panda vs penguin and a little bit of venice, sept 11, 2013

Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013@SearchInfluence Algorithm Updates

Panda vs. Penguinand a little bit of Venice

Paula Keller, Director of Account Management, Search Influence


About Me: Paula Keller

• Marketing grad of LSU• Director of Account

Management • More than 5+ years

experience in traditional/online marketing

• Google AdWords + Bing Ads certified


Google Algorithm Updates

• 500 - 600 per year

• Track them here: http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change




Some are bigger than others…

Image Source: http://www.dogs4dogs.com/truth4dogs.html


Image Source: www.blogager.com


Image Source: http://powertripberkeley.com/venice-beach-sign-venice-beach-flickr-photo-sharing/


Google Penguin vs. PandaFirst Appearance: USA, April 24, 2012

Penalty Reasons:1. Low Quality Links2. Over Optimized Anchor Texts3. Keyword stuffing

How to Overcome?4. Natural Anchor Texts5. Contextual Thematic Links6. Pruning The “Rogue” Links

Who Benefited?Websites with variety of back links

Number of Updates: 2

% of Websites Affected? 3.1% Websites

First Appearance: Worldwide, Feb 23, 2011

Penalty Reasons:1. Thin Content2. Content Farms3. High Bounce Rates

How to Overcome?4. Replacing duplicate content 5. Use of unique content for submission based backlinks3. No content spinning

Who Benefited?Well written & informativecontent that appeals visitors

Number of Updates: 13

% of Websites Affected? 12% Websites

Source: http://visual.ly/google-penguin-vs-panda-update


Let’s Talk Panda

Image Source: http://www.hubspot.com/content-usage-guidelines


Panda

• Occurs approx. monthly, as recent as July 18

• Most likely causes for effects on advertisers’ sites:– Duplicate Content– Bad / low quality / thin content

• How does Google know quality content?– Bounce rate is a key factor


So, How Does a Business Fix This?

• Replace ALL duplicate content

• Only add totally unique content

• Re-write non-informative content– “Give away a little bit of the store”

– What questions do customers ask when they call / come in?

• Increase engagement and drive visitors further into the site


Photo Gallery

Contact Form

Strong Photos

Videos

Question Form


=Image Source: http://www.clker.com/clipart-penguin-31.html

Image Source: http://www.bedlamrealty.com/links/

On to Penguin…


Penguin

• Happens Less Frequently

• There have been 2 big releases:– Penguin in April 2012– Penguin 2.0 in May 2013


Penguin

• aggressive exact match anchor text

• overuse of exact match domains– plumberneworleans.com

• blog spam• keyword stuffing in

internal and outbound links


=


But, not all votes are created equal

Image Source: http://www.submitinme.com/blogs/simtalk/seo-quote-by-matt/matt-cutts-2/


What Makes a Link Bad?

• Structure– Overly optimized “anchor text”– If all the links pointing at you are on the exact

same keyword, Google sees that as a sign that a website may be trying to “manipulate” the search results

http://www.bluefountainmedia.com/glossary/anchor-text/


What Makes a Link Bad?

• Source– Completely unrelated or loosely related website• Not good: Mommy blog in Michigan linking to a steel

maker in New Jersey• Appropriate link: Mommy blog in Michigan writing

about and linking to vacation rentals in Alabama

– Website linking to many different industries without real context or purpose • (established directories are still good)


Common Sources of Bad Links

• Poor blog commenting:– Comments providing no real input– Comments on unrelated blog posts– Commenter’s name is clearly a keyword

• Syndicated/re-spun article sites• Low, low quality directories• Unrelated “link network” type sites


What DOES Google want?

• “Do real stuff that companies do online”– Share interesting info on social media• Google+

– Provide valuable information on your website– Create good “content” and share• Videos on YouTube

– “Brand signals”


Ideal breakdown of anchor text is a mix of…

• Branded• Keyword• “Naked” links– http://www.website.com

• “Other” text like “click here” “learn more”

Image Source: http://www.netmediablog.com/how-anchor-text-can-improve-blog-seo


Site rankings can be affected 1 of 2 ways…


Algorithmically…

Image Source: http://www.digirank.co.uk/blog/10-seo-tools-to-help-websites-recover-from-google-algorithm-updates/


Manually...

Image Source: http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cat/47/Computer-Beginners-Guides


Diagnosing

• Action plan to “fix” varies based on the type of penalty…


Google Webmaster Tools: Manual Actions Notice


Manual Action Traffic Drop off


Algorithmic• If traffic dip in Google Analytics coincides with

a Google update, but no “manual action” in WMT, then the site’s rankings were adjusted by the algorithm, not manually


Google Webmaster Tools


Treating• Manual action – Perform aggressive link cleanup, document and submit

Reconsideration Request• Algorithmic Update– Perform aggressive link cleanup, document, and “disavow” bad

links

• Can take multiple tries• Most cases are different• Results can take weeks to months• No easy cure for toxic links


VENICEFebruary 2012


Image Source: http://moz.com/blog/understand-and-rock-the-google-venice-update

Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013@SearchInfluence Algorithm UpdatesImage Source: http://moz.com/blog/understand-and-

rock-the-google-venice-update


Why This Matters

• We select keywords that include the client’s city

• But… SEO may also help them rank for broad search terms that don’t include their area.

• Keep this in mind as a selling point for new and existing clients


How to Measure• No great way to automatically track where each

client is ranking for keywords without geo-modifiers

• We aim to achieve an overall lift in organic search engine traffic to their site

• Looking at search terms actually driving visits to the site in Google Analytics is the best way to see how the client is performing for non geo-modified phrases in their area.


Thank you!

• [email protected]• searchinfluence.com/blog• @SearchInfluence• @paulalmkeller

mailto:[email protected]

panda vs penguin and a little bit of venice, sept 11, 2013

Technology

property of search influence

links number of updates

search results http

visitors number of updates

quality content

panda image source

websites source

content farms