although their PR may be high. Ultimately, finding paid links may require the assistance of a professional, because if they're out there they should be found and eliminated if you expect to recover your rankings.

Once links have been found that violate Google's TOS or Webmaster Guidelines, you should petition the domains where they are located to have them removed. You can do this using the contact information provided by the site, or by conducting a WHOIS search to reveal the domain, the host and other useful contact information.

In some cases there may be accounts in existence that keep these paid links in effect. If so you will need to discuss this with the webmaster that setup those accounts. If this person is no longer available, you can use your credit card or other billing information to find out what companies are billing you for paid or other black-hat links and request them to completely dismantle those links.

In the next installment of this article series, we'll detail three more SEO tips that will help you recover from Google's Panda 3 update. But if you need professional help for your organic search campaigns, the time to act is now, as you can bet your competitors have already taken serious action.