Vital SEO Tips after Penguin Algorithm Update

May 19, 2012

Google has started rolling out new series of Penguin update to nail spammers. Last year, Google rolled out Panda updates which killed many spammers, later earlier this year they deindexed major private networks. The indication is clear—Google’s next target is web spammers. This includes those who tried to manipulate searching engine ranking by means that were against webmasters TOS.

However, unlike Panda update penguin update was not severe on blogger. It was more targeted towards the people, who bought theme footer links, indulged in private network link scheme, keyword stuffing, over optimization etc. It has also sparked the debate of rise if negative SEO which has been around since the born of SEO industry itself. It would be difficult to comment whether negative SEO works or not, but there were few attempts to prove the same. Matt Cutts of Google Webspam team already provided some steps to get rid of Penguin slap, but the result could be only seen when Google rolls out a ‘Refresh’ update. In worst scenario users would have to start from the scratch again. WMPU is an excellent example of how footer links from theme can affect you negatively. Of course, they will come back to where they were before when Google decides to roll out the next refresh. But still it is an excellent example of what not to do to over-optimize your site.

SEO Tips after penguin update

1. Over-optimization: Over optimization has always been a debatable issue. Always try to provide best quality content to the readers not search engine. Never ever try to stuff keyword in your post. Besides maintaining keyword density below 4%, users should avoid linking to bad neighbors, excessive internal linking, no anchor text variation and other related issues. WordPress users often use SEO smart link plugin to interlink the posts with desired anchor text. Use the plugin wisely and try to provide anchor text variation otherwise penguin penalty will incur in next update. Same goes with ‘search term tagging’ plugin. It inserts the keyword at the bottom of the post which is a bad SEO tactic.
2. Social influence: Social influence will always play an important role in judging the brand’s reputation. Social networking site not only brings traffic but improves your SERP(Search Engine Results Page) as well. Google+, Facebook and Twitter help a lot if you have just started a new blog. Try to indulge in getting as many votes/ likes as possible. Authors reach will be a next big thing to watch out for in SEO industry.
3. SEO Links: SEO link building is a wide subject and there is no way one could summarize it in a single post. As mentioned earlier in this post, try to get the links from legitimate source only. WordPress theme footer links was one of the factors Google considered while rolling out penguin update. It reflects the importance of quality links. Guest post, quality commenting, quality wiki links, social bookmarking/ voting will play a major roll. Penguin is a domain level penalty, hence it becomes important for an end-user to gain links from trusted source.
4. Thwart Spammers: Instead of relying on Google to nail spammers, it is recommended to take some serious steps against them. To stop RSS scraper use Yoast WordPress SEO plugin or RSS Footer plugin, which can be configured to insert link back to your original post. Whenever you find someone copying your post immediately DMCA them. There are many cases where spammers rank higher than original poster. Regular DMCA notice will remove them off from search engine index.

Remember, Google penguin is just an algorithm and no algorithm is perfect. Try to follow the above method and you could retain your lost traffic back in next update.