Guest Post - Today's host is Roger Collings, who looks at the recent Google algorithm change.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.
In April, Google launched the Penguin algorithm aimed to detecting and filtering out websites and blogs classified as ‘spam’ from its search results. A month later, Google released an update to the Penguin algorithm to identify and blacklist websites which violate its quality guidelines.
While implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a standard practice for websites and blogs, the Penguin update is aimed at scrutinizing over optimization and spamming. As a blog owner, if you’ve adopted over-optimization techniques, there’s a good chance that the Penguin update has already hit your blog.
Let’s try and understand what is the Google Penguin update and how does it affect you and your blog?
What is Penguin Update
Simply put, the Penguin update aims at identifying sites and blogs which use malpractices such as keyword stuffing and link spamming. The idea is to encourage bloggers to adopt white hat SEO techniques in order to build high-quality blogs with appealing visuals and stellar content.
At the same time, the Penguin update is likely to catch you in a net if you adopt black hat SEO techniques to promote your blog. Google says the Penguin update is an effort to detect ‘stuff in the middle’.
How does it affect you?
In general, if you follow Google’s quality guidelines, the Penguin update should cause no harm to your blog. However, if you actively pursue any of the following practices, there’s a good chance that your blog will be classified as ‘Spam’ by Penguin sooner than later.
- Linking to unsafe & dangerous sites
- Linking to low quality blogs
- Backlinking to sources offering poor quality content
- Linking to spam comments
In general, you should always link to trusted sites and blogs offering high-quality content.
Penguin Update classified my blog as Spam, what should I do?
Google admits that the Penguin update isn’t perfect and there may false positives. If you believe your blog has been unduly penalized by the Penguin update, Google recommends you fill this form and submit a spam report. Make sure to put the word ‘Penguin’ in your report. Once Google receives this report, they will scrutinize your blog/ site and provide you appropriate feedback.
Google recommends you use the above form only in case you’ve received a warning about the Penguin update’s implications for your blog.
Lessons from Penguin Update
Even if your blog hasn’t been affected the Penguin update, there are good lessons to be learnt. For a start, the Penguin update offers an insight that the SEO landscape is evolving and you need to keep up with the advancements to make the most of this opportunity. Secondly, it serves as a reminder that you MUST adhere to Google’s quality guidelines or else risk your and your blog’s future.
Has your blog been affected by the Google Penguin update? Do you think the Penguin Update is a step in the right direction by Google to streamline SEO? Please share your opinion by leaving a comment.
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It is the big and great new to me, anyway thanks for sharing the useful information.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Penguin update is a correct step where they are trying to make you get relevant informatiion based on your requirements and not on the basis of sites which stuff keywords to rank high.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article..
ReplyDeletei will keep away my blog from penguin.. :D
i don't want my blog being catch by penguin
Awesome post
ReplyDeleteNice
ReplyDeletesimple and clear post about google update
ReplyDeleteWell, good thing for me I started l\doing white hat before Penguin update has been released.. Actually, it's a very challenging for us online marketers but I love the way Google challenge us to put on the right way.. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you. I have been working to recover from what I believe has been a decline in visitors to my site since early May. It has caused me to look at ways to improve my site (which I thought was conducted in accordance with the big G). I did notice that when I reference another of my blog posts (only one per article, posts are 400-800 words). I receive a link in the comments section, many of which I did not delete until today. Hope I see a recovery in the next few months. :)
ReplyDeleteIt’s a very good update made by google. Although this update has been affected to our sites also but in long term it will be beneficial for us. The webmaster who don’t work as per guideline and the automated softwares which claim to build backlinks will be out of market…..
ReplyDeleteThis is really great that i've read this post and it gives me a lot of informations that i am looking for.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with us such a valuable blog regarding Google Penguin Update.
ReplyDeleteThanks this is really an appreciable post to alert all bloggers to beware of spamming.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNice information Roger Collings, I had doubt between Panda and Penguin. Now you have cleared my doubt clearly. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with us such a valuable blog regarding Google Penguin Update.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing such a useful information, Provillus I will be checking your blog for further updates and information.
ReplyDeleteNice post,
ReplyDeleteThis will really help new bloggers who will suely try black hat seo's.
Thanks,
Goutham
I'm not afraid of Panda but i'm not sure about Penquin. Since sometimes, I commented questions in many blogs & paste my links too (not often and not spamming at all, I swear).
ReplyDeleteI don't know why it happened but I look at numbers of competitors in my niche keywords in google after i didn't check for a long time, my competitors decrease from 500000 to 155000. this is penquin-chan doing?
nice
ReplyDeleteReally this is an informative article for seo's. Most of them having confusion on penguin update. I hope this will help for them.
ReplyDelete