What is going on in the minds of Google? Its recent Penguin Update on April 24th as well as the 1.1 refresh are discussed in this expert webinar that all web masters and business owners should see.
Over 50 updates per month and more than 500 updates per year. There are more questions now than ever regarding how to best optimize your site and play within the rules set by Google. The future of SEO and Internet marketing has not only changed over the year but, most recently, over the past few weeks. Online marketers are questioning their link profiles, SEO work they have done in the past and what they should do moving forward.
2. Google Penguin Update & the Future of Internet Marketing
What is going on in the minds of Google? Over 50 updates per month and
more than 500 updates per year. There are more questions now than ever
regarding how to best optimize your site and play within the rules set by
Google. The future of SEO and Internet marketing has not only changed over
the year but, most recently, over the past few weeks. Online marketers are
questioning there link profiles, SEO work they have done in the past and what
they should do moving forward.
Ken Chris Countey Mike Stricker Todd Bailey
Wisnefski Director of SEO Director of SMO VP of Digital Strategy 2
Founder & CEO
3. Quick Introduction
Ken
Wisnefski
Founder & CEO
Member of the Philadelphia Business Journal 40 Under 40
South Jersey Business Journal 40 under 40
Forbes America's Most Promising Companies Winner
Philadelphia Business Journal Best Places to Work
South Jersey Business Journal Fastest Growing Company
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4. Quick Introduction
WebiMax has been featured and
written many pieces about the
Penguin Update and it‟s impact
Penguin is:
A Google algorithm update with a penalty
aspect included
Applies to 3.1% of queries
If you target high volume key words, you are
subject to Penguin
It has reached Penguin 1.1, which is a data
refresh affecting .1% of queries
755,000 or more GWT Messages went out to
webmasters
85,000 or more blogs were de-indexed
It is likely that well in excess of 1M websites
Ken
Wisnefski have been affected to date
Founder & CEO
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5. Penguin Explained
Penguin is an update that penalizes websites for “bad
behavior” but is not a penalty itself.
• Penguin, like Panda, exists outside the
scope of the main algorithm
• Penguin will receive a data refresh at
undisclosed intervals, much like Panda
• Removing spam links and duplicate content
will immediately restore rank
• Penguin is algorithmic as opposed to a
manual tweak to your website specifically
Google is constantly trying to improve its search engine for their
customer: the person searching. This is the only constant in Google‟s
history. Everything else that has changed can be linked to this goal.
Google uses artificial intelligence and calculations to make decisions
about which pages are right for your query.
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6. Penguin Explained
• The best indicator is a
sharp drop in organic
Google traffic on or
around April 25, 2012
• A site search for your
brand or domain name will
also reveal a problem
If your brand or your domain does not appear at the top of page 1 of
Google when searching for your domain, your site was probably affected
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7. Penguin Timeline
Matt Cutts hints at an "over- "Webspam Update", later known
optmization" update at SXSW as "Penguin" rolled out
3/16/12 4/24/12
' 12 Mar Apr May ' 12
4/24/12 Time Between Penguin Updates 5/25/12
The impact of this update was not subtle. Sites that were
affected saw a dramatic drop in organic traffic from Google.
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Made with Office Timeline 2010
8. Penguin Explained
Some sites that were impacted by Penguin had messages like the one
below appear in their Google Webmaster Tools account
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9. Penguin Explained
If your website dropped in rank drastically, you may not have received a
direct hit from Penguin.
Websites that link to you may have instead been severely hit and
removed entirely from Google‟s index.
This would result in a loss of “link juice” and ultimately, loss of positions in
the SERPs.
Dropping just 1
position in the SERP
can have a dramatic
effect on traffic.
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10. Penguin Explained
Triggers and Vulnerabilities
Competitive Queries! Over-Use of the 3.1% particular "money
keywords" or "competitive queries"
(transactional or converting keyword phrases with
buy…, best…, cheap…, instant cash loans, auto insurance, etc.)
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11. Penguin Explained
Overuse of Exact-Match Anchor Text links
Over-reliance on exact-match anchor text, instead of expected human-built links using domain name, brand
name, URL, „click here‟, etc.
(exact-match anchor text in irrelevant (thin, shallow, scraped) content on low quality domains, article farms,
content farms, or in in combination as comment spam or usernames, etc.)
[especially as it applies to Keyword-Named Domains and URLs
threshold 60 - 65% VS brand-name or domain-name anchor text]
(OSE or Ahrefs) 11
12. Penguin Explained
Too Many Links from Low-Quality Websites
especially in association with other factors
• Irrelevant domains, encyclopedic link farm directory, “SEOfreeDirectory”, foreign-language directory
• Disproportionate number of bad blogs, dirty directories, articles, link farms
• Prevalence of Links from irrelevant content, pages and/or domains
• Immoderate Reciprocal Links that result in irrelevant links
• Links from Duplicate Content (thin, shallow, scraped) 12
13. Penguin Explained
Links from Associated Websites or a Link Scheme, whether paid or
home-grown
(i.e. same IP, similar C names, matched Analytics code)
(Ahrefs, Majestic Neighbourhood, WhoRush)
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14. Penguin Explained
Imbalance of Link Types
(blog comment spam, „dumb‟ directories, shallow articles, inauthentic social bookmarks etc.)
(Link Detective or sort)
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15. Penguin Explained
Links from irrelevant Foreign Websites
Links from Paid Links/Premium Links/High PR
Links Networks
(web business owner should know what‟s paid; agency or SEO should know)
Examples of De-indexed or penalized Link Networks:
BuildMyRank (BMR)
AuthorityLinkNetwork (ALN)
Unique Article Wizard
MyArticleNetwork
BlogBlueprint
LinkVana
Article Marketing Automation
ArticleRanks
SEOLinkMonster
RankJumpers… etc.
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16. Penguin Explained
Too many Site-Wide Links
(from every page of a website: sidebars, blogrolls, global footers, etc)
(OSE or Ahrefs)
Bulk Linkbuilding
Links from Bad Neighborhoods, Penguin-bit sites, de-indexed Link
Networks and blocked Blog Link Wheels, penalized directories, etc.
(supplementary, domino-effect)
(check blacklists, indexation, rank for domain name or page title)
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17. Penguin Explained
Lack of Trusted Links - Few relevant incoming links from authoritative
domains and websites in the same niche or from the CORE high-
authority trusted 100
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18. Penguin Explained
Identification of worst links
Check index status of (bad) linking websites
Document contacts of offending websites or sources of “bad” Inbound Links
"Link Purge" - Ask/beg/pay to have links removed – record communications
Disassociate from Link Schemes whether your own link wheels or paid satellite sites, feeder sites
Resign all paid links (except trusted vertical directories Angie‟s List, Thomasnet, or Yahoo! Directory)
Fix all these link issues, eliminate any on-site instances of keyword stuffing, spun content, cloaking, and other spammy tactics
Submit the site to the Google Penguin Feedback Form with:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ
• Citations of efforts
• What guided your decisions - similar to WMT letter or “Another step to reward high-quality sites”
• Lists of deleted links
• Lists of linking sites that defied contact
• Commitment to principles of Google Quality Guidelines
Produce tangible evidence of on-site social engagement by real people with your website, pages and products, as well as your off-site
social media channels themselves.
Build better evidence of genuine authority, proximity to trust and useful content among a relevant suite of naturally-associated websites. Do
this both by sensible link-building and real social engagement using authenticated personal and company profiles, both on-site and off.
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20. The Future of Internet Marketing
Brand - Google focus on big brands
Citations & Trust – Google rewarding these signals
Social – Identity signal: +1 content = higher CTR (indirect relation)
Personalized Search is a Reality – Affects SEO through social
connections and increased CTR (indirect relation)
Authorship – Identity signal: rel=Me/Author (AUTHOR RANK)
Investment
VC has steered to Enterprise SEO, Social Signals and API Development
Innovation Leaders
SEOmoz
Majestic SEO
HubSpot
SERP Rankings
Still important to understand the health of a site
Focus should be placed more on what Analytics is telling you:
• Conversion Optimization
• CTR and Time on Site/Page
Google uses human quality raters extensively in testing algorithm
changes
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21. The Future of Internet Marketing
WHO IS IMPORTANT:
• PR
• Journalists
• Writers
• Bloggers
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22. The Future of Internet Marketing
Links
On-Site Content
Off-Site Articles Black Hat
Social Media Engagement indirectly affects SEO in a positive
way with personal search, CTR‟s as well as earned authority.
• Authoritative Identities
• Post
• Monitor
• Engage
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23. The Future of Internet Marketing
Author Rank
Aberrations or Deviations in Ranking Signals – Unnatural
Google‟s new direct answers results in more searches
50 updates per month
Amit Singhal 500 updates per year
Senior VP - Google 20,000 experiments in 2011
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26. The Future of Internet Marketing
• Brand vs. Non-Branded
• Organic Traffic Interaction Goals (or Events)
• The anticipated merge between SEO, SMO and Content
Marketing with PR is now and is titled Inbound Marketing
• Not just Press Releases
• Creating relationships with communities, blogs, news outlets
• Guest Blogging with authoritative authors
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27. The Future of Internet Marketing
• On-Site Optimization (Technical – Within Google Guidelines)
• Content – Fresh ON and OFF Site Content (High Quality)
• Guest Blogging – Relationship Focused / Relevancy
• Brand Monitoring – High Priority on Reviewing your Link Profile
• Link Building – Less Focus on Anchor Text (Diversify), More Focus on Trust at the Core of Integrity
• Public Relations – Pitches, Interviews, Citations and more
• Social Engagement – Routine Updates and Communication
• Thought Leadership – Become an Influencer, Authoritative Content, Whitepapers, Webinars
• Earned Shares – Position High Quality Content Socially and Market
• Traffic Replacement – Paid Opportunities, CPM/Ad Networks, Retargeting, Referral Traffic, Display
• Gamification – Customer Rewards, Loyalty, Badges, Discounts, Coupons
• CSEs (Comparison Shopping Engines) – Free or Paid (Google Merchant now Google Shopping)
• RSS & Subscribers – Build Authority for your Site through its Feeds – RSS, Aggregator & Subscriber
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28. The Future of Internet Marketing
Todays presentation will be available in the coming days at:
http://www.slideshare.net/webimax
http://www.youtube.com/webimax
For immediate questions regarding your web site
please contact:
888-932-4629
penguin@webimax.com
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