More than ever, Google is trying to fight against
spam tactics and against over-optimized sites, in favor of approaches more
'White hat' and natural. Called Penguin, this update launched on 24 April
appears to have made many more victims than expected, according to the number
of Internet users flocked to the complaint form. Only 3.1% of English queries
would be affected compared to 12% with the first version of Panda.
Is my site going to be affected?
Difficult to date precisely know and isolate the factors used in Penguin due to the almost simultaneous launch of Panda 3.5 released on April 19, and announced 52 changes in the same month appeared algorithm. Still, that Google's results were greatly changed and the penguin seems to take predominantly to sites using link building strategies-vitamin.
In summary, sites that are most likely to be
affected are those for
which one finds the following:
which one finds the following:
Links anchors Presence too often optimized for SEO without diversity
Low quality articles Posting on spam sites designed for this purpose
"Keyword
stuffing", that is to say, the use of a density of improper
keywords
keywords
Membership blogs networks for buying links. For more details on this last
point, see this article on purchasing links.
The Penguin update has created a lot of doubts in
the minds of SEOs and webmasters who are now wondering what optimization
techniques will now be penalized by Google? Remember, if your site has not been
penalized so far, do not think you're necessarily out of the woods. Updates
usually take more time to arrive on google.ca.
How to avoid getting a penalty?
First, it is important to get an idea of the kind of links that point to your site by identifying the source and distribution of anchor text. To do this, use tools such as Majestic SEO and Open Site explore.
On the other hand, think and rearrange your anchor
text strategy. If your site has too many back links for a keyword or phrase, it
is now time to vary the anchors up the next links you'll gain. For example, add
the name of your brand in addition to the keyword you want to work, think about
synonyms, use longer anchors, etc.
Open explore website anchor text
Diversify your sources of links. The idea is to have a profile with links look natural in Google's eyes. If 80% of your links come from directories or are in the footer, there is probably nothing to worry about. Find more contextual links inside articles or comments on blogs, to show that you are actively participating in the community. Tool Link Detective particular, allows you to identify all types of links you have.
Make sure you do not point to low quality sites, which were penalized for one reason or another, or who belong to a network of blogs. This last point may be difficult to detect, but as you know and have confidence in each of the sites to which you point, the claws of ruthless penguin will remain away from you.
With certain exceptions that clearly demonstrate
that you are using black hat tactics will not lose too much time to remove all
the low quality links akin to your site. The "link unbuilding" could
prove a waste of time and become more expensive than anything else if done
anyhow and without planning. Indeed, the border between the links to keep or
not can be blurred - still have to use the right tools to detect - and
elimination of spam is often complicated and risky.
Your time will be better to look for profitable new relationships and partners or clean any kind of spam "on site" on your site, especially since we are not yet fully certain of the kind of links that are penalized by making day.
Your time will be better to look for profitable new relationships and partners or clean any kind of spam "on site" on your site, especially since we are not yet fully certain of the kind of links that are penalized by making day.
Concrete impacts
our analysis of traffic and positions of different sites, the big losers in this story are the major sites in competitive areas where link building techniques are not always best from an ethical point of view. For example, switching from first to tenth place for the term "car insurance" would represent a decline in traffic 2,077 visits per month if one crosses the Google Keyword Tool data with those of a study conducted by Slingshot SEO.
On average, website positioning itself in the first position in Google has a click rate of 18.2%, almost a click of five. However, the tenth search result receives only 1.04% of clicks.
Search Engine CTR
finally, hopes this update does not increase the victims of Negative SEO, a phenomenon that has grown in popularity following the recent modifications of the algorithm. This is to point low quality links to the website of a competitor so that it is done to penalize. How to avoid being an easy prey and how does one protect from such an attack? The answer comes back again the same: continue to acquire quality links and be sure to maintain a strong link profile.
