There have been a number of updates on Google over the past 8 weeks in the Algorithm, these have been named under two names the first being Panda and the second being Penguin. Have these effected adigi as a business, not really, have they affected some of our clients websites, I think so. We have had lots of calls about what this means for having your website rank in Google.
Google’s latest round of updates has sent a wave of panic through the SEO partners. Admittedly every publicised update leads to claims that ‘SEO is dead’, which we don’t believe is true, ‘Google has ruined its organic search’ which it hasn’t it has stopped working the way traditional SEO companies know how to get websites ranking. But this time round we have actually seen some fairly dramatic changes. A number of sites have lost rankings more than others. The subject has been extensively covered on a number of SEO blogs, the reality is no one knows exactly what to do or how to do it for the best until the dust settles.
If your site got hit in the update, why and what can be done?
If your rankings have fallen since April 24th it doesn’t mean that that it was Penguin which knocked your site down. The Panda updates are also likely culprits for your website.
Penguin victims could have received an unnatural links warning notice a couple of weeks before their site got the loss of rankings (this would have appeared in Webmaster Tools). Even if you didn’t, it is worth checking the natural back links, paid back links are usually, low quality directories, blog networks or footer links. Lazy SEO companies tend to create these and then expect to be paid for them. Alongside this if you have a link exchange page, then you really need to take it down as Google is not liking this idea at all.
Next look for unnatural anchor text distribution, for example if the site “theperfecttan.co.uk” has lots of backlinks with anchor text “The Perfect Tan” but not many with different anchor text then this would be a prime spam signal. Basically if your site has a lot of keyword rich anchor text, then it’s going to look very suspicious to any passing Penguins. They will be ignored by Google and can have a negative effect.
What does this mean for me and my website?
The most obvious change is that link building tactics such as paying for links and directories, as well as article submissions, have become a lot more risky! Question yourself and your SEO company on how they are getting the links to your website. We won’t say that they don’t work at all if that is the way you wish to go, but the risk is far higher than it used to be. We recommend, a focus on gaining high quality, relevant links is essential. Gaining these links is harder work, but that is why they carry far less risk and more longer term reward within Google’s eyes.
The key is producing high quality content, whether this is articles, videos or whatever else you can produce. This content is both for your own site to establish yourself as an authority and for other sites to spread the word. White-hat SEO after Penguin is the same just even more important. Black-hats may well need to have a bit of rethink. And this brings me nicely onto our original point, why hasn’t it effected adigi because we build high quality back links with a mix of social media, good content and good links has always been our focus.