The Penguin Update - Ten Things You Can Do to Adapt

The next update, "Aardvark."
Just kidding, Google.

Have you noticed a drop in your traffic and adsense clicks over the last couple of weeks?  If so, then the recent update, called the Penguin update, is probably the reason.  This algorithm change is something added to the previous Panda update to help reduce the amount of grey- and black-hat SEO and link-building that people do.  It is all about what looks "natural."

Some people think that Google has gone too far with this update.  Little people who have been making good original content have been impacted in many cases, as I have read in anecdotal accounts on The Warrior Forum and in other places.

People who are still not disappointed and deterred, to the point of quitting this game, are doing various things to help recover their rankings.  Here are some of the things that are being discussed:

1.) If you have more than one link to a domain in an article, remove the excess.

2.) Using the same ip number for all of your related websites may be a killer for sites that have been targeted.  Diversify your ip addresses in that case.

3.) Instead of using Google Analytics (some see it as an intrusive and damaging insight into your sights), use other resources. 

4.) Inspect your sites and remove spammy backlinks.  Have links in contexts that are relevant as well.  If you can't remove backlinks, relaunch your site and build the links organically. 

5.) Increase the quality of your articles that you are marketing.  Update them with current content and get rid of out-of-date articles.  Freshen up!

6.) In keeping with point #5, update your sites regularly with fresh content (this is something that has worked in the past as well).  Current content is king.

7.) Instead of exact match anchor texts, use partial match anchor text.  Here is a video that explains very well this concept which makes linking look more natural:

8.)  In keeping with the general idea of exact match vs. partial match, don't overuse exact match domains.  If you have overlapping domain names as sources for back links it may be a good idea to start up new domains to make them fit within the partial match category.

9.) Don't participate in reciprocal linking or in linking networks, which can be easily detected by Google.  If you have, remove these links.  Cutts has made two videos that discuss how to clean up your act in this regard.

10.) Sometimes the best thing to do is non-action.  Some are advising against over-reaction, as there may be problems with the Penguin release, rankings for those who have been following the rules may go back up again after an update.  But, if you feel your site(s) have been wrongly targeted by the algorithm, Google has made a simple form that you can fill out and submit.

Other resources:

Check out this article on SEO Hackers as well, which explains some of the technical considerations in the Penguin update, particularly regarding calculated ratios:

 http://seo-hacker.com/google-penguin-update-effects-negative-seo/





 

Patience with Link Building - Go Organic

Patience pays off with link building.  With the advent of Google Panda and the subsequent decline of rankings of a number of web sites that lack good content and have relied on an SEO strategy of building many links on totally unrelated sites.

It seems that many people still don't get the message that automated link building is an outdated strategy of SEO.  If programs like Akismet and others can detect spam content better than 99% of the time, then why can't Google do the same thing.   To these people I say WAKE UP!
 
Be patient and know that if you do good work, you will be rewarded.  Here are some tips on organic link building and a video session with Matt Cutts is included at the end.

 

Organic Link Building

This is a white-hat SEO strategy that helps people with sites that have good content become recognized as an authority by Google.

1. Link to sites that have keywords for which you want to rank for, in other words a relevant site.

2. Have a blog or blogs that generate content related to the keywords you are working with.  Hyperlink sparingly back to your site.  One hyperlink per blog entry and no more.  Otherwise it will look like too much self-promotion.

3. List your blogs in directories within your subject area.  The higher the rankings of the directories, the better for you.

4. When possible, do guest blogging with people who have related content.  Of course, you will have hyperlinks to related sites to help create an authority network.

5.  When making links on other sites, make sure that they have a higher ranking to leverage the amount of manual link-building you do.  Comments with significant contributing content to the web page helps as well.

6. Submit articles to article submission sites like Ezine. 

7.  See the video below where Matt Cutts is answering a question about how to build links that meet Google's ranking criteria.  I have covered a couple of his points, but he also talks about occasionally using contoversy, participation in related social groups, giving away free stuff and making tutorials and videos.