When Google panda was introduced last year it changed the game by a huge margin. While many websites saw a sky high increase in their websites traffic there were the less fortunate ones who saw a rapid decrease in their websites ranking and traffic. All these events were the result of Google panda penalizing the website due to number of reasons example Black Hat SEO techniques.
So if you have suffered by the hands of Google panda then this is the guide to get back on track. First thing first panda is a domain level penalty which essentially means that the content that resulted in penalty is not alone penalized but your whole website would have to suffer with a penalty therefore eradication of low level content is the first step in the algorithm. The first call of action should be to get rid of content that is not useful or up to date as per your standards. Now the question lies in how to check the effect that Google panda has put on your website are you facing low traffic then your answer is Google analytic. Look out for the graph and estimate the past 10 days report which would show if there were any changes or drop in traffic and ranking.
The most important thing is to put quality content on your website and delete any unwanted or duplicate material you encounter. The next thing would be to have a good knowledge of SEO if you are deeply invested in your blog or website as that would help in giving you edge to fight off any major changes that affect your work. Following these steps would slowly bring change and improve the ranking as well traffic of your website
Finally Good content creation pays in long run for engaging your customers and increasing visibility about your customers