pitfalls to avoid in a post penguin & panda world

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

"Pitfalls to Avoid in a Post Penguin & Panda World"

Presenter:Mike Huber, Vice President of

Client Services at Vertical Measures@mjhuber

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehuber


Webmasters Tools –Unnatural Links


Drop in Traffic


Don’t Panic

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

vCreate Strategy Document

Analyze The Situation Prioritize Tactical Steps

Make The Changes In Priority Order

Document

Go to Tactical Step 2

Rinse and Repeat

Journey To Traffic Recovery


v

Analyze The Situation

Journey To Recovery


Is it Cause or Correlation?

• Cause - ‘A’ causes ‘B’• Correlation – a concept that measures the

relationship between two things. A positive correlation means that when one thing goes up, the other goes too. Or, when one thing goes down the other goes up.


The Updates

Panda PenguinLow Quality Sites – The ‘blogpocylpse’ Over Optimization Update

Site-wide penalties - poor or thin content Abnormal linking

Content Farms Over optimized anchor text

High Bounce Rates Keyword Stuffing

Recent and important: EMD – Low quality ‘exact match domains’.


What Should I Be Looking For• On-Site

– Isolate the drop in traffic• Single Page, Directories, Site-wide

– Thin Content– Over Optimized Content– Over Optimized Internal Linking

• Off-Site– Back Link Quantity– Back Link Quality– Over Optimization of Anchor Text

• Competition– Compare and Contrast


Evidence of Penguin


Penguin – Over Optimization


Analysis Tools

• Google Analytics• Google Webmaster Tools• Open Site Explorer• SEMRush• Link Detective


Review the Competition

• Are your main competitors up or down?• Compare and contrast

– On-Page– Off-Page


Cause For Traffic DropsOn-Site Off-Site

Limited original content Low quality back links

Low visit times on page/site Limited number of back links

High % of duplicate content (affiliate site) Site-wide back links

High bounce rates on a page/site Back links from spammy sites

Boilerplate or concatenated content Over optimized anchor text

Unnatural use of words/phrases (stuffing) Evidence of paid links

Over optimized internal linking Back links with sites ESL


vCreate Strategy Document

Journey To Recovery


Strategy Document

• Definition and Clarification of the Problem• The page/pages with biggest traffic drop• Compare/contrast to pages that remain strong• Test updating pages, emulating strong pages• Create working grid to manage changes


v

Prioritize Tactical Steps

Journey To Recovery


Example of Process GridPage URL Type Words Quality Duplication Traffic +/-

Blue Widgets mysite.com/bluewidgets.html Web Page 150 Low High -50%

Red Widgets mysite.com/redwidgets.html Blog Post 600 High None -10%

Green Widgets mysite.com/greenwidgets.html Web Page 150 Low High -80%

Yellow Widgets mysite.com/yellowidgets.html Web Page 450 High None +5%


Add Your Action Items To The Grid

• Include current column headings• Date updated• New Word Count (did you add photos, video?)• Notes• Traffic update


v Make The Changes In Priority Order

Journey To Recovery


Measured - Logical - Sequential

• Determine the ‘high gain’ activities– Where can you leverage the fewest resources to

get the most gain


Penguin – Over Optimization


A Closer Look Reveals…


Link Pruning DocumentationStatus URL Anchor Text Contact Name Contact Email Contacted FU Date FU Date Results Removal DateActive http://www.linkpruning1.com blue widget Adam West [email protected] 10/10/2012 Removed 10/9/2012Removed http://www.linkpruning2.com red widget John Smith [email protected] 10/10/2012 No replyContactedhttp://www.linkpruning3.com blue widget Bill Waters [email protected] 10/11/2012 In ProgressContactedhttp://www.linkpruning4.com blue widget JJ Johnston [email protected] 10/12/2012Contactedhttp://www.linkpruning5.com red widget Simon Sayers [email protected] 10/11/2012Report http://www.linkpruning6.com blue widget Oscar Nots [email protected] 10/11/2012


Link Building Dos and Don’tsDos Don’ts

Focus on quality not quantity Use the same anchor text

Create great content – it will get links Link to low quality sites

Vary content with text, images and video Focus on low quality directory sites

Write guest blog posts on relevant sites Use side bar and footer links

Reclaim links to pages that have moved Write low quality content for linking

Become an authority Buy a cheap ‘package’

Follow the leader (competition) Expect getting quality links to be easy

Target do-follow links Build links to resource pages or exchange

Strive for relevancy Pay for site-wide links


vCreate Strategy And Prioritize Document

Create Strategy And Prioritize Document



Document



Journey To Recovery


Executing the Plan

• You’ve Created A Strategy Document• Tactical plan• Identified the high gain activities• Implemented the changes• Now – Document!


v

Go to Tactical Step 2

Journey To Recovery


v

Journey To Recovery

Rinse and Repeat


Questions?

Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com

More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/


FREE WEBINAR SERIES:Join us November 8th at 11am PST/2pm EST

Stop Playing the Google Yo-Yo Game & Win with Real SEO

• Presenter: Alan Bleiweiss– Alan has been working in SEO for more

than a decade– He will discuss the core concepts that go

into truly sustainable SEO based on real world data gathered from sites comprising over 250 million pages indexed at Google.

Check out our website at www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars

for registration information.

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars


Resources

• A History of Panda Updates– http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

• Infographic showing Panda Updates– http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-112805

• Content Marketing Wiki– http://www.contentmarketingwiki.org/

• How To Get Back on Track After the Penguin Update– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/search-optimization/how-to-get-back-on-track-after-the-penguin-update/

http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-112805

http://www.contentmarketingwiki.org/

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/search-optimization/how-to-get-back-on-track-after-the-penguin-update/


Stay Up-To-Date With Alerts


Webmaster Content Guidelines• Would you trust the information presented in this article?• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword

variations?• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess

what might rank well in search engines?• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?• How much quality control is done on content?• Does the article describe both sides of a story? Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so

that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced? For a health related query, would you trust

information from this site?• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name? Does this article provide a complete or

comprehensive description of the topic?• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?


On Site Checklist

• Does your site have…– Thin Content - 200 words or less– Duplicate or Concatenated Content– Over use of keywords (keyword density)– Content of little/no value– Link grids on every page– Misspelled words or searched words used for SEO


Off Site Checklist

• Low quality of back links• Low number of back links• High ratio of anchor text• Low relevance of sites pointing to you• Links from networks or spammy sites• Links in footers, headers, side bars• Link in comparison to competition

pitfalls to avoid in a post penguin & panda world

Documents

mjhuber vmwebinar

mjhuber vmwebinar

mjhuber vmwebinarpenguin

mjhuber vmwebinarjourney

concatenated

optimization

twitter

content