SEO in a POST-PENGUIN WORLD

Google’s latest update to their search algorithm was one of the biggest yet and its impact is still being felt across the internet. But what does this mean for your company and your SEO?

black-hat SEO practices—the numbers game of link-building and keyword-stuff that prized quantity over quality and had a large impact on page rankings.

WHY WAS PENGUIN CREATED? The key takeaway is this: much like a person, does not like to be manipulated. Pen- Google Penguin started its rollout in 2012 and guin is the step Google has taken to avoid be- businesses and optimization ing manipulated and to serve users with high professionals alike are still reacting to it. It rat- quality content, instead of link-stuffed busi- tled the SEO status quo like nothing before it— nesses. but how? Why? And what are you supposed to do about it? HOW DOES PENGUIN WORK? WHAT IS PENGUIN? Penguin works in conjunction with the Hum- mingbird update to recognize the context of Penguin is the most recent update to Google’s your web page, so cheap back-links or copy search algorithms. Google still controls a solid inflated with unnecessary keywords are more two-thirds of the search market and no one has consistently penalized4. The goal is to penalize 1 been able to shake it, so they make the rules . spammers, reward legitimate, quality content They are the 800-lb. gorilla and as such, when and deliver to users the information that actu- they update their algorithms, everyone takes ally matters to them. notice and follows suit. Exact-match link text is a key trigger for Pen- Penguin’s aim is enforcing Google’s Webmas- guin’s filters, where every link back to a web- ter guidelines. If you want your site to be in- site uses the exact same copy. Over-optimized dexed by and rank on Google, you must abide links—links that read the same page to page to 2 by their guidelines . One of the most important page—are penalized, while variation and link therein is to not intentionally manipulate Pag- anchor text that fits the copy contextually is re- eRank, which is what a large number of sites warded by Penguin5. had been doing through “”3 or blogging 15x a month can bring the traffic 5x

WHAT CAN I DO? This feeds search engines the optimized, searchable content they crave and brings your the following advice: “The best 7 site additional viewers . Companies that blog way to get other sites to create high-quality, fifteen times a month see 5 times the traffic of relevant links to yours is to create unique, rel- those who don’t—that’s less than a post a day, evant content that can naturally gain popularity 8 for an incredible traffic boost . Blogging can in the Internet community.”6 promote not only your primary home page but Hence, the rise of content marketing. individual product pages, associating them with your keywords via contextually relevant Penguin is an algorithm designed to punish links. The key is to tailor this to information bad-hat SEO and promote quality content. If valuable to the end user. a company wants to boost their website and PageRank, they’re going to have to earn it. Services like Wordpress, and others There are a few key ways to go about this. provide an easy content management sys- tem and the blog home can be transferred to First, if you’ve been buying links, stop. Now. your own domain cheaply and quickly to keep Yesterday. Stop. the traffic and SEO optimization grounded in Then, start in on content. Not just new, stand- your website. Relevant, useful content is highly alone pages, it’s also key to beef up the content sought after no matter where you are and is a on your primary, pre-existing web pages. The great step toward organically gaining outside sweet spot is just about 700 words per page links from authority websites9. of organic content—not keyword-stuffing. Like You can create downloadable content as with bad back-links, Google knows when a well. This is less advantageous for SEO be- page is trying to manipulate rankings. Penguin cause downloadable content like PDFs can’t and Hummingbird work together to identify the be crawled by Google, but the pages they’re context of content and recognize the egregious hosted on can. overuse of unnecessary keywords. A business blog is a fantastic, sustainable way to generate the fresh content that Google loves and can boost your presence on your terms. Blog posts answering customer questions about your products are contextually relevant places to use your keywords and link them back to product pages. The next step is interacting with your commu- Additionally, Google Authorship integrates nity. Penguin heavily weights social sharing your name and profile picture with your- con and interaction because they show genuine in- tent, which can significantly impact click- terest and engagement from your community, through-rates13! Human beings are very visual so be sure to include easy buttons or links on creatures and are more attracted to links that the content you create10. The more they share, include images. Plus, this humanizes your con- the more authoritative your links become, the tent in search results and lends it authenticity. higher Google will naturally rank them. When it comes to Google, Penguin and SEO, Social sharing can also bring in those outside the main thing to remember is that Google links from established authority websites and knows when it’s being manipulated, and it users as they discovered and share your rel- doesn’t like it. Authenticity and authority are evant content. Being linked to by a site with the keys to modern SEO. It’s all about deliver- authority helps that authority rub off on you11. ing content that is relevant to the user and their search queries. Content is king and thought Google+, Google’s initial foray into the world leaders are the new wizards of SEO. of social networking, has become increasingly important with Google Authorship12. For obvi- ous reasons, Google likes Google+ and has come up with a way for content authors to link their Google+ profiles with the content they create. Once the two are linked, your profile becomes an integral part of Google searches and adds that ever-important authority to your work. footnotes

1 Kellogg, JB. “Bing vs Google, Search Engine Market Share” Mad Blog. 12 July 2013. http://www.madwiremedia.com/blog/bing-vs-google-search-engine-market-share-how-many-people-use-bing/ 2 “Google Webmaster Tools Help” Google. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en 3 Sullivan, Danny. “What is Search Engine Spam? The Video Edition” Search Engine Land. 21 Oct 2008. http://searchengineland.com/what-is-search-engine-spam-the-video-edition-15202 4 Shahari, Fairuze. “Understanding Google’s Penguin Updates & How It Affects You” Hongkiat.com. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/understanding-google-penguin-updates/ 5 Isca, Frank. “6 Surefire Ways to Piss Off Google Penguin & Tarnish Your SEO” Weidert Group. 16 Apr 2013. http://www.weidert.com/whole_brain_marketing_blog/bid/114916/6-Surefire-Ways-to-Piss-Off-Google-Penguin-Tarnish-Your-SEO 6 “Google Webmaster Tools Help” Google. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en 7 Odden, Lee. “Business Blogging in a Content Marketing World” Top Rank Blog. Aug 2013. http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/08/successful-business-blog/ 8 Valdellon, Lionel. “Blogging: Top 5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Blog” V for Visibility. 16 May 2013. http://vforvisibility.com/blogging-top-5-reasons-why-your-business-needs-a-blog/ 9 Shahari, Fairuze. “Understanding Google’s Penguin Updates & How It Affects You” Hongkiat.com. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/understanding-google-penguin-updates/ 10 Souza, John. “How Google Penguin Will Impact Your Social Media Strategy” Social Media Marketing University. 11 July 2012. http://socialmediamarketinguniversity.com/google-penguin-impact-social-media-strategy/ 11 DeMers, Jayson. “Google’s Penguin 2.0 Algorithm: The Definitive Guide” Search Engine Watch. 8 July 2013. http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2279845/Googles-Penguin-2.0-Algorithm-The-Definitive-Guide 12 “Link your Google+ profile to the content you create” Google+ https://plus.google.com/authorship 13 Farnworth, Demian. “10 Reasons Writers Should Claim Their Google Authorship Markup” Copyblogger. March 2013. http://www.copyblogger.com/claim-google-authorship/