google penguin: what is it, why should you care & what can you do?
DESCRIPTION
Overview of Google Penguin. What it is, what to do if you've been hit, how to recover and how to avoid. A primer for anyone who doesn't know what Penguin is.TRANSCRIPT
What Is It? Why Should You Care? What Can You Do?
All Things Penguin
Penguin
Penguin Timeline
PenguinApril 24, 2012
Impacts 3.1% of English Queries.
Penguin 1.1May 25, 2012First Penguin
algorithm data refresh. Affected <0.1% of English
searches.
Penguin #3October 5, 2012
Minor Penguin data update,
impacting 0.3% of Queries.
Penguin 2.0May 22, 2013Large update based on new
technology
Penguin 2.1October 4, 2013
Small update on 2.0
Penguin 3.0
COMING SOONVERY SOON!
So What Exactly Is Penguin?
According to the Google Blog, Penguin is an…
“important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.” Here is a list of the top areas that we believe Penguin is targeting:
Aggressive linking with the exact same anchor text
Overuse of keywords Low-quality article marketing & Blog spam
Go to Google Analytics, Click Acquisition Click All Traffic Click Google / Organic Adjust the date range to go from April 1, 2012
to today. Look for sharp, noticeable decreases in
traffic. If there are none, you are good. If you see any, check the dates. If they are on the following dates, you have been hit: April 24, 2012 May 25, 2012 October 5, 2012 May 22, 2013 Oct 4, 2013
“How Do I Know If I Was Hit By
Penguin?”
Commenting on Blogs SEO FirmsArticle SyndicationPeople thinking they can boost their
site by linking to youNegative SEO
“How Did I Get These Links?”
Originally they felt links were a vote of popularity for your site. The more links, the better your site, the higher you rank!
Google realized people could easily “game” the system and needed to crack down on link building as an SEO strategy, so they created guidelines to determine if links were good.
“Why Does Google Care
About Links?”
They look at: how many total links you have how were they achieved anchor text timeframe they were achieved quality of links where on the page the link resides which pages on your site it links to about 78 other factors!
Google is looking for naturally occurring links
“How Does Google Decide
What Is A Good Link?”
If Google has determined you have too many “bad links” and Penguin hit you the first step is a Link Audit so you can determine which links are bad.
The next step is trying to remove the bad links.
You could try to have the links “nofollowed” but that isn’t fool proof.
Lastly you could disavow the links with Google (more on that in just a minute)
“What Can I Do If I have Been Hit?”
Remember…
Penguin is NOT a penalty, it is a filter
You need to be diligent about cleaning up your links as quickly as possible.
You won’t see the true benefit of the clean up until Google runs the filter again.
Which means if you are hurting now – you need to get it cleaned up BEFORE the next Penguin runs.
“When Will I See The Results Of My
Recovery Efforts?”
In October 2012, Google introduced a Disavow Tool that allows you to tell Google you don’t want those links counted against you.
Not many people have seen it work for them.
Use it very carefully.
Only use it after you have attempted to clean up the links yourself first.
“What Does Disavow mean?”
Keep tabs on your Link Profile and monitor Google Webmaster Tools.
Clean up bad links as quickly as possible.
Acquire natural, high quality links through sharing top notch content.
Get active on Social Media.
Make sure your site is professional, full of quality content and not spammy.
“How Do I Prevent Penguin
From Hurting My Site?”
We had expected it to run by now, which means it could be any day. Could even be before I finish recording this video.
“When Is the Next Penguin
Coming?”
Get a link audit so you know what your link profile looks like.
Try to remove links. Services like rmoov.com work well.
Document all efforts so Google can see the work you did.
Disavow.
Build up quality content on your site and share it via social media.
Your Action Plan
Jennifer Horowitz, Director of Marketing has spoken at conferences, written a book, is regularly published on the top industry Blogs and sites. Voted Top 10, 20 and 100 SEO experts and Bloggers around the world.
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