Having a Whale of a Time With Google Penguin
Well, as a follow on from Google’s infamous Panda Update last year, we now have the April update called Google Penguin. Affected sites have seen their rankings drop like a stone – some have completely disappeared from search results. Google claims the draconian changes only affect 3 per cent of sites, but as they have targeted the usual suspects in particular (make money niche for instance), more than 20 per cent of sites in targetted niches have been hit.
The Panda Update was largely about those pesky blog networks which were simply ranking devices designed to fool Google into ‘thinking’ that links coming from these sites were genuine. They weren’t.
So Google started de-indexing blog networks such as Build My Rank. As a result sites that were linked to these blog networks lost rankings because the backlinks pointing to them, no longer counted. The effect of all this is that most of the blog networks have closed down, or at least are in the process of closing down.
On the other hand the Penguin update is about the over-optimization of backlinks. People were getting hundreds, if not thousands of back links using the SAME anchor text. Google regards this as unnatural and will come down hard on anyone who is doing it.
Why This is Important to You
If you are an affiliate or network marketer who wants to generate traffic and leads (and sales) using SEO techniques, then this matter is absolutely important – and relevant. SEO is a great way of getting your site seen without spending dollars on advertising. The downside is that the search engines change the rules regularly. Knowing this and how to adapt to the changes is simply.
There is no need to get into a negative funk about updates such as Panda and Penguin. Just roll with the punches, make your adjustments, and move on.
Positive Strategies to Counter the Effects of Penguin
The way around the Penguin anchor text problem is to mix up your anchor text so it looks more ‘natural’. Use long tail versions of your anchor text rather than use the same anchor text for all of your back links.
There is still plenty of mileage in an effective back linking program. Providing you take precautions and maybe slow things down a bit, you are likely to be safe from the dreaded Google police.
All is cool.
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There is still some suspicion that this Penguin is going to take down all wrong habits and will be successful in carrying out its moral guidelines. It is predicted that this update by Google has been or will eventually boost the adverse SEO traditions.