What exactly is google panda and penguin all about?

[785]

Trying to rank for what should be quite easy niche and its not happening, Or if anybody has got some tips on the best way to SEO a website,would be great

[Daniel M]

Google Panda update was with regards to thin content or content on your blog/site just for SEO purpose.
Google expects your website to be informative and to be very relevant to the search term.
If you have content blocks exclusively made for SEO, you should have a re-think about it. Tweak it so it looks natural.

Google Penguin Update was with regards to backlinks. Too many backlinks with the same anchor text can now get you penalised.
You can use OpenSiteExplorer to get this data (http://www.opensiteexplorer.org)
If you have too many backlinks with same anchor text, get in touch with the webmasters of those sites and ask them to change it.
Use your brand name/website name as anchor text.
You could also use <brand name><keyword> as anchor text.
Naked URLS also help, like Click here http://www.yoursitename.com.
Get different kind of links, like comments, forum links, blog posts, facebook, twitter, youtube, etc.
Don't just focus on site wide links ( main reason why you get hit with by the Penguin)