Let us face the facts. Google updates are a lot like roller coasters. There is lot of excitement, ear piercing screams, some amount of vomiting, tears and definitely a lot of thrill and fun as well. So how has the latest Google penguin update been treating your blog or site?
Google Penguin Update Has Affected All Bloggers!
Many of us bloggers have developed a defensive approach when it comes to evaluating the after math of Google updates. Majority of us are declaring that none of our blogs have been affected and we are quite happy to support Google in its web cleaning services. Oh, really?
Well, I have a very good reason for saying that almost all of us bloggers have been affected in some way or the other, because the last two updates (Panda and Penguin) have struck at some of the conventional blogging techniques that we all have been using since day one. What are these four blogging conventions that got struck by the Google Penguin update?
Blogging Convention # 1- Using Anchor Text
Remember how diligently we used to select our anchor texts and try to get them linked to vital pages on our blog? Well all that diligence has back fired now. Penguins probably like a roundabout way of using anchor texts for back links.
Using the exact words that match the focus keywords is something that the crazy Penguin hates. I am sure all of us have painstakingly done this while we were busy submitting our posts or comments to various other directories / sites.
Blogging Convention # 2- SEO
As beginner bloggers, we invested so much of time, effort and in some cases money as well to learn the tips, tricks and techniques of search engine optimization. We first learnt all about keywords, then we learnt how to find valuable / profitable keywords and finally learnt about the best way to use them to the right density and place them strategically within our blog content.
Now Google Penguin update wants us to unlearn everything that we meticulously learnt about SEO. Using keyword tools to shortlist the valuable keywords and optimizing posts based on them is a strict no-no for the weird Penguin. We bloggers now need to focus on creating valuable content that is related to the keywords but may not contain lot of mentions / repetitions of the same.
Blogging Convention # 3- Guest Blogging
Guest blogging was and still is one of the few techniques remaining in the list of legitimate and Google approved back linking. We have been conventionally targeting sites and blogs with high PR and better rankings than our own sites and blogs for guest posting. But if your list of potential blogs to guest post is filled entirely with high PR blogs then you might have to re-consider the list now.
While Penguin does not devalue the links from guest posts on high PR blogs, it definitely looks with suspicion on blogs that are receiving ONLY high PR back links. Penguin loves fish and it sure can smell something fishy faster than the Panda who loves the greens.
So the latest guest blogging strategy to be adopted is to mix both high and low PR back links, but make sure that they come in only from relevant sources. You really do not want to be at the receiving end of Panda / Penguin’s ire by getting back links from blogs that are in a totally unrelated niche.
Blogging Convention # 4- Comments
How desperate we were to see comments trickling in on our new blogs? Moreover, we were being advised and taught to encourage comments and respond to them in a very cordial and timely manner. Very few of us actually bothered to check the quality and reputation of these sites that were leaving links in our comment section.
Google Penguin update has penalized sites with spammy back links in comment section. This means you have to be vigilant about your visitors who come in via the comment door. No more hugging and giving a warm welcome to everyone who knocks.
Synopsis of Google Penguin Update
First the Panda, then the Penguin, now what will the next Google update animal be? Whatever the features of the upcoming Google update and no matter how harsh and stinging the after math left behind, there is one thing I am pretty sure about. All the Google updates will force us to revamp many conventions in the blogging, marketing and networking arenas. We bloggers, internet marketers and online entrepreneurs better gear up to the challenges.
Dr. Kavita,
I think that there is a veritable frenzy in the web, since the arrival of Panda, but especially with the Penguin.
Many reputable sites and without any apparent reason, however, have been penalized.
I read around in some sites, that Google wants to force small and medium business using Adwords.
But however it must always remain a place for 10 URL on the first page of SERPs, right?
Now the questions is : How do We get there!?
Hi Kavita, nice post on the penguin and panda updates. I guess we can’t worry about every little detail and should try to focus on making our blogs better and more user worthy.
Otherwise you could go crazy trying to adjust for every little detail.
The comment above talks about google attempting to force everyone on Adwords. I can tell you that two of my sites have been hit that both use adwords and the second site is nowhere near the top ten or top 60 anymore for a keyword that spend adwords money on. So, I think that isn’t what google is trying to do.
Also, most sites won’t be accepted for adwords anyway. That is another reason I think this has nothing to do with ‘forcing’ people into adwords.
Erik, thanks for your visit and comment. Yeah even I highly doubt that all this supposed ” cleaning the web of spam” is actually a disguised agenda by Google to force webmasters to pay for traffic.
Hey David, thanks for the visit and comment. Yeah I agree with your point in focusing on optimizing our blogs and sites for users. Google updates are gonna come in every 3/ 4 months and focusing ONLY on them would lead to utter mayhem.
Hi Dr. Kavita,
Excellent pointers! I feel sticking with the basics: add value, make strong connections..makes you immune to google’s changes. As your network grows substantially your friends in high places help you generate a ton of traffic.
That being said, it’s important to connect with people from your niche. Comment only on relevant blogs. Mix up the PR. As we see some of Penguin’s updates seem to fly in the face of convention. Oh well, if we are annoyed by it, we simply need to find the next massive, overpowering search engine. If these guys did it, so can anybody 😉 In all seriousness, no use complaining. Simply work with what you have, and I think you did an awesome job of overcoming any resistance with GP’s changes.
My cash gifting blog dropped off a bit but I believe it will make a strong return. I am following google’s rules for each post, so I intend to rank well again in the near future. Makes sense to follow their rules, right? No matter how silly they seem at any given moment.
Thanks for sharing your insight Dr. Kavita!
Ryan
Hey Ryan, thanks so much for taking time to leave your wonderful comment. Yeah, I am guessing there already are some serious attempts at creating a Google alternative (albeit behind the curtains as of now)
What’s the next animal? I think it’s color would be black and white also. My routine in SEO suddenly dropped because of the Penguin and now I’m carefully thinking of what techniques to pursue and continue. Google will start to de-indexed directory sites, so I think… what should I do now? Find it really hard to come up with a solution better than good content.
If we agree with your opinion about the next animal color then I think Google is going to introduce Zebra. 😉
Instead focusing on new animal we should concentrate on providing quality to users and should be using ethical ways for SEO, that’s what Google is expecting after all these updates.
Good one Aasma, you and Sheena really rock! I am now sure that Google is definitely thinking of Zebra for the next one 🙂 We need to focus on quality for sure, but I cannot say for certain about Google’s expectations. If quality was the sincere and ONLY intention behind these updates, why would the search results (fresh after Penguin updates) show miserably poor results for some of the popular keywords like make money and so on. Most of us read about the Google gaffe where the top search engine results were credited to sites on blogspot that had 0, yeah literally zero content.
Can’t argue with Google on that though, NO content means no over stuffing and no over-SEO and no spam or link exchanges, right?
Agreed Dr. Kavita, Google Penguin is to look out for over stuffing of keywords, over-optimization and spam ways of getting links.
Google is only introducing new algorithm in the hope of reducing the rank of spam and low quality sites so that best sites rank higher. Though it’s only algorithm change and can’t be 100% correct every time and that’s the reason why many good sites are seeing drop in their ranking and traffic, and few bad sites are ranking higher.
Google has said many times that its intention is to provide best user experience and that’s only possible by ranking quality sites higher. And I’m 100% sure that Google Zebra is coming very soon. 😉 Be prepared for it.
I really hope Google takes note of your wonderful suggestion Aasma and really does name it as Zebra update. 🙂
Haha, Zebra? What about the stinky skunk before the swift zebra? 🙂
Oh yeah!! That too could be the possibility, It means there are at least few more updates left… I was thinking only Zebra is remaining. 😉
Yeah Sheena, I actually did not notice the similarity in color combination between the 2 animals before. Thanks for pointing out. Yeah, first went the directories now goes optimized content down the drain too.
Nice Post Dr. Kavita! Nice details you have provided for panda and penguin updation by google and I want to ask one thing from you is that how can I check that my blog is get infected by the penguin? I am asking this question because I didn’t get use this before.
Thanks again for sharing a very infomatic post!
Hi Ayaz, thanks for your comment and question. The best way to know is by checking your Google analytics report between April 1st to May 18 (today’s date)
There were two Panda updates in April, one on 19th and the latest Panda update (3.6) was dated April 27. Meanwhile Penguin was updated o Apr 24.
There was another Penguin update? (not many are sure if it was Penguin / something else) on May 4th as well.
If you see a sudden traffic dip on or around the above dates, you can be sure that the animals attacked you. Hope this helps.
Hi Dr. Kavita.
We have to ignore this all and keep working on our blog and make it better because like David said we can’t worry for every little details about these updates.
Anyway Kevita, Can you tell me how to write guest post for BasicBlogTips? Have miss Ileane any guidelines for guest posting at her blog?
Actually we have to make our blogs better not for matching up to the updates but for our readers. But somehow both the activities overlap at some point and that is where we bloggers and webmasters get affected. Ileane has a podcast for guest post guide lines, please find it here: https://basicblogtips.com/contact
I have read the guidelines Kevita, Now how and where to send my guest post for review?, How to sign up on BasicBlogTips?
Just use the contact form to contact her
Very nice post Dr. Kavita.
It is very much true that all the conventional techniques used by bloggers has been axed by the Penguin but do you really think that Guest Posting has also been taken into consideration by the update. That is the biggest way to get some exposure for ourselves and our blog. If that point is true, we surely have to rethink the whole marketing strategy.
No Arbaz, there is nothing to worry because guest posting is still one of the legitimate ways to back link, but you need to tweak this strategy more finely to suit the penguin updates.
Google has to be very careful with the updates. Too many of these could possible send away the users to another browser.
I understand they want to hit the bad guys, but they are hitting the good guys too!
I totally agree with you Samuel. That is what I am worried about. As it is the good ones are far fewer than the spammy ones and such updates cannot risk reducing the numbers even further.
I’ve heard quite a few people say they’re doing well by diversifying their anchor texts and ramping up the guest posts, so I think this is some of the best advice around in the aftermath of Penguin.
#4 I’m still conflicted about. I implemented a very harsh comment policy to scare off the low quality noise, and it might have been a little bit too effective because there’s no more comments coming in!
Oh say it again John. Bloggers have always been unsure of selecting between ‘allow comments’ and ‘no comments’ policy. These updates have only added to the paranoia. But I guess the best way to work around is to filter the spams using some great plugins like GASP, Akismet and Trackback validator.
Am I the only one who likes the new updates? This will allow the people who can provide good content yet don’t know exactly what SEO is to get noticed in the search engines.
Can’t say I’m a fan… Even though my total traffic across all domains is up a little bit, it seems like bounce rates are also up and conversions are down: in other words, visitors just aren’t finding what they came looking for! Besides, in some of the keywords I’m watching (and suffering in) I’ve seen EXTREMELY spammy techniques going to the front page (especially one-page website with exact-match keywords in the domains)
I like the concept behind it, but I think Penguin needs some more tweaking before it actually manages to improve search results!
Yes you said it! Penguin started of with great concepts, but needs a lot of tweaking to get it right. But isn’t it worrisome for those great sites that got on the wrong side of the penguin? It will take time to recover and everyone knows how time is money, especially in an online business. Imagine the lost traffic and amount of revenue that these wrongly affected sites will have to face before the errors get corrected.
No Josh, there are many of us who love the updates. We all love roller coasters, despite the nasty shocks and scares they give us right? Yeah, I wish that was true and bloggers who focused on good content would eventually start reaping the benefits. But that is sadly not what is being seen post Penguin. Heard of the black hats around who got many good sites with great content axed by Google with negative SEO?
Whatever updates are made by Google, we have to stick to some basic points like:
1. Approving Comments (without spam links)
2. Timely Guest Posts on High PR blogs
3. Keyword Stuffing (dont do this, search engines never like it) etc
Great article kavitha, like it…
Yeah Bharat, thankfully some of the basic stuffs do count even in the post-Panda and penguin age.
Now this is scary.. Well by reading your article, one thing is for sure, high quality content is the key to all success now until another new ‘animal’ update comes up !
Enough of keyword research and all, its time to write ‘unique’ and an interesting content ! Google would automatically put the article in the top position but once again they are unpredictable.
Thanks for re-assuring about google penalizing spammy links in the comments, this is one sector I am always cautious about !
Let us think of it this way. Would you be prepared to post keyword stuffed and low quality stuff on your blog if by chance the next google update would start promoting them? I would not! Let us focus on our blog content not because Google says so, but because it is our business that we conduct via our blogs and we do not want to mess our businesses up, do we?
Totally agree with you, Dr. Kavita ! 🙂 Thanks for giving me the confidence to continue writing and not concentrate high on keywords.
Shortly after the Penguin update rolled out, Google’s Matt Cutts revealed that Google had implemented a data refresh for the Panda update several days earlier. This threw off early analysis of the Penguin update’s effects on sites, as the Panda update was not initially accounted for. Searchmetrics put out a list of the top losers from the Penguin update, which was later revised to reflect the Panda refresh.
“simply avoid breaking these rules, and you should be fine with Penguin.”
That’s pretty much the rule of thumb for any Google update. If you’ve been adhering to the guidelines all along than these updates should (in theory) help your site.
Shamelle, the Panda update was all about keyword stuffing and over-SEO while the penguin was all about back links and link exchanges. The updates sure are meant to benefit the good, but it is far from the reality. Many of the unethical people out there have targeted good sites and purposefully got them de-indexed and out of the competition with negative SEO. That is what is scary about such penalty updates from Google.
It is one of the comprehensive post on Google Penguin. Google Penguin has diverted our attention towards the quality of work. No doubt Penguin likes fish and Panda likes Green Fodder.
Yeah I do agree that these updates have helped us re-focus on what’s actually important- quality.
Great post 🙂
But if you are targeting a different keyword with each blog post(like you should be) anchor text won’t be a problem. Use anchor text to deep link to each post, not to your home page.
Getting backlinks for high PR blogs isn’t a problem, unless they are from outside your niche. Penguin doesn’t care about PR as long as your links are relevant.
Honestly if you are doing thing the right way, not much has changed. If you are a blogger that is. It’s a whole other story for affiliate marketers and their niche sites 😉
Thanks for the comment Micah. Yeah I agree with you on deep linking. You are perfectly right about the Panda and Penguin aftermath being more bloody for the internet marketing and affiliate marketing niche. But sadly many of us bloggers are connected to these niches as well because not everyone blogs exclusively about blogging
After the recent update you have to be very careful with backlink campaigns, get to agressive and you will be sitting in the sandbox for awhile
Yeah, back link campaigns were never a good thing to do, even before Panda and penguin, especially the link farm deals!
Yes, these are some really great tips and it’s always nice to see somebody write about what to do to beat the Google Penguin update. Fortunately, not all of my blogs were affected by the Penguin and indeed those that were allowed to grow naturally were the ones not affected (one was actually positively affected and traffic increased by 12%).
Yeah Calin, not many were affected by penguin when compared to the Panda 2011. Google says that less than 13 % of the sites were affected.
With all of these algorithm updates, it is so hard to predict what will happen with our blogs in a few months. Therefore, I consider we should stick to the basic SEO techniques and stay away from black hat methods. I we provide quality content and use common techniques, we will see the results on the long run.
Sticking to basic stuff is fine and focusing on quality should be great. But everything about the updates is not so black and white and simple as this. Many people were affected whose sites never indulged in link trade or stuffing or any of the bad stuff that these updates crusade against. That is where the picture becomes quite dark and scary.
I’ve also have a couple of friend affected by these updates, having legit websites. Nevertheless, I try to be optimistic and focus on content
That’s really great Jack. Keep up the positive spirit!
Yes – I do agree with you, after the recent Penguin update it has changed a lot of Peoples strategies to Building links for their websites. And true – A lot of the websites has been penalized for letting a spammy or low rated website comment on their content. One needs to go about building links in a more natural way. The other negative effect penguin update has brought is in the form of negative SEO – Where your competitors can negatively influence your website by posting spammy links and having Google push your site down in rankings.
Exactly Anton, negative SEO is what I am crying foul about and I believe all bloggers and webmaster need to be aware of. Just being a good guy / gal is NOT enough, you could still be penalized if your competitor launched a negative SEO tirade against you.
I have to say that Penguin has had a very positive effect on my blog.
I did notice that you mentioned what you had learned about SEO and keywords.
I’m not a great one for going in and saying that you are wrong but keyword stuffing has always been bad and related or LSI keywords have always played an important role in SEO.
I think that one big problem is that many bloggers learn about SEO through reading bits and pieces of information from all over the place and build a false picture.
Yeah I do agree that the majority of the knowledge floating around about SEO is gained via half baked methods. I have not said that keyword stuffing was what I learnt about SEO.
Please read the point about SEO again, where I mention that using keyword tool (which all SEO experts also do) is also being frowned upon. Instead of going for the exact match choice in keywords (which many bloggers used to focus pre-panda), we now need to select the broad match and focus on long tails as well.
Sorry. I could have chosen my words better. I really didn’t mean to imply that you were previously keyword stuffing. I meant that a lot of people think that this is the right thing to do.
I still use exact match in the title but I have always found it better to embed it into a meaningful title. Better for the reader too this way.
I still target a specific keyword/phrase but I have always found that using plenty of LSI keywords helps to reinforce the main keyword. Of course the other big benefit is that you will likely score on some of those keywords too.
Hope that’s a bit clearer and really sorry if I offended you. That was never my intention. You are giving some really good advice here.
No Steve, you have NOT offended me in any way and I do AGREE with your point about LSI . That is what I am also trying to say that many bloggers were previously unaware of importance of long tails and using alternate keywords to complement the target keyword, and this ignorance it did not matter that much pre-panda.
Now Panda update has forced bloggers to learn about using alternative keywords and that is a good thing but penalizing sites simply because they used only target keywords is something a bit Hitler-like according to me.
I am NOT against Google updates. Previously all the google updates were focused on improvement, but since panda google seems to be focusing on punishing sites. They are undoubtedly good, but we aren’t in school anymore are we Steve? We all are grown ups doing our businesses online, aren’t we? Just my two cents!
So glad to hear you was not offended. I know what it feels like when you work hard to give value and someone comes along a kicks you for it.
I must admit that Panda has been good for me. I have heard a few horror stories though. I published a post recently about a couple who’s business website had been hit by a negative SEO attack.
Anyway, I’m taking up all of the comment space but really glad we are still friends :).
We sure are friends Steve, you can take my word on that 🙂
It sure feels bad when someone tries to use unfair tactics like negative SEO to bring competitors down. Whatever happened to ethics and fair business practices?
Or is “All’s fair in love, war and SEO” the latest trend in business motto?
BTW don’t bother about the comment space, Ileane sure has loads of space. 🙂
I am the one who likes the new updates? This will allow the people who can provide good content yet don’t know exactly what SEO is to get noticed in the search engines.
Don’t be so sure Christa. You never know when a good site that uses only white hat SEO gets penalized by penguin because of some underhand negative SEO techniques used against you by your nearest competitor.
If it was ONLY about focusing on good seo, good content and being a good guy / gal, it wouldn’t matter at all. Everyone would be happy, we all would benefit. But there are many hidden things behind the penguin update, that are not obvious but are very dangerous and can even end the online business opportunities for many GOOD sites
Thanks for this post! I’ve been out of blogging for a long time, and this post helped me remember the good (and not so good) things about Google updates! I think Google’s overall aim is that if you have good content, they will reward you for it with good rankings. It’s just a shame that they don’t realise you often have to promote this content hard to get people to realise the content IS good.
Right! The question boils down to whether, it is really worth all that trouble? Will businesses be willing to walk the extra mile?
Google’s Penguin update mostly targeted those sites that have the money-keyword more than 60% in all of their inbound links. Post-Penguin, it’s become entirely clear that you can no more loophole your way to the top of search results on Google by repeating the same keywords in your anchor text (i.e. exact match anchor text) hundreds or thousands of times.
It’s, therefore, important to add as much variety to your anchor text linking as possible so that you don’t make search engines suspicious.
Thanks.
Yeah, variety in anchor text and keyword selection is helpful.
Yeah I agree with your point in focusing on optimizing our blogs and sites for users
Yeah that’s the way to go!
I like the fact that they punish blogs that have bad backlinks in their comments. This pushes bloggers to be more careful about their approved comments, thus increasing the quality of most blogs out there.
Rashmi, bloggers have become something more than careful, they are now paranoid about getting spammed via comments.
Dr. S, Since keyword laden anchor text now appears to be frowned upon by Penguin, what do you suggest is the best keyword strategy when including links in guest posts?
Do you think it’s better to simply mention your website by domain in the anchor and let google figure out the nature of the link from surrounding content? Or do you think keywords in the anchor text are ok as long as they differ from link to link?
Thanks!
Yeah Geoff, both the ways will work fine. You should not use the same anchor text to link back to your websites from many sites.
Hi Dr. Shaikh — Wondering if your comment also applies to links back to your site via things like Author Resource Boxes and social media profiles?
Yeah Vernessa, no matter where you link back to your site from, it is better to use a variety of alternative keywords related to your keyword as anchor text
So now we can’t rely on keyword tools anymore? What’s a good density for a keyword in a post? is around 5% ok? or too little/much?
Google made made me hate Pandas and Penguins…it’s not fair.
Thanks.
No Sayed, we should use keyword tool but not in the way that we did previously. Do not focus much on exact match keywords, try going for broad search so that the related keywords also come up and you can use at least 3-5 of them together, so that none of the keywords are repeated much
5 % was too much even before panda, Instead of repeating a single keyword many times, use related keywords and anything under 3 % would be a good idea
I know penguin update has effected a lot of people and I am also one of them. I wrote some guest posts, made comments on high PR blogs and ranked well for 5 or 6 months before update. But now after the penguin update I am totally down on various keywords. Google is really improving and legitimate sites does not need to pay cost. Now I have planned to stop all my previous black hats and start legit one from the beginning. I hope this will help o a long run.
I don’t think Google Penguin penalize sites for approving comments as long as the comments are related to the topic. Just don’t link to porn sites and gambling sites etc. IF he did then he would have penalize all the sites that has Commentluv.
Nikki Hill
Nikki, Penguin is more bothered about the nature of the site that you are linking to via comments. even if the comments are relevant, linking to sites that are spammy or indulge in link trade can boomerang on your credibility as well.
Has penguin updates affected those sites which has just2 or 3 pages or articles and trying to promote the targeted product on his site?
Can’t say about that. But after the update many low quality sites that are new, have zero content and do absolutely nothing to improve reader value have been promoted to the 1st page for many top level search terms.
I do not think Google has penalized any website with spam comments. Any blogger will not approve spam comments.
Hi Kavita, nice post on the penguin and panda updates. I guess we can’t worry about every little detail and should try to focus on making our blogs better and more user worthy.
Otherwise you could go crazy trying to adjust for every little detail.
The comment above talks about google attempting to force everyone on Adwords. I can tell you that two of my sites have been hit that both use adwords and the second site is nowhere near the top ten or top 60 anymore for a keyword that spend adwords money on. So, I think that isn’t what google is trying to do.
I think it will be Google Elephant as the next update 🙂 Anyway, good points Kavita. the recent penguin update really made a big impact on seo campaigns
Ha ha Herbert! Well, we don’t call Google the Big G, everything it does sure leaves a great impact.
I am lucky that Google’s zoo animal have never attacked on my site.
Because i always love to write for Reader not for SEO. As we know if your page views will increase then damn sure that article will get a good rank on SERP.
BTW Thanks Dr. Kavita for sharing this tips with us.
Keep up the good work Amit and I genuinely wish that no other google animal attacks your site in future. Good luck!
Google is really forcing us, though I am not saying that we shouldn’t, to create very valuable content. I noticed the change of authority from SEO, to effective use of keyword density on every post. If we do want to succeed it making our blogs and websites reach the first page, we should be more diligent in content creation and blog management, which is where comment moderation comes in.
You are right John, we have to be proactive in managing our blogs because ultimately it is our business and we are responsible for its success.
Nice information about the dreaded update. There is so much things going on. It has hit one of blog pretty hard. It went from number one to nowhere. I am beginning to get some of my rankings back for other sites. Lets face it, its not going to be the same any more. Lets brace ourselves.
You are right Shalu. Nothing’s gonna be same anymore. We need to adapt ourselves to the new trends.
The updates have certainly affected my blog, I have seen my traffic cut in half over the past month or so and it is getting worse, I’m going to have to spare up a day or two and try and set some plan into motion before the only person who visits my blog is my mum and my best friend! 😛
Thanks for taking time to visit and comment Dean. I am sure that a blog as popular as yours will not come to the scary situation that you mentioned here. Though Big G is definitely the search engine GOD, it need not be the ONLY source of traffic.
Many bloggers have commented here and elsewhere that Google was never their priority because their traffic came in from social media sites and referrals. But now post penguin, their traffic from Google has shot up! So let us focus on Google alternatives instead of placing all our traffic eggs in the Google basket 🙂
Well thanks for clearly breaking down the after math of Google panda and penguin update.
I have one doubt in this respect.Do comment luv enabled blogs get penalized by the update?
Not exactly Pradeep. The reason is that comment luv has an option to detract spammers who use software to place spam comment. Secondly it has a ‘no follow’ option that you can activate if you are worried about passing out link juice to other sites (whether they are spammy / good ones)
Why Google has introduced Google Panda and Penguin update, answer is only to give award to quality work and introduce real juice work in organic searches.
Quality has to come first- with / without Google updates
I do see what google is trying to do with the new updates. Everything except penalising relevant anchor text. Thats more effective to everyone and really not very exclusive to spammers or in any way getting better content for the search results.
Using the same anchor text over and over again is what Penguin is discouraging people from doing and not penalizing relevant anchor text. Penguin says ‘use variety of anchor texts relevant to your keyword’
Thanks Dr. Kavita for writing 4 blogging resolutions after Penguin updates, in a very lucid manner for both SEO savvy and non-savvy bloggers.
However the following statement you made is not true –
In fact, my Organic Traffic bumped up more than 100% after Penguin Updates ! You must always remember – Somebody’s loss is Someone else’s gain.
Thanks 🙂
Nandita B
Thanks for your comment Nandita. I am really glad that your organic traffic got a 100 % boost.
When I mention that “almost all of us bloggers have been affected one way or other” I have clearly stated the reason. My statement does not imply that almost all of us bloggers have been struck down by the penguin update (that simply is NOT possible because Matt Cutts publicly declared that penguin has affected ONLY 13 % of all sites on the internet.
What I mean is that we have been affected in some way / other because we have been forced to revamp our old conventional blogging methods. Hope I made myself more clear this time.
Hi Kavita, Again you got your figure WRONG !
According to Matt Cutts, Penguin Update has affected 3.1% of queries in English. Which was declared by Matt Cutts on his Official blog, dated Apr 24, 2012 (Penguin Update).
May be 3.1% is very little for WWW, but those who were affected lost $1000s/week.
Never mind. Sharing is always caring.
Thanks 🙂
Nandita B
Thanks for the correction Nandita. Yep 12 % was the Panda fallout, 3.1 % is the right number with 5 % of Polish sites being affected.
Yeah that is the whole point of this discussion, even if it just 0.3 % of the web, the sites who were affected have lost considerable amounts of traffic and business, which is very sad.
It is not about whether the update affected us personally / not, it is about the way we need to adapt and change to catch up with the latest changes in search engine algorithms.
Only White-Hate SEO guarantees long-term Google traffic, because Google keep changing.
Yep only white no black / grey hat SEO
Need to work on anchor texts. As I’ve been hit by panda very badly and still unable to recover from it. But after reading your post, git another step. No will remove all the anchored text and try my luck !
Hey Gaurang, it’s really sad to know that you got hit by Panda. I visited your site, looks like you have worked quite hard at it. BTW Panda and Penguin have different guidelines for recovering from the hits.
Please confirm via your Google analytics report if it was Panda or Penguin that hit you and then apply the recovery tactics explained by Matt Cutts. Here is one useful link for you:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/recover-from-google-panda/20508/
http://www.webpronews.com/google-penguin-update-recovery-watch-these-2-videos-2012-05
Dear Gaurang,
I am afraid, what Anchor Text you are talking about? This is not at all internal anchor texts.
You can’t remove these kind of anchor texts, as this is not in you hand. The only thing you can do is – Request individual webmasters to remove the incoming links, if any.
Happy Blogging 🙂
Nandita B
Hmm, it´s quite scary when you take a look at how big importance Google has got on the hole business of SEO nowadays. Even more frightening is the fact that they don´t seem to be satisfied yet – it wouldn´t surprise me if we will have an all new Google update quite soon.
I think that hereafter, more than ever, the method of buying lots of crappy links from crappy sites is going to be completely ineffective. A rapid and convenient method perhaps, but still unnecessary.
Buying links was never a good idea. You are right, such time saving quick methods to get links need to be stopped. The focus needs to be on quality
Great post.
I agree that Google is looking to reward positive (read unique and engaging content) over backlinked content. However i see that the trend is different depending on what part of the globe you are from.
Our company based in NZ have dealt with several companies who were penalised in the penguin update. 3 were for keyword stuffing, the other had their links removed. Tellingly the backlink problem was from .co.uk tlds.
It seems that across Australasia the online industry it us filled with ‘keyword = good’ amateur webmasters. This has lead to poor quality sites and results, which makes justifying the good work SEO professionals do, that much harder.
I hope that this update scares the “keyword = good’ mentality out of the industry, but im fearful for all those companies who have no idea about the ongoing management of their site and the penguin effects that they havent even noticed yet.
Thanks for the post!
Thanks so much for your input Jeff. It is really sad to see some people still overusing keywords and stuffing them all over the site without any regard for readability or quality. Will have to wait and watch for the next Penguin update to see what new rules Matt Cutts comes up with.
This an very useful post and quality content, writing style is also very good. Really Google new update google panda and google penguin are very strong. I think they are also good because many user were following the bad SEO technique but now condition has been change. Google penguin is do penalize such types user.
Thank you Juan. Yeah sure, these updates are trying to get the spam removed from the web.
Conducting proper SEO and have guest bloggers have always been important but now after penguin moderating the comment on your blog is highly important and you need to ensure you are following Google’s guidelines. Thank you for sharing, very helpful.
Aww Google Penguin Really killed us,
Especially with the guest posting thing
Derek, guest posting is thankfully the only thing that has not changed much since Penguin. You can continue guest posting but just be sure that you write high quality posts and do not use exact match keywords to link back from every guest post you submit. All the best to you!
It’s just a matter of time before online marketers and SEO gurus find out a way to circumvent Penguin and unleash a whole set of new loopholes and it’ll be business as usual – until the next Google update of course. It’s an endless cat and mouse game between Google and SEO crowd. The clever marketers are those who can anticipate the coming changes and build their sites to withstand whatever Google throws at them.
Well said Alex. Shrewdness lies not in crying over spilled milk but in anticipating pitfalls before they come and get you. I like your attitude towards the updates and I concur! Let us face these updates like true entrepreneurs and resolve to come out of the after effects, shining brightly.
Hi Kavita,
First of all really nice piece of info…Out of all these am sure about Guest Blogging. Even for Google, Guest Blogging remains the best source of natural backlinks.
Thanks Vineet. Guest blogging rocks, provided that you do it the right way.
A problem I noticed it that the old, established sites that were on top of the KW’s for years have been replaced with new sites that have no back-links and very little content to speak of. This has happened in the past and reversed itself in a few weeks; but not so sure this time around…scary
Exactly Michael, the updates usually leave a trail of goof-ups for some time before they can actually boast of effective results. Yet Google has already declared that it considers the Penguin update to be a success. Let us wait and see how big G takes this success further.
97% of the income that Google generates comes from advertising and therefore it goes without saying they will want to maintain that for a long time to come. Though bloggers, I been one of them, will keep on crying foul of what Google has done with the Panda and Penguin updates, the fact still remains that Google rules and they will keep calling the shots.
My advise, if you cant beat them, join them. Therefore give google what they want and web presence will be your middle name.
Thanks for your visit and comment Stephen. It is hugely appreciated. You are absolutely right. Give the big G what it wants and you will be fine.
Thanks for sharing this post.I Think next time google will come up with an elephanta because google always increases affect on new update.Guest posting and producing high quality content are most vital
No idea Ashish, some say zebra some say elephant, let us see what Google finally comes up with
Have nice and valuable content on your blog and your never have to be afraid about pandas, penguins or whatever other animal from big G’s zoo
Greetings
Good quality is useful to some degree, but there always is a fear of negative SEO agianst your site from your competitors
How you use your anchor text since the penguin update is so important!
Use alternative keywords as anchor text instead of using exact match keyword every time.
Totally agreed!
One of your tip of guest blogging is awesome!
Since from the beginning of my career in SEO i have been a strong believer of guest blogging, and after post penguin( with the rise in its importance) i am happy that my efforts are paying off.
Yeah, guestblogging is a fine way to build legitimate back links and good luck to you in your efforts!
There are new efforts today to use naked links instead of anchor texts to create a very unique backlinks to your content. I must say that this is what Google wants, very natural blogging and SEO. About guest blogging, I think it only matters if the the blogs you are in to are not de-indexed.
Yeah many host blogs nowadays insist that guest bloggers use naked links without anchor text
Well, Many people learnt about SEO but they never learn google’s guideline. Before even 10th pass guy can do submission and can become seo expert but with Google penguin update many things have changed which lead everyone participate genuinely online. Now we have to find out how to do that and get back links. Never try to spam any where. Some lovely tips are given and for bloggers also those who publish valuable content should check twice their comments.
Thanks for commenting Vikesh. You are right about keeping oneself updated about Google guidelines.
Dr Kavita, great post. I think the term organic – natural result in Google rankings is nothing but natural! Everyone’s trying to manipulate the results and rank high with so many sneaky ways… That’s what I believe Google doesn’t want. If you care about what you’re writing, that’s helping, improving, giving knowledge and contributing, then there will be no fear about loosing rankings at all. Thanks for sharing!
John
You are absolutely right John. Really appreciate that you took time to visit and comment here.
There are many things have changed since Google Penguin updated, most of SEO techniques did work any more, even they are hated. We have to change the way to do SEO now.
Yeah change is the need of the hour, but the basic idea is to maintain high quality and reader value
yeah precisely Trung Nguyen your right with your thoughts.It’s sad but true and we should find alternative ways in attaining and increasing traffic and of course the techniques used in SEO.
Google / search engines are not the whole-n-soul of internet traffic. There are many other ways waiting to be explored, for eg: social media, direct referrals etc
After the recent update i banned the Guest blogging to my blog. Its better to have less post than flooding the blog with guest post.
Thanks for your comment Razzil’ I agree completely with you about guest posts and even I have banned them for now
After Google Penguin Update, my website lost its 80% traffic and serp. Please tell me how can I recover my site from this? Is it possible to get again the previous serp back?
So sad to hear that Ankit. You can apply the recovery tactics explained by Matt Cutts. Here are two useful links for you:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/recover-from-google-panda/20508/
http://www.webpronews.com/google-penguin-update-recovery-watch-these-2-videos-2012-05
Really nice breakdown of what blog owners should do to help avoid getting penalties from this latest update by Google.
The next Google Penguin update is going to be beneficial for genuine bloggers, who are writing good content and not involving in link farming. Penguin update is related on link farming issues prominently.