On Friday we told you that Google is releasing Penguin 2.0. But what is it? How important is it? Noxster is going to answer these questions a little deeper. Google’s Matt Cutt’s has released a lot of good information that you will find to be beneficial.
What is Penguin 2.0?
Penguin 2.0 is a Google update that is penalizing websites who have been what Google perceives as “spamming” the internet. Google doesn’t view the update as a penalty rather a change to discredit spam that has been done by websites to manipulate the quality of their search. This update will indirectly lower or raise your ranking on the search engines.
Penguin 1.0 was launched back in April of 2012 who affected 3% of Google’s searches and drastically changing the rankings for keywords of some websites. The majority of the websites that were drastically affected were websites that were employing spammy techniques. A small number of legitimate sites and SEOs were affected due to their legitimate implementation of typically-spammy techniques.
Matt Cutt’s tells us who should be Worried:
Matt said:
“If you’re doing high quality content whenever you’re doing SEO, this (the Penguin update) should not be a big surprise. You shouldn’t have to worry about a lot of changes. If you have been hanging out in a lot of blackhat forums, trading different types of spamming package tips and that sort of stuff, then this might be a more eventful summer for you.”
He went on to say:
”Make a great site, that users love, that they’ll want to tell their friends about, bookmark, come back to, visit over and over again -all the things that make a site compelling.. As long as you’re working hard for users, we’re working hard to show your high quality content to users as well.”
What Techniques are going to get hit?
Like every other update, all of the SEO techniques are going to get hit. As unsettling as that sounds, when Google makes a change no one can control anything. A Google update is supposed to incentivize you to pay for their Ad space vs. paying to get ranked organically. Every time Google shakes things up there sales thrive, so you can expect them to continue announcing updates “big” or “small”. So what SEO technique got affected?
Link Spamming:
Google has been after devaluing poor quality links for some time. The truth is Google claims they are still in the early days; they are actively working on developing a much more detailed link analysis algorithm to make this typical technique less effective. It won’t be released fully in this update, but they are getting closer.
Link Purchasing
Google has always come down hard on companies that buy links. They have never been a fan of this technique. If you pay for an ad, they want to make sure the ad has a no follow tag on there, to assure there is no suspicious intent for the advertisement. If you have purchased advertorial content in the past, it might be time for you to consider taking it down or analyze how it is displaying.
Spamming Search Queries
This is kind of new. Google plans on making a bigger effort on going into specific areas of their search that have been traditionally spammed more, in order to come up with better ways of cleaning up the search results. Keywords such as “SEO Company” “Pay Day Loans” are going to be more vulnerable than an industry that is less likely to do high volumes of SEO.
Now the Good News about Penguin 2.0
All of Google’s updates aren’t supposed to strike fear into companies. They actually are intended to help companies play by the rules. Here are some positives to take away from the potential new update:
1. Panda Correction: Google has admitted that there are some sites sitting in the “grey area” that their last panda release may have unintentionally hurt. These sites could potentially see a significant boost.
2. Hacked Site Detection: They are trying to make the detection of hacked sites more effective. They are also working
3. Understanding your niche industry better. Google is looking to better understand who the “Authority” within the marketplace is. If you are one of those “authorities” your rankings will go up.
Preparing for Penguin 2.0
We already wrote about how your company can prepare for penguin 2.0, but to recap the key is to build relationships, don’t buy them. Make sure the content you produce is relevant and that it is diversified. The better content you create the better quality links you will receive pointing back to your website.
