If you were one of the many people who’s sites were affected by the Google Panda update, most likely you are still trying to figure out how to bounce back. The update showed us one thing – that Google wants quality content, so those who have been hit are doing their best to give Google what they’re looking for.

Content is king, as we all know, but there might be some other tweaks you can make to help you climb back up the Google ladder. According to HubPages.com, it looks like they may have stumbled upon something that is helping make a difference.

HubPages.com was one of the largest sites hit by the Google Panda update. According to Paul Edmondson, it’s chief executive, after the update their web traffic dropped by 50%. That’s a huge drop, especially for a site which does have a lot of quality content.

So, what’s the secret? Sub-domains. You see, Google’s search engine had indexed some pages that were tied to “ww.hubpages.com” rather than “hubpages.com,” and they were ranking higher. Was this just a fluke of some sort? I don’t think so.

Edmondson sent an email to Google asking if sub-domains would make a difference in their rankings and he was told in an email that he might want to try them. They started implementing this in late June and here are the early results as reported by WSJ:

The HubPages subdomain testing began in late June and already has shown positive results. Edmondson’s own articles on HubPages, which saw a 50% drop in page views after Google’s Panda updates, have returned to pre-Panda levels in the first three weeks since he activated subdomains for himself and several other authors. The other authors saw significant, if not full, recoveries of Web traffic.

On Wednesday, HubPages.com began a full roll-out of sub-domains for its authors.

Were you hit by the Google Panda update and if so, are you willing to give sub-domains a try?