The Post Penguin Philosophy

First the Panda, then the Penguin, now what will the next Google update animal be? Whatever the features of the upcoming Google update and no matter how harsh and stinging the after math left behind, there is one thing I am pretty sure about. All the Google updates will force us to revamp many conventions in the blogging, marketing and networking arenas. We bloggers, internet marketers and online entrepreneurs better gear up to the challenges.

Many of us bloggers have developed a defensive approach when it comes to evaluating the after math of Google updates. Majority of us are declaring that none of our blogs have been affected and we are quite happy to support Google in its web cleaning services. Oh, really?

Well, I have a very good reason for saying that almost all of us bloggers have been affected in some way or the other, because the last two updates (Panda and Penguin) have struck at some of the conventional blogging techniques that we all have been using since day one. What are these four blogging conventions that got struck by the Google Penguin update? 

1- Using Anchor Text

Remember how diligently we used to select our anchor texts and try to get them linked to vital pages on our blog? Well all that diligence has back fired now. Penguins probably like a roundabout way of using anchor texts for back links.

Using the exact words that match the focus keywords is something that the crazy Penguin hates. I am sure all of us have painstakingly done this while we were busy submitting our posts or comments to various other directories / sites.

 2- SEO

As beginner bloggers, we invested so much of time, effort and in some cases money as well to learn the tips, tricks and techniques of search engine optimization. We first learnt all about keywords, then we learnt how to find valuable / profitable keywords and finally learnt about the best way to use them to the right density and place them strategically within our blog content.

Now Google Penguin update wants us to unlearn everything that we meticulously learnt about SEO. Using keyword tools to shortlist the valuable keywords and optimizing posts based on them is a strict no-no for the weird Penguin. We bloggers now need to focus on creating valuable content that is related to the keywords but may not contain lot of mentions / repetitions of the same.

3- Guest Blogging

Guest blogging was and still is one of the few techniques remaining in the list of legitimate and Google approved back linking. We have been conventionally targeting sites and blogs with high PR and better rankings than our own sites and blogs for guest posting. But if your list of potential blogs to guest post is filled entirely with high PR blogs then you might have to re-consider the list now.

While Penguin does not devalue the links from guest posts on high PR blogs, it definitely looks with suspicion on blogs that are receiving ONLY high PR back links. Penguin loves fish and it sure can smell something fishy faster than the Panda who loves the greens.

So the latest guest blogging strategy to be adopted is to mix both high and low PR back links, but make sure that they come in only from relevant sources. You really do not want to be at the receiving end of Panda / Penguin’s ire by getting back links from blogs that are in a totally unrelated niche.

4- Comments

How desperate we were to see comments trickling in on our new blogs? Moreover, we were being advised and taught to encourage comments and respond to them in a very cordial and timely manner. Very few of us actually bothered to check the quality and reputation of these sites that were leaving links in our comment section.

Google Penguin update has penalized sites with spammy back links in comment section. This means you have to be vigilant about your visitors who come in via the comment door. No more hugging and giving a warm welcome to everyone who knocks.

Let us face the facts. Google updates are a lot like roller coasters. There is lot of excitement, ear piercing screams, some amount of vomiting, tears and definitely a lot of thrill and fun as well.

So how has the latest Google penguin update been treating your blog or site?

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Google Penguine Update The New Web Cleaner

Just a week ago, Google released new search algorithms updates Known as Google Penguin Updates.Which is aimed to knock down the web spam out of there search results. They have clearly mentioned that the change in search algorithms will directly affect spam sites which violate Google's Quality Guidelines.

There has been a ton of speculation regarding Google’s Penguin update. Few know exactly what the update specifically does, and how it works with Google’s other signals exactly. Google always plays its hand close to its chest, according to Google the algorithm can now catch web spam that was previously slipping through the cracks and they strongly agree that quality sites should have better rankings.

Penguin Duplicates

Google’s Matt Cutts said

“While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive web spam tactics,” The early signs that you are affected are the classic "vertical drop" from Google search rankings and the plummeting of organic traffic, sometimes by as much as 80%.

Google says. “Deceptive practices like duplicating content deliberately across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic can result in a poor user experience, when a visitor sees substantially the same content repeated within a set of search results.” 

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t consider duplicate content to be grounds for penalty, unless it appears that it was used in a deceptive way or to manipulate search results. However, that seems like one of those areas, where an algorithm might leave room for error.

Google lists the following guidelines for webmasters:

• Avoid Hidden Text or Hidden Links on your Blog  
• Use top-level domains: To help Google serve the most appropriate version of a document, use top-level domains whenever possible to handle country-specific content. 
• Use Good Keyword Density On Your Blog Posts If you want to write SEO Rich Posts then you need to concentrate on your Keyword Density. If it is not proper then you’ll end up messing your entire blog post.
• Avoid Keyword Stuffing/Cloaking/Spamming Keyword Stuffing is another unethical SEO practice done by some webmasters using keywords. They use more than enough keywords inside the post to get more exposure in search engines, but actually they won’t. Search engines like Google can easily identify such practices and thus resulting in penalization
• Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent.
• Avoid Black Hat Link Building Techniques This Google Penguin update is mostly targeted at Webspam, so that they can reward high quality websites. So I guess they’ll be penalizing links and sites which affects or differs from the context of the main page.
• Use 301s: If you’ve restructured your site, use 301 redirects (“Redirect Permanent”) in your .htaccess file to smartly redirect users, Google bot, and other spiders.  
• Syndicate carefully: If you syndicate your content on other sites, Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you’d prefer. However, it is helpful to ensure that each site on which your content is syndicated includes a link back to your original article.  
• Avoid publishing stubs: Users don’t like seeing “empty” pages, so avoid placeholders where possible. For example, don’t publish pages for which you don’t yet have real content. 
• Understand your content management system: Make sure you’re familiar with how content is displayed on your web site. Blogs, forums, and related systems often show the same content in multiple formats.

They have clearly mentioned that the change will decrease rankings for sites that violates Google’s existing quality guidelines. If you are affected by penguin or have any issues, feel free to comment using the comment box below the article.

hey have clearly mentioned that the change will decrease rankings for sites that violates Google’s existing quality guidelines. We have elaborated some existing guidelines and other essentials tips to survive Google Penguin update. You can see them below and if you have any issues, feel free to comment using the comment form below the article.

Read more at http://hellboundbloggers.com/2012/04/27/google-penguin-update-how-you-can-survive/

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