Thursday, May 17, 2012

How can I recover from Google Penguin?


Recovery from Google Penguin is a difficult one for some webmasters, but much easier for others. The recovery time depends on the extent of the authority lost from bad/poor quality links. Depending on your websites link profile makeup will depend on how long it takes to recover, there is no fixed answer.

To get started why not consider:

Evaluate your websites linking profile, if you believe you were unfairly hit then use the following form to submit an appeal to Google. This is a manually reviewed form and will take time to be considered. Click here for the Webspam Form.
Whilst waiting for your websites review, ensure your link profile is clean, and does not contain links that could be perceived as bad/negative or spammy.

Create a new strategy for creating good quality content, media and other useful items which can be shared through social media from your website. Consider everything from useful tools and guides to viral content/media.
Don't rely too heavily on links, do not hit back by buying links or influencing the re-growth of your websites long run doing so could cause major issues in the long run.

If your not already video blogging or using Youtube, consider joining the revolution, video is powerful.
Ensure your social activities and presence remain active, poor or inconsistent efforts will hamper progression.
Ensure that your growing link profile has a diverse link anchor text profile, excessive exact match anchor text can and will cause problems.
From the point of ranking loss onwards, there is no foreseeable update likely to help recovery as linking was one of the leading contributors for website positions. Instead, focus on addressing the situation and putting new strategies into place.
Gain a better understanding of your market place, join social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google +, Reddit and other networks and share your content, knowledge and information.
Any quick fixes are unlikely to work, and could cause problems for the website during future updates

Google Penguin Update


So what exactly is Google Penguin, and why so many problems?

Google Penguin was an enforced update that went ahead despite thousands of requests against it. Google Penguin is another branched update from Panda which has tackled the following areas:

Website Linking Profiles
Exact Match Anchor Text Profiles
Affiliation with Blog Networks
Link Diversity
Spun Content and Content Duplication
Mined Content & Site Profile Content Makeup
Excessive Ad Utilisation
Paid Link Utilisation & Brokerage Link Patterns
Blog & Comment Spam
Forum Links & Posts on Irrelevant Websites
Article Websites & Distribution Channels with Link Back
Links from known Bad Neighborhoods
Content Profile using Excessive Syndicated Content

The above are the main areas which have been taken into consideration by Google Panda.

The problems which stem from the update relate to link development and influence. The Google Panda update appears to have hit websites hard when their link profiles appear artifical and not organic. Websites which have used obvious or excessive link development strategies that employ some of the items listed above will have been penalised for their site profile.

Google Penguin has been introduced to reward websites which have acquired links organically using the power of content and media. The ultimate goal of ALL of Google's search algorithm updates stem around quality. Google's business model and utilisation has been built on the foundation of returning high quality search results, any compromises could lead to the downfall of Google's authority as a market leader in search.