What is The Google Penguin Update?
Google launched the Penguin Update on April 2012 to stop spamming in search results. There are so many websites which allow obtaining or selling backlinks to another network for better search results. So, to stop this spamming Google releases the Penguin Update. After Google Penguin Update, Google is getting strict against web spam and relevancy. If you are a website owner then you have to take action against the bad & low-quality backlinks. Google Disavow Links Tool helps you to remove these types of backlinks.
Like all other updates, this affected around 3% of search results and affected a great number of high-ranking sites. So, there are so many website owners started working on the recovery of their websites. Now, only creating a backlink is not enough, you have to work on some other factors like page layout, user experience, page load time, server response, quality backlinks etc. to get a higher rank on SERP.
Google says,
In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high-quality content. While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way more to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high-quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.
According to the report, many quality websites like Geek, Cultomac, Digg lost their high ranks. Here are some reasons why;
Keyword stuffing
Low-quality backlinks
Relevance
Outbound link quality
Duplicate content
Websites malware
Low-quality content
Affiliate Websites
Black-hat SEO techniques [hidden links, text etc.]
How to Recover from Google’s Penguin Update?
If Google changes any algorithm update then it will affect your website and search ranking. So, to know which update affect to your website traffic drop, then the best solution is Google Analytics. Login to your Google Analytics and check from when your website traffic drop occurs. Like it is after 24th April 2012 then you have to start working on Penguin Recovery. But on April 19th, 2012 then you have to work on Panda Recovery.
So, here are some tips to recover your website from Google’s Penguin Update;
Link Quality
For now, you have to create quality backlinks. If you still purchase those 3000 backlinks for only $5 then you should stop this and concentrate on quality backlink. You may lose your search rank. There are so many high-quality websites, lose their search ranking because of these activities. If you have some quality backlinks and other spam backlinks then it will affect your overall ranking. So, now start creating quality backlinks and use the Google Disavow Links Tool to remove low-quality backlinks. Make sure backlink should be relevant to your website niche.
Anchor Text Distribution
Anchor Text Distribution means some predefined keywords of same niche websites, use same anchor text and link their website. Most online marketers use anchor text distribution to get quality backlinks. If you are doing the same, then stop this and try to get backlinks with different anchor text.
Google Webmasters Tool:
I think you might be hearing about it, if not, then it is Google’s tool to index your website in Google Search Engine. It allows adding a sitemap of your website and lets you analyze your website’s SEO in detail. You can check your website security and issues from it. But now, Google started sending email to every Google Webmaster user. Like if you have any issues regarding traffic, if you have so many low-quality backlinks and much more they will inform you by email. So, this is the best work by Google. So, if you are not using Google Webmasters Tool then start using it.
Unusual Backlinks:
There are so many bloggers who allow guest posting or guest blogging. But if you are a website owner and your website has a proper niche and you start allowing guest blogging with some irrelevant niche then it will affect your Google ranking. This is called Unusual backlinks. Because Google says, these types of links are not relevant to your content or blog topic. So, if you are allowing guest blogging or guest posting then maintain your blog topic or niche and accept only those articles which are relevant to your website niche.
Keyword Density
You should also keep in mind keyword density while writing an article. If you use more than 1.5% keywords which are called keyword stuffing, then stop doing this and try to maintain below 1.5% keyword density and prefer long tail keywords. You can use Yoast SEO plugin which is the best plugin for SEO & SEOPressor plugin for proper optimization.
Keyword Stuffing
As I say you should maintain 1.5% keyword density to avoid keyword stuffing. There are some plugins you can use for your WordPress website to avoid keyword stuffing. Income Search Alert, Search Term Tagging 2 and Yoast SEO.
Automated SEO
You should stop automated SEO, if you are still using those automated SEO tools, then stop using it and try to fix this by yourself by using SEO tips for beginners. Google doesn’t allow this automated SEO activity.
Social Networking
If you are not using social networking for your website then it’s your biggest mistake. Because some of the social networking sites are ranked in search results like Quora, Pinterest, Google+ etc. So, if you have not created your website page on social media yet then create it as soon as possible. Once you have created social media pages, then place the social media sharing button on your website. So, your readers can easily subscribe or follow you on social media and share your articles.
There are many advantages of social media like 1st and most important is some of the social media sites are ranked in search results. 2nd is social media sites are high-quality sites with high DA (Domain Authority) PR (Page Rank). 3rd is social media sites have a huge amount of traffic on a daily basis. 4th is social media sites give nofollow backlinks (instead of Tumblr, Tumblr gives dofollow backlinks) which is helpful to create backlinks from high-quality sites & drive traffic towards your website. And the 5th is it is free! So, build your social media presence.
