Penguins can dig out of zoos, hijack huge ships and apparently snuff out websites using black hat SEO techniques…
In the previous installment of the Google Penguin update series titled, ‘Google Penguin Update I: The Ins, the Outs and the Inbetweens’, we focused on what the Penguin update is and the kind of impact it has had on the internet world. We specified that the Penguin update targets websites that employ black hat SEO techniques or spamming methods for SERPs.
However, we did not exactly specify the various black hat techniques that the Penguin update has actually targeted. The reason for this was simply that Google does not reveal what its algorithmic updates target and we did not know. Fortunately, one person does know as he has researched into the subject and we will just focus on what his findings have been. This person is Glenn Gabe of G-Squared whose original post can be found here.
Onward then. According to Glenn Gabe, websites employing five specific SEO practices have suffered the most. On the basis of the findings of his analyses, here is our advice to webmasters looking to either fix the damage from the Penguin update or evade its flappy clutches altogether.
Avoid Paid Links At All Costs
Google has been against paid links for a long time now and it seems to have finally killed the concept entirely. The Penguin update finds it easy to pick out paid links for any websites. This is particularly easy for Google if the paid links are using exact anchor texts and are on websites that are especially full of sponsored links.
Automated Comments Programs Will Get You in Trouble
All the websites that took a beating through the Penguin update had a variety of things in common and one of these was comment spam. Comment spamming is very common amongst internet marketers as it is an easy and effective way to get backlinks. This is not the case anymore because of the Penguin update which will keep a tab on websites that get unnatural links though this practice.
Links on Questionable Websites Will Make Your Website Questionable
Most people believe that a guest post is a good thing for the website. This is true but only if the guest post is on a blog that is reliable. Regardless of whether you are aiming for SEO blogs, technology blogs or any other kind of blog to put your guest post on, the integrity and quality of the blog will be important. In essence, do not just distribute guest posts with abandon and actually analyze the blogs where your guest posts are going.
Article Marketing Websites Will Give You No Juice
SEO blogs of various types and people who are series experts in writing content have been harping on this since the Panda update came out. In other words, the Panda update weakened the quality of article marketing websites and the Penguin update has now killed their use entirely. Expect to see such link farms shutting down in a hurry very soon.
Reevaluate All Incoming Links to Your Website
In simplest of terms, the incoming link profile of your website is crucial for the Penguin update, irrespective of whether you have been writing content of great quality or not. Therefore, if you have seen your website suffer because of this release, then you should look to reevaluate your incoming link profile in extreme detail so as to pluck out and remove all bad influences.
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