Aqz

Startups, Entrepreneurship & Development

Google Penguin 3.0

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Penguins

Google started rolling out their latest update to their Penguin algorithm, version 3.0, last weekend.

According to Google’s Pierre Far, the initial rollout just affected 1% of US English queries and the rollout for the rest of the world will continue the oncoming weeks.

Given that it was almost more than a year ago since the last algorithm update I feel it’s due time.

Have any of you guys been affected so far?

Google’s Penguin Algorithm – how to not get penalized by it

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penguin

Okay so you already know about the Google Panda update, now you are faced with another Google animal: The Google Penguin update. What is it and how is it going to affect your site? Here are a couple of things to help you out.

First, obviously, Google sends out themed updates and focuses on one problem or one similar group of problems per update. For example, Google’s Panda update weeded out the thin content sites and lowered their page rankings. Thin content sites are sites that offer content that are just not that helpful or valuable for users.

The Penguin update on the other hand, focuses on all the sites with the squirrely links or spammy links. Questionable links are determined by Google as links that are:

  1. Having come from poor quality sites (if you get a link from a site that doesn’t rank well, you get dragged down)
  2. Sites that aren’t related or relevant to the kind of niche or business that your site has
  3. Paid links (Google has a way of finding out paid links and these links will now do more bad for you than good)
  4. Links that look unnatural or have an anchor text that is super optimized.

 

How do you evade the Penguin?

Nobody wants their page rankings to drop, so what are the things that you can do to save your site or to at least keep your site within Penguin’s good graces.

  1. Keep your links from quality sites

 

With the Penguin update, it is not enough for sites to have links, now you have to make sure that your links are of good quality, meaning they should have reasonable PageRanking or Domain Authority. There are ways to check the PageRank and you should make it a point to do so because this will make sure that you don’t link to poor quality sites. A PageRank of 4 or DA of 30 should be just about right.

 

  1. Keep Links Relevant

 

When a car site links to your dog collar site, that’s pretty irrelevant with each other. While the one or two link from a different niche site won’t probably hurt, a lot of these non-relevant links might set Google’s eyes on your site and put you in for a PageRank lowering. Another good thing to keep Google off of your site’s back is to keep your links relevant. You can do this by posting on sites that discuss topics that are also in your niche. In the example given, if you are all about dog collars then a post to a pet site is very relevant.

  1. Keep an Eye on Your Anchor Text

 

If your sites anchor texts are too keyword intensive, Google might spot it and give you a red flag. Rather than being organic, anchor texts that have the same keyword will stand out as a marketing move on your part rather than a natural occurrence. Make your anchor link diverse.

 

  1. Keep out offending links

To keep Penguin away or to regain your PageRanking after a Penguin hit, you should remove any and all links that aren’t helpful to your site.

 

  1. Keep an effort to build the right links

Rather than taking a risk with low quality links, you should take the time and effort to build the right links, naturally. Build a good reputation online and your site won’t be affected by any future updates.