Five months after its release, Google’s Penguin update is still the major topic of discussion in the SEO industry.
Google’s mission to create a “better experience” for the search user has resulted in big changes to search engine optimisation techniques, with practices that were considered good, now putting you at risk of a penalty and a drop in ranking.
As a result of the update, websites that have failed to update their SEO have found themselves falling behind the competitors that have embraced change, and anyone who knows anything about SEO will know just how important it is to rank higher than your rivals. If you are one of those webmasters that has noticed a drop in ranking, here are the key adjustments you need to be making to get yourself back where you belong:
Links
Linkbuilding changed significantly after the Google Panda update of 2011, and has evolved further following the arrival of Penguin.
A few years ago, the process of acquiring inbound links (backlinks) was approached as a case of quantity over quality – this is no longer acceptable.
Links that were once useful from link farms and article directories, as well as reciprocal and paid links are now looked upon by Google as being low quality. Only sources that are reputable and relevant to the topic of your website will be accepted.
Link anchor text has also had a rough time at the hands (or flippers in this case) of the Penguin. Links that were filled with prime keywords were always regarded as the best, for example: “used cars in Manchester” was seen as being much better anchor text than hiding the linked website behind a phrase such as “learn more” or “click here.” Keyword-laced link anchor text has only ever been good for search ranking and not the reader, which is why Google are now promoting “natural” anchor text. If Google sees keyword-optimised links, you can be sure drop in rankings will follow.
Quality Content
If you could go back and read some of the content that was produced before the Panda update, you would see thousands of articles that were basically just a bunch of keyword-filled mumbo-jumbo – because that is what got websites ranked, with quantity preferred to quality. Today, Google has no interest whatsoever in ranking that sort of content as it does not benefit the reader.
What SEO now requires are articles and blog posts that are informative, relevant and enjoyable to the reader. Fresh content that is well written will help you build up a loyal fan base and will see your site gain a reputation as one that it is of high quality.
