Google Penguin Update: Points to Consider to Avoid Penalty for Your Website

Though Google announced that their recently rolled out Penguin update would impact around 3.1 percent English queries, it looks like the negative effect has been much more. Even websites that used to enjoy top rankings for years have experienced a sudden and harsh fall due to the update. A lot of people have lost jobs because of the damage. Website owners across the globe have started getting all panicky. If your website has not been hurt yet by the Google Penguin, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be within the next couple of weeks or months. However, don’t worry. This article provides some points to consider to avoid penalty for your website. It’s All about White Hat Search Engine Optimization While Google Panda seemed to focus more on on page factors, the focus of Google Penguin appears to be on off page factors. By following the below given tips, you would stand a good chance of surviving through the update. • Ensure that all your backlinks are quality links - Ideally you should have plenty of links from plenty of different sources. Try to avoid links from low quality or spun articles, bad blog networks and paid link services. Bad blog networks actually leave a considerable footprint which can be detected by Google Penguin. It would understand that they were trying to manipulate the rankings and would penalize sites linking from it, one of which could be yours. Links from questionable sites such as those flagged for link farms, multiple pop-ups or malware are also bad for you. • Avoid repetitive/optimized anchor texts – Make efforts to vary your anchor text instead of repeating the same main keywords. When people logically link to a website, they are inclined to utilize a variety of terms such as your URL, or brand name or “click here.” • Refrain from Keyword Stuffing and Doorway Pages – Both are black hat techniques and both could get you penalized. • Unique Content – Create original and socially interesting content. Avoid duplication; also avoid inserting keywords or links in the middle of content to which they are totally unrelated. • Ensure all of your pages have different titles and meta descriptions. • Utilize robots.txt to conceal duplicate pages (such as pages that can be seen using multiple URLS or print versions), from Google’s eyes. • Keep Your Footer Simple – Having a complete sitemap list or even a lot of keywords in your footer are definitely not advisable. Ensure that your menu structure is simple and user-friendly. • Make maximum use of social media interactions. • Submit quality blogs and press releases often. Your press releases could do with some tweaking in terms of incorporating an image, photo or video. With respect to blogs, you should avoid blog networks. However, do find some quality websites apart from your own to which you can submit blogs. • Focus on Appropriate Directory Links – Type the search query “[your field] directories” in Google to get a lengthy list of superior directories to get listed in. • Get rid of comment spam. Be Up-to-Date All the above points will help in some way to avoid penalty for your website after the Google Penguin update. Continue to be up-to-date on new algorithmic changes and ways to handle them so that your rankings and business don’t suffer.