With the new Google Penguin update, many companies that have been actively participating in organic and ethical SEO practices are finding their websites are dropping in the Google rankings despite all of their continuous hard work. The Google algorithm was significantly changed during this update and is now placing even more value on original, ever-changing content. The days of webspamming are definitely starting to die out with this new update, which is a great thing for some businesses and a horrible thing for others. Regardless of where your business stands on this issue, the main message Google is sending with this new update is that you are going to have to work harder AND smarter in order to outwit the Google beast and climb (back) to the top.
If you’ve been majorly affected in your rankings by the new update, here are some of the reasons why:
1) Bad Links – Linking programs used to be a great way to pay people to webspam blogs and forums using a link to your site, but placing it there as a genuine comment. Now, the Penguin update is crosschecking these comments and if your website is pumping out hundreds of them, Google will notice and you will be penalized.
2) Article Spinners – Anyone who doesn’t have a dedicated team of writers has resorted to article spinners at one point or another. These articles are basically about nothing, but they randomly plug in keywords necessary to boost your site to the top of Google. Google now recognizes these basically fake articles and penalizes you for them.
3) Over Optimization – The fact is that if you are simply keyword stuffing in any area of your site, Google has always frowned upon it. Now, they have developed ways through Penguin to penalize you for your crimes against organic SEO.
Panda? Penguin? Weren’t these once friendly animals that we felt comfortable around? Thanks Google for ruining the innocence of Pandas and Penguins. I have to throw away a lot of stuffed animals now.
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