Last Updated on Aug 26, 2013 by Jenna Scaglione
If you are a regular reader of the Numinix blog, you will know that we have been talking about SEO and the Google updates that have affected Ecommerce websites.
Last week, in Part 1, we talked about the Google Panda update, what it is and how to stay complaint to avoid negative consequences. If you didn’t read Part 1, you can access it here.
In today’s post, we will discuss one of the most important updates to hit the internet—Google Penguin.
Google launched Penguin 1.0 in April of 2012 and Penguin 2.0 in May of 2013. The update was the major news of the internet for weeks and months after the launch. It was one of the biggest events to hit the internet in a long time. As a result of the update, disgruntled webmasters flocked to the Google forums chanting Google’s takedown and hoping for its demise.
It’s important to note that Google did not launch Penguin to take down websites. Its main purpose was to eliminate webspam from its index so its searchers would have a better experience. Unfortunately, whenever Google launches an update, there is always some collateral damage.
Many webmasters would argue that their sites aren’t “spammy,” but to Google, any actions taken to manipulate rankings is against its Webmaster guidelines.
Did you ever do any of the following?
– Add keywords to your content excessively to increase rankings
– Add excessive keywords to your metadata to increase rankings
– Perform manual backlinking
– Perform manual backlinking with exact match keywords
– Pay for links
If you were ever involved in any of these practices, your site may have been hit by Google Penguin. And, if you have been safe so far, it doesn’t mean you are out of the woods. The search engine continues to update its algorithm and gets smarter by the day.
Google Penguin dealt with over-optimization or websites that were using strategies to manipulate the rankings.
How do you prevent getting downgraded by another Google Penguin update (Hint: some of these help prevent a hit by Google Panda as well)?
– Create unique, valuable content that is focused on the needs of the customer.
– Use Google Authorship to claim ownership of this content
– Examine your backlinks for excessive exact match keyword anchor text. Your anchor text should look natural, not forced.
– Prune “spammy” backlinks (i.e. from blog networks, link farms, low-quality sites) and contact the website owners to have the link removed.
– Disavow spammy backlinks (make sure you exhaust other options first and know exactly what a spammy link looks like. If not, you could be disavowing good links)
– Watch for over-optimization
– Link out to other sites if they are good resources
– Make your content in-depth. Google just launched a new feature that highlights in-depth articles in the search results. Google LOVES content, especially when it goes into detail on a topic. Spammy sites do not care about in-depth content.
– Build a community around your site (social media, blogging, etc.)
If you are at all confused, you are not alone. There is a lot to remember as far as Google’s Webmaster Guidelines are concerned. If you need help, Numinix offer several SEO services that will help you feel more at ease with your SEO campaign. Contact [email protected] for more information.