What exactly is the Google Penguin Update?
The Google Penguin is another change Google made to their algorithm Announced on April 2012. The purpose was to decrease the search engine ranking of sites that violate Google’s webmaster Guidelines by using black-hat SEO techniques related to keyword stuffing, low quality backlinks, link schemes, and others.
Spammy link signals, paid links using exact match anchor text, comment spam, guest posts on low quality sites, article marketing sites and links from dangerous sites were among the issues for some sites affected by the algorithmic change.
When you think on the Google Penguin just think on “None Keyword Density” and “High Quality Link Building.” That’s all you need to think about it so you don’t get overwhelmed about all of the content about the topic. Just give a look at what Google thinks of SEO:
“Google has said before that search engine optimization, or SEO, can be positive and constructive… Effective search engine optimization can make a site more crawlable and make individual pages more accessible and easier to find…”
“White hat” search engine optimizers often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines. Good search engine optimization can also mean good marketing: thinking about creative ways to make a site more compelling, which can help with search engines as well as social media. The net result of making a great site is often greater awareness of that site on the web, which can translate into more people linking to or visiting a site…”
What Google doesn’t like is what is called “back hat SEO.” What a black-hat SEO webmaster is looking for is to rank their webpages no matter what by not caring about quality and just for marketing or spam purposes. The 2 black hat SEO activities Google is against the most are “Keyword Stuffing” and “Link Schemes."
Keyword stuffing consists of loading the content of a webpage with a lot of keywords out of context with the intention of ranking a site in the top of the results pages.
Links Schemes consists of any link intended to manipulate ranking in the Google search results. This includes links to your site or outgoing links from your site. This one is something Google really is after. Google does not like paid links, too many “follow links” (links from other pages that passes ranking power a specific page of your site), links exchanges, automatic link building, too many keyword-rich anchor text links, etc.
Here you see an example of Keyword Stuffing provided by Google itself:
These are the two most important things about the Google Penguin update and below you will see a really great list which will help you avoid the slap.
How in the world do you avoid a Penguin Slap?
The best links are those that people built for you naturally. But if you want to speed up the process you can still do it by yourself, but YOU HAVE TO BE NATURAL. That’s the great part of link building nowadays, you don’t have to leave your life in the computer to build them, because Google wants to see they grow naturally. In orderto avoid the Penguin slap you MUST AVOID:
Lists of keywords without substantial added value
Blocks of text listing cities and states a webpage is trying to rank for
Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural.
Buying or selling links that pass PageRank (do-follow links). This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link
Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links
Using automated programs or services to create links to your site
Text advertisements that pass PageRank
Advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass PageRank
Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites. For example: There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.
Low-quality directory or bookmark site links
Links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites, for example: Visitors to this page: 1,472 car insurance
Widely distributed links in the footers of various sites
Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:
Thanks, that’s great info! – Paul Paul’s pizza san Diego pizza best pizza san Diego
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising links that pass PageRank to the buyer of the ad. (Taken from Google)
If you participate in any of these linking activities, let me tell you that Google is actively looking for these types of sites and is even asking for people to let Google know which sites they are.
In a resume what you really have to do is “Hugging the Penguin.” Give to Google what they want: Creating useful, unique, relevant and information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.
The best way to get other sites to create high-quality, relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet community. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.
My last golden advice to you is BE NATURAL. Spy on the backlinks of every one of those pages already ranked in the top of Google. If they are in the top that easily can mean Google loves their backlinks. This is the only way to see what’s working right now for building links.
An amazing tool you can check out is called Open Site Explorer provided by Moz.com
There you will have the great chance to spy on all the types of backlinks every single one of those top pages has built on it. There is not greater way to know what’s working and what isn’t.
