Google has been keeping webmasters on the very tips of their toes with regards on how they capitalize on SEO since they introduced Panda in their search engine ranking algorithm. When the Penguin (what is it with Google and animals?) rolled in, many websites that were optimized using spammy techniques and black-hat practices got penalized for violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Unfortunately, there were also a number of casualties who were actually following the said guidelines to a T; this raised lots of questions among website administrators.
The main question on everyone’s minds is this: how does Google Penguin identify websites that should be penalized?
What Penguin Considers as Violations
Spam is Google’s biggest enemy right now. Penguin is set to penalize websites that are found to be guilty of spamming and manipulating search results. There are so many strategies that can be considered as spam, but all of them revolve around these three violations.
1. Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is one example of website spamming, and Penguin is hot on the heels of websites that manifest spammy behavior. There are many webpages that contain nothing but a jumble of keywords, and they usually end up as link mines.
Google wants to avoid this kind of rank manipulation, and keyword stuffing is usually the first stage in black-hat link schemes. This is also closely tied with the second item in this list. Any company that provides expert SEO services probably told you not to stuff keywords for long, long time.
2. Excessive SEO
Google’s Matt Cutts specifically and explicitly cited excessive optimization as an example of search engine manipulation through SEO, and that’s something they want to stop as much as possible. Google is all about providing users with quality results on their SERPs today, and this is the main reason why they will penalize low-quality websites that nevertheless rank because of very technical SEO.
Over-SEO refers to link buying, cross-domain linking, keyword stuffing (as mentioned above), creating doorway pages (pages that trick visitors into entering a website), hidden texts (text in the same color as the background), and link spamming. All these also lead us to number three.
Be careful about the SEO services you choose. In this Panda- and Penguin-monitored race, sometimes it’s better to be the turtle rather than the hare.
3. Low-quality content
Web pages with poor content are most likely the product of keyword stuffing, excessive SEO, and downright poor writing skills. The first two are deliberate violations while the third is a skills deficiency that will not be tolerated simply because it will not pass the standards set by Google.
Since we already know what will set Panda and Penguin off, it is only right to do adjustments and changes wherever necessary.
Concentrate on These Points
The following areas need to be reexamined closely. See if there are things that must be done or gone so that your website won’t be on the radar of Google Penguin and Google Panda.
1. Keywords
Be discreet in using keywords in the sense that they should sound natural and would grammatically fit in the text where they are inserted. This strategy helps in two ways: first you get to avoid the wrath of Panda and Penguin, and second, your readers will not feel as though you are merely trying to sell them something.
Readers are more encouraged to click on a text link when it is inserted at the right part of the discussion in the article, not when it appears to be an advertisement for one product or another.
The same goes for exact match domains. Using exact match keywords as website domains used to be very helpful in ranking a website. The Penguin won’t place much importance on that this time around though, so don’t bother with them for your future websites.
2. Anchor Texts
SEO experts recommend using long-tail anchor texts instead of being keyword-specific. This goes back to our point about keywords needing to be used in the right context within an article and inserted in a grammatically correct sentence. Long-tail keywords containing the “how to” phrases for instance are great to use as a title and can be inserted in the article without any problem.
The purpose of using a variety of keywords is that using one keyword repeatedly alerts Google into thinking that you’re manipulating the search engine algorithm in your favor. Stubbornly going along this path will incur you penalties.
Zealously using spammy anchor text might get your website stuck in a morass of Google penalties.
3. Links and Backlinks
The Penguin is also very sensitive to obvious linking schemes, so do away with those practices now. Since link buying is considered a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, the best way for you to get backlinks (and apparently the way Google wants it done) is to establish your website’s credibility.
Give other websites very good reasons to recommend your site to their readers and impress them with tour published articles so that they will be encouraged provide direct links to your pages.
Don’t depend on the text links too much as well. Since an abundance of keyword-rich text links is a red flag for Penguin, cut back your text links. If you really want to use keywords for alt tags, utilize images as links instead.
Another important thing: give back to the online community you belong to. Bloggers understand that the comments section is just as important as the article itself. This is where the discussion among the readers and the writer takes place, ideas are ruminated and additional information about the subject matter is traded back and forth.
There will be commenters who will want to refer to anther blog and post a link. Be sure that your blog doesn’t use the “nofollow” tag.
Yes, your link to external sites will contribute to their ranks and do nothing for you; however, it does cement your image as a genuine website that’s out to provide quality content and valuable information to readers. It will also allow you to become friendlier and develop closeness with other websites. That will be more important in the long run. Think of this as the gratis that pays you back eventually.
4. Content
The most important is to clean up the content of your website. If you’ve been spinning articles before, now is the best time to stop. Again, duplicated, spun, and mediocre-quality content are the red flags for Panda, while the excessive SEO that goes on behind the replicates and keywords are signals for the Penguin.
It’s no longer cunning SEO strategies (or so Google wants everyone to think) that’s important, but rather high-quality website content that users will find valuable. Google started filtering websites with poor content quality through Panda, which checked content quality.
It targeted sites filled with spam, duplicated content, spun content and nonsensical text . The Penguin now backs it up by locating spammers and websites benefiting from excessive optimization. Everyone has to admit, this is a spanking combination that gets the work done (if not too much so).
Start investing in well-researched, well-written, and informative articles. Content is apparently the most important aspect of a website for Google now, looking at how the Panda and Penguin are programmed to act.
Image credits: Ami
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