Yet again the web has broken out in a mass reaction to the drama of Google releasing another update–this time calling it Penguin. When you’re not an expert in SEO or doing business online, the thing you need to do is figure out exactly what your issues are and even if you have any of them at all. You can tell this pretty quickly if your site has been adversely affected, rankings wise. The effects of the Penguin updates are still being experienced because, at the time of this article’s writing, they are still recent. If you know that you have used the same high value anchor text too much, then you should expect to get hit. You can fix this by using newer and more up to date anchor texts and diluting your backlinks with them.
It’s important to know that Google builds a site link profile for every website. Some of the information that Google keeps track of is the age of your website as well as the location for your link. Google knows the last time that your page was edited, whether there has been any reciprocity, how many links exist on each page (which is very important). Your site link profile is going to also have information on if the links are for images or through text and the location of those links. Thanks to Penguin, Google will also know which backlinks have been bought. It is important to know what Google knows about your pages. It’s vital to know what sort of intelligence information Google has put together about you.
Google’s efforts in the past several years is a greater effort against all forms of spam on the web. This is different than the “traditional” notion of spam which is email bound. In this case Panda and Penguin are after something called “content spam” which means a site and content that are of low or bad quality.
If you have kept up with the news this isn’t something surprising but not everybody will find it as obvious as you do. Along with content spam there are obvious SEO concerns which is still spam in the form of link spam. Google labels anything, whether it is a backlink or a piece of content, that isn’t up to par as spam.
Let’s cover something that has been talked about, almost to death, but it bears mentioning again. Relevancy is the one attribute that you must have in all your business marketing and advertising. You can earn lots of points with everyone when you get this right. Above all else, you need to keep your audience in mind. Relevant copy that offers value and that is easy to read and scan will go really far to help you earn favor with your niche. This isn’t about any sort of advanced knowledge, it is about the right knowledge and common sense–you don’t need any advanced degrees. People who are veterans of Google search marketing probably aren’t going to be all that bothered by the changes that have come about through the Penguin algorithm. They’re already used to these sorts of updates, like the Panda ones that have come before. Search marketers who have gained experience understand that the game is all about simply figuring out what Google wants and then doing it.