SEO Strategy after Google Penguin update

Google released a series of algorithm updates called Panda that first appeared in February 2011. Panda aimed at down ranking websites that provided poor user experience. Then Google launched the penguin update on April 24’12 to penalize spammers… The update was aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This algorithm targets web spam. This update has affected numerous website big and small, and has forced webmasters to revisit their SEO strategy.  Below are some helpful notes.

SEO Strategy after the Google Penguin update:

1. Link Building: Penguin is all about Link building. So try to avoid unnatural, low quality or spammy link building.
   • Diversify the quality of the sites you are buying links from
   • Find all the free links that you already have
   • Think about quality, quantity and time interval of link building

2. Map out your crawl path: It is very simple to map out crawling path of smaller websites , but it can be difficult for large websites. Sitemaps unfortunately can only help you so much in terms of getting things indexed. Furthermore, putting the pages that are most important, higher up in the crawl path lets you prioritize which pages get passed the most link authority.
3. Anchor text Variations: Anchor text variation is an old advice but it is still in use.
   • Use related searches + Google suggest
   • Avoid filters and add values
   • Decide on 10-15 keywords per page
   • Understand the true SEO value of a page
4. Freshness:
   • Google wants up to date content
   • A page can be deemed ‘fresh’ through inbound links
   • Links placed in ‘crawled’ content have low value
5. Content: Well-written content is good for Google, but more importantly, it’s good for your site and for your readers. Content should
   • Be unique
   • Compliment outreach
   • Add relevance
6. Do not duplicate your Meta tags and also do not repeat keywords on your meta tags.
7. Be Creative: Always try to create and explore new ways to bring traffic to your website. You can provide information by using Info graphics, images.
8. Focus on user: This is the most important tip. Provide useful, updated information to the users.

Google has provided these steps for genuine surfing:

• Avoid hidden text or hidden links
• Don’t use cloaking
• Don’t use page loaded with irrelevant keywords
• Don’t create multiple pages, sub domains with duplicate content
• Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines

Three things we can learn from Penguin:

• Be relevant
• Be balanced
• Keep it real

Impact of Penguin:

Google believes that the new update will impact about 3.1% of queries in English and 3% in German, Chinese & Arabic. The percentage may be higher for languages where spam has been slipping through even more.