Penguinsurvivor

www.penguinsurvivor.com by Gabriel Machuret

By Gabriel Machuret
www.internetninja.com.au


YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to do anything you want with this product.

You can criticize it.

You can spread it

You can share it

You can thank me ;)

You can give it away… seriously.

All yours – just keep my name on it

Don’t sell it.

Don’t be mean ;)

To access the videos remember to signup via www.penguinsurvivor.com


Tips to recover and survive Google Penguin updates

Before you start reading and before you go and look for a QUICK solution let’s understand
something…

There is no quick solution

There is no one link you are going to create and VOILA! Everything will be fixed if you got
hammered by Google Update

I’m not saying this because I want to put you down, but it’s important to understand what took
us to this place.

We pushed Google to the limit.

Yes. We did.

Us, affiliate marketers creating poor sites… affiliate markets using software that claimed to
“make Google their bitch” or software that will NUKE Google just by pressing a button.

We pushed things that worked.

Why?

Ranking pays.

If you are an affiliate marketer you discovered that ranking a site wasn’t so difficult with thin
and mediocre content, so you created 400 sites about “bowel cancer” in many cases outranking
real sites about cancer and bowel cancer.

Funny?


You bet.

But not really when you have bowel cancer… !

Then there is the case of the real business owner.

The owner that had a little site, that he really didn’t care about and never really added any
content because “I’m always on top”.

I’m talking about the business owner that clearly didn’t care if no new content was added… or
in in fact all the content of his site was pretty much scrapped from his competitor’s site.

That owner, failed in the same trap: Mediocrity.

Obviously in this mess there is also the innocent victim:

This is the business owner, webmaster that literally never did anything wrong and one day, the
evil Penguin Slapped their site and all the ranking, traffic and leads were gone.

The problem:

The problem is that Google’s way to fix things, have in fact screw things even more !

And if you think , hey Gabriel, my site is 100% legit! I never did anything “weird” … I really
deserve to be at the top…. the problem is that Google doesn’t care about you, me, or any site
that we may have.

Google does what Google does and that’s the way they rule their company and search engine.

That’s why Matt Cutts ‘cut’ right through in making Google’s intentions quite clear with the
latest Google Penguin Update. ‘Don’t worry’ Google says, but many small and medium sized
business owners have every reason to do just that.

Yes, Google’s algorithm change, designed to get rid of spammy websites, has many website
owners scrambling to recover.


So rather than conduct a post mortem, a bad SEO move right now, it is time to dive right in to
remedy the situation and get back to dealing smoothly with the post penguin world.

So before we start fixing the problem we need to set up ourselves in a JEDI state of mind:

The first step is:

Stop complaining about Google

What it’s done it’s done. Nobody cares about you complaining and that will not change a thing.

Stop wasting energy

This means… stop trolling your energy in forums, blogs, or posting comments about how unfair
life is.

Start moving.

Start following the following tips in this report. Don’t take it as a BIBLE but as an opportunity to
see what can be done, and what kind of “discovery” you may find about your own site.

In a few words: Empower yourself to improve your website.


The Penguin means business

There is plenty you can do to recover and break loose from Penguin’s grip but the important
thing to understand is that this is an algorithmic update.

Clearly, what Google wants to do is REWARD HIGH QUALITY SITES (in theory). And Although
the definition of “Quality” could be discussed for hours.. the important thing is to spend energy
in creating what we THINK it’s quality, but instead try to understand what QUALITY is for
GOOGLE.

So here we go some quick tips.

Quality is not:

Spun content.

Thing sites

Keyword Sniper Sites

Over-obvious SEO sites

Sites with dodgy links

Clear enough…. Ok let’s keep going


What really is Penguin’s objective?

One major reason for the Penguin update is to prevent over-optimization of links in terms of
anchor text. Their algorithm aims at valuating links from relevant sites rather than non-relevant
sites. The objective is to discourage overuse of anchor text and emphasize on niche/content
relevancy of linking sites. Reliance on anchor text is no longer a deciding factor when it comes
to SERP. (and that kind of sucks! Because it was getting easier wasn’t it?)

Getting your dates right

However, before we get all ‘hyper’ about linking the first thing is to check the dates since you
noticed a change in traffic. A drop or an improvement in traffic after April 24th is an indicator
that you have been hit by Penguin in a negative or positive way. Changes before this could be a
result of Google’s Panda 3.5 update.

Panda vs Penguin

FIND

Google’s intentions with both Panda and Penguin are to improve the quality of websites.
However, the target of Panda was low-quality sites while Penguin focuses on spam and getting
rid of sites that use various spamming techniques or over-optimization techniques.

So, if you are a victim post April 24th then it is time to become more ‘Penguin friendly’. The first
step is to run an assessment of your site.


Assess your site for bad practices

To get yourself geared up for better SEO with Penguin it would be wise to run a few checks to
analyse your website.

1. Run a web analytics report for all the sites you are linked to.

2. Check the anchor text in these links and measure their percentage. Too much emphasis
on the primary keyword could land you in further trouble with Penguin.

3. Are the websites that link to you relevant to your content?

4. Check the text within the site that links to you, which includes the text immediately
surrounding the anchor text. If it does not comes across as relevant or looks spun then
you are definitely a victim of the Penguin update.

Removing low quality links is a daunting task. One of the best ways to get remedy this is to build
high quality links in order to outnumber the ratio of bad links.

To put it briefly, you are guilty if you answer yes to any of these counts.

Hidden links and text

Bought links

Cloaking

Hidden redirects

Affiliates with poor content

Using some crappy software that blasts links


IT’S ALL ABOUT LINKS AND CONTENT

One of the reasons why Google now imposes strict penalties is because of the overuse of
anchor text. For a long time many webmasters have focused on building too many anchor texts
with targeted keywords to gain favour with the search engine. However, Google now considers
this a clear case of over-optimization, which is illustrated in the example below.

(Yes I Know not a very high tech graph is it?)

Many websites have resorted to using over 70 percent or more of anchor text with their
primary target keyword. This could possibly be the number one reason for a drop in traffic
during the Penguin update, which calls for a change in linking strategies. Google takes a hard
look at your type of site and what type of sites you are linked from.


ANCHOR TEXT DIVERSITY AND LINK RELEVANCY

The key to quality anchor text is diversification

Many SEOs would rather spend time on building anchor text only with a primary keyword they
want to rank for. This is the time to concentrate on using keywords that you don’t want to rank
for as well. A majority of sites that have been penalized have had their primary keyword for
anchor text in 65 percent or more of their inbound links. Rather than have your search ranking
tumble, over 60 percent of your links should contain a keyword that isn’t your target keyword.
A natural mix will help you recover from the Penguin update much quicker.

So start linking with anchors keywords like “visit our site” “check out blog” “keyword + website”
“keyword + slogan” etc..

Get rid of un-natural, low quality links

Article spamming sites and blog networks have been the target of Penguin. Any un-natural
linking with these sites can now reduce your traffic drastically so the first step is to get rid of
these links immediately. Avoid guest posts on questionable sites and paid text links using exact
match anchor text. The golden rule is to GET RID OF:

Paid site-wide links

Links from link building networks

Links from irrelevant sites

Too many reciprocal links

Blogroll schemes


It pays to build a natural link profile

Link with relevant and credible sites related to your industry and Google will reward you with a
better ranking. Choose your primary keywords for your anchor text carefully and use them
minimally. This will benefit you more than paid or spam link sites.

In a few words: Try to get links from sites where you know that your visitors go…. Not where
you think “google will love you”

Build links with niche sites

Outbound links can have a major impact on your site’s rankings and flow of traffic. Google will
determine your site’s credibility by your outbound linking profile.

Any link to poor quality sites will see your ranking plummet.

Therefore, start building quality links from authoritative domains in the same niche. Google is
aware that these links are hard to manipulate and is a clear sign that your site or page is
relevant. Keep outbound links to the minimum and only to credible sites so that you stay ahead
of the algorithm update.

Don’t make the mistake of adding too many links on a page. Spilt the links over more pages and
increase the amount of original content.

Use NOFOLLOW links if you link to sites of a low value so that the search spiders do not follow
the links to these external sites. In addition,

Google is against sponsored links and do not favor sites that contain them for SEO value. Make
sure that these are also NOFOLLOW links if you have them.

The key is to stay away from linking with sites that have a different focus from your sites.


Avoid hidden text and links (OLD SCHOOL BUT JUST IN CASE)

Whether you are already guilty or not, the bottom line is being sneaky won’t get you anywhere
with Penguin. Hiding text and links behind an image, using CSS to reduce font size, or using
white text over a white background is sure to get you off the search engine’s index. These old
spamming techniques will never work with Penguin. Learn to optimize with the user in mind if
you want to boost your rankings.

Review your link profile frequently

The best way to get rid of low quality links and stay ahead of Penguin is to evaluate your link
profile every fortnight. Add good links for every poor quality link that you remove. Your efforts
at link pruning will pay off as Google recognizes your effort. Stay away from link building
exchanges and paid linking schemes. They are a recipe for disaster.

Dealing with spammy links

The first obvious step is to remove them. If they come from Web 2.0 sites that YOU CREATED
then you can log in and edit or delete them accordingly.

Any traded or paid links should be moved from the header, sidebar or blogroll to inside the
<body> tag.

Alternately, as a last resort you can change your URL structure to break all links that point to
every page except the homepage.

But obviously if you purchased an amazing LINK BLASTER software for $17 and blasted your site
with crappy links… then you are more or less screwed and the only way to counter spammy
links is with … you guessed it, authority links.

So…. No easy solution here I’m afraid.


Pay attention to keyword density

Quality content is something that cannot be achieved with keyword stuffing. Seriously, try to do
it and you realize how f***ing difficult it is.

As much as Google looks for keywords, a page with high keyword density is a potential
candidate for disqualification and sure way for your website to get smacked into oblivion. The
key is to forget about keywords and focus on quality content with the user in mind. A keyword
density of 3 to 4 percent is more than adequate and allows your content to flow naturally as
well.

Focus on great content and keyword relevance

Fresh, relevant and high quality content is what people link to. Therefore, you need to focus on
providing quality content. Update your web pages frequently and make sure the content is
pertinent to your niche. Always include keywords that are relevant while you focus on maintain
a reasonable keyword density. A professional writer will be able to integrate keywords with
ease and without making your content appear unreadable.

Make your content presentable and pay attention to heading tags (H1, h2, h3). Useful content
presents a greater chance that some will find that content valuable to their readers and link to
it.

Create high quality micro sites

One great way to achieve higher traffic with the Penguin update is to create micro sites with
useful content related to your niche. The objective is to create smaller sites of a higher quality
so that you gain more visibility by sending authoritative positive ranking signals towards your
main site. Link the inner pages and articles to the home page of your main website. The inner
pages must focus on the primary keyword and point to the home page. This can help you get


positive results in even with Penguin update. But before you go out there and BLAST web 2
sites… keep in mind we are talking here about QUALITY so… again no quick solution.

Duplicate content cleanup – Get rid of pages that suck

In the process of cleaning up and building quality links in the hopes of a Penguin recovery it is
also important to check for duplicate content that could also cause your search ranking and
traffic to take a beating. Some websites may steal your content which needs to be reported to
Google by submitting a DMCA report. A low quality site may scrape your content and link to
you, which needs to be reported immediately.

Make sure all of your pages have unique titles and meta descriptions. Avoid creating posts,
multiple domains, sub-domains, and pages with duplicate content. Google is now very smart at
filtering out duplicate content. Regular SEO audits will ensure that your website is Penguin
friendly. Bring out the best in your search engine marketing skills which includes robots.txt,
sitemaps.xml, pinging, and web page building.

Duplicate content could appear in:

Printer-only versions of web pages.

Discussion forums that may contain the entire or stripped down versions of web pages.

Items linked via multiple URLs

If you have multiple pages with similar content then you can set your preferred URL through a
technique called canonicalization. This will allow you to gain more control over your URLs
appear in search engine results. Google will treat links to different URLs exactly the same as
links to your preferred domain.

Another option is to use 301 redirects and Webmaster Tools.


Avoid the temptation of cloaking and redirects

Every credible SEOer knows that cloaking and shady redirect techniques are against Google’s
bible….. Setting up one page for search engine crawlers with a highly optimized keyword and
another version of the same page for visitors will fetch you another slap from the Penguin.
Don’t ever be tempted to try it (especially in real sites… with “testing sites, go for it…)

The same applies to redirects that use PHP, ASP, meta refresh and other techniques. The
search engine can easily detect such techniques based on the IP address and is the fastest way
to be de-indexed.

So unless you are playing the serious blackhat game, don’t do it with your tiny little site.

Many times the risk is not worth the slap.

Automated queries are a violation of Google TOS

Google is clear in their refusal to entertain automated queries Do not send automated queries
from your site or blog unless you want to see your ranking and traffic drop instantly. Instead it
is wise to make full use of the notifications from your Webmaster Tools account, which is a
storehouse of valuable information. Google may send you notifications of any errors or
unnatural links they find on your site.

Stay connected with social media

The connected culture is the best way to keep your website noticed and stay on the good side
of Penguin as well. Your first step is to create informative, shareable content. Contribute to
relevant blog posts that cater to your niche. Google gives importance to social media, which
must be a part of your overall SEO strategies. Go beyond just Facebook and Twitter and add
widgets to your site.


Have a Google Plus page for your site and integrate a few of the top social sharing buttons.
Readers will begin to share your content on social bookmarking sites, which is a great way to
drive traffic and get noticed.

Be Smart: If you use Google plus…. Well, it’s own by Google. Google will not de-index or not
“count” links produce in Google land… ;)

Remember the old way of doing things…

Stay away from outdated techniques like over-linking, keyword stuffed in the title, meta tags,
and body, Flash-only sites, and uploading un-optimized images.

Stick to design and content guidelines

Going overboard in an attempt to gain favour with Google isn’t the right approach. While you
make every attempt to provide original and high quality content, follow these few guidelines to
increase your chances….

Your website must have a clear hierarchy and text links. Create one state text link so
that every page can be reached.

Limit the amount of outbound links to your webpage. In the process, keep a check and
fix broken links on a regular basis otherwise it could hurt your ranking.

Use keywords in the ALT Atrribute if you have plenty of images on your website but

without blasting the same keyword over and over

You can either get swept into the technicalities of Google’s algorithm update or learn to ‘dance’
with the Penguin.

No matter what, the implementation of proper SEO techniques minus any Black Hat tactics,
which probably got you into trouble in the first place, is sure to help you get back your ranking.


The thumb rule is to create unique content with preference to your audience and NOT search
engines. Google themselves make it quite clear that white hat SEO within reasonable limits is
what improves the quality of a site. Follow best practices and Google hopefully will reward you
sooner than later.

Now keep in mind: Playing the SEO game is in fact a GAME.

We win, we loss.

Try to learn from this experience.

If your site got hammered by Penguin… think that it can happen in the future if Google changes
the rules, so work towards different marketing strategies.

Don’t depend JUST in Google

Diversify. Be your list. Engage customers. Try social media. Video marketing. Try different things
and try to bring pretty freaking amazing content to your site, so the world can’t avoid to ignore
to love you and then Google eventually will.

Good luck and now I know why the Canadians go killing Penguins in the Winter !!! (bad joke)

To your SEO survival

Gabriel Machuret

Contact me at Gabriel@seocourse.com.au

Check my blog at www.internetninja.com.au

Show me some love at facebook http://www.facebook.com/gabrielmachuret

Penguinsurvivor

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

En vedette

En vedette (16)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Penguinsurvivor