It’s big, scary, and it’s HERE: Google’s PENGUIN 2.0.
Officially launched
on May 22 and termed the “Webspam” update, this Google algorithm beast is
dedicated to targeting anything considered “blackhat” in terms of SEO, and is
supposed to dig deeper than its predecessor in the know-how of what website
content to rank (and what not to rank). “Digging deeper:” this means Penguin is
getting into the nitty-gritty of how your backlinks work, where they are from,
your indexing patterns and more.
Biggest Change in the Algorithm for Ranking Website Content is…
How Google figures
out PageRank. Here’s what Google wants to use for its search factors to rank
you or not rank you in its Penguin 2.0: gauging you on a social engagement
level. Consider it a gauge of how your visitors enjoy (or don’t enjoy) your
site. This includes the amount of times your site gets bookmarked; the amount
of times it gets socially shared; and the amount of times it’s re-visited. The
best part? Google Penguin 2.0 knows when you BUY engagement…and when it’s
natural.
However, take it
with a grain (or two) of salt. In months ahead, the algorithm is set to
constantly update. If Penguin 1.0 affected the web, think of Penguin 2.0 as the
destroyer or influencer of the web.
“As long as you’re working hard for your users, we’re working hard to
show your high quality content to users as well,” said Matt Cutts, in his video on
the matter published this May. “If you’re doing high quality content with SEO,
you won’t have to worry. If you’ve been hanging out on the blackhat
forums, it will be a more eventful summer for you.”
Important updates that will be a core of the Google Penguin 2.0 include:
The Biggest One: No more spammy links. PageRank
influencing factors are totally different. Advertising will
not influence PageRank anymore (or at least most of it won’t). Link spamming
will be heavily knocked down in the update. Sophisticated link analysis is in
its “early days” in the Penguin 2.0 update, according to Cutts. This is huge
for many sites. What does this mean? The new Penguin will be hitting down
on:
§ Comment spam
(paying for low quality blog comments)
§ Low quality guest
blogging
§ Article
marketing/duplicating
§ Links from sites
that are dangerous to users
§ Paid backlinks
using exact match anchor text (in English: a paid backlink!)
If you relied on backlinks, you are more than likely going to be drowning by
the end of Penguin 2.0 smackdown. Case studies available at: SearchEngineWatch.com.
How to
Recover: Experienced a drop in rankings from the new Penguin
2.0 beast, and need to get rid of spammy links pointing back to your site?
Google’s Link Disavow Tool is for you. It’s a machete if you need to get rid of
bad links—with Google, it’s mostly all or nothing with very little success
allotted to cliffhangers. Time to cut off all those bad links? Learn more about the Link Disavow Tool.
Go directly to the Link Disavow Tool.
How To
Avoid: To avoid your website content getting hit on PageRank influencing
factors, if you are advertising to achieve PageRank, Google says they’ll hit
you less if you actually tell your users that. Learn more about how to disclose your paid advertising so you don’t get Google-hit
from WebProNews.
Want to avoid
getting stuck in this mess altogether? Organically raise your PageRank. This
means blogging; social engagement; and overall being a lot more engaged to try
to get your website visitors active. Articles posted regularly on your website,
social engagement every time you blog—that sort of thing is what Google is
looking for in ranking factors.
Here’s 7 MORE IMPORTANT updates to the algorithm, both the good and the
bad:
1.
Pornographic
links won’t give you much juice. Google doesn’t want to get in too
much detail, but they will certainly be knocking down on anything spammy,
including pornographic links. If you have any adult related content backlinks,
they could push you down after Google Penguin 2.0 combs your links.
2.
Hackers
get revealed. “Hack” sites will
be detected with a “next-generation” hack site update (this will roll out in
June). Webmaster tools from Google will report the hacker more extensively to
help with cleanup.
3.
Niche
authorities get better ranking. If you’re a site
with authority in your niche, you’ll rank in that niche, according to Google.
4.
No more
cliffhanging. Sites in the border
of being good or bad will be clearly defined in the update. No more
hanging on the shelf for you. Doing quality content? No worries.
Blackhat? You might want to worry.
5.
No more
clustering and getting multiple pages from your domain on one page of results. A bunch of content
from one domain will be spread out over more pages instead of all on the first
page. Once you’ve seen a cluster of results from one site, Google will bar the
site from reappearing and cluttering your search feed again.
6.
The
algorithm will affect multiple languages. According to multiple sources, the updated Google Penguin 2.0 will
affect websites in multiple languages.
7.
Guest
blogging will not be as effective as it used to be. Why? Well, Google found out that it’s super-easy for lazy webmasters to
find a bunch of free guest blogging websites where you can stick your URL in an
author profile, and then blast out a ton of content just to get that backlink.
When you blog, don’t duplicate bios; try to create an original bio for each
blog. Focus less on your keywords, and more on your anchor text. Authentic
guest blogs are identified by these measures now.
Who Lost Out?
So, who lost in the algorithm changes? Dish.com and Educational Testing Service were some of the
big names actually using bad SEO for their websites who got penalized. The
biggest industry to get affected were Retailers and Real Estate, with a 33%
affected rate, according to SEOMoz. Other than that, big websites with untrusted links and small business
who hadn’t taken SEO seriously were at the ends of the spectrum, both getting
the most affected by Penguin 2.0. SearchMetrics analyzed a whole slew, the list
can be found here. Interestingly, it ranges from the Salvation Army to over five different
porn websites.
Contrast of Gains & Losses Across Websites
Also from SEOMoz, here’s a
brief contrast to see what went backwards and what gained traction and went
forwards from the Google updates:
§ Amazon lost out
from the rankings; Wikipedia gained.
§ Pinterest gained
from the rankings; AllRecipies.com lost.
§ Indeed.com lost out
from the rankings; Ebay gained.
Yelp was the
biggest loser, at over -8%: Twitter gained the largest growth, at 4%.
What’s the Biggest Things Website Owners Can Take Away from the Penguin
Update?
1. Don’t panic. Google Zebra might be tomorrow. Since Google updates all the time, putting a big name on it and labeling
the changes is just identifying the changes. It’s not going to stop your world
by any means, and for most of the world, it won’t affect in a major way. In
short, don’t be terror-stricken.
2. Realize you can’t maintain excellent SEO presence without original,
excellent content. Google SERP rankings are now heavily dependent
on the amount of content you publish, the value of that content and the
originality of that content. Big players like SearchEngineJournal are saying
that the quality of your content is the SINGLE, most important factor in
maintaining a successful website.
3.
Get social. This means Google +,
folks. Google likes their own, and adding
people in your circles and posting your blogs on their social network is only
going to get you favor. Use tools like Hootsuite to sign up on one
account and schedule a bunch of posts to go out at optimal times across all
your networks.
4. Gain reputable inbound links. Even if it costs money, invest the
money necessary to get only the highest quality backlinks for your website.
Some are saying content marketing is the new link building. Publishing a blog
on a network with your website backlink on it is probably the best backlink you
can build (whether that network is your blog domain or a guest blog domain).
5. Consider investing in press releases. This is also linked
to the hard-hitting by Google on link spam. An SEO Press Release is one of the
best ways to get a backlink, besides blogging and organic article writing and
posting on your website. A PR can offer more link juice than a regular blog
because one Press Release can hit thousands of locations. And since it’s
“news,” it’s not considered duplicate—while you get all those links out of it!
Things to consider in creating an effective PR: it must be written well, and it
must be newsworthy. PRs can bring in real human eyes, and conversions, if
written well enough and attracting the audience directly.
Keywords
Google Penguin 2.0
is going to be picking up keywords that include these variations:
§ Primary
§ Derivatives
§ Synonyms
So, instead of one
keyword stuck throughout your content, think of as many phrases as you can (up
to 5-10 per 500 words).
There’s lots more
we could say, but that’s about the gist of what you need to know for your
website content–in a nicely 1,500+ condensed words. Did you lose from Google Penguin 2.0? We’d love to hear in
the comments!
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