The world of search engines is the most happening world and makes impressions on the factors around it. As it was changed drastically after Google’s update on the link building for the search engine optimizer’s. This is the big surprise and alarm for the link builders. This update by Google is known as Google penguin update which came on 24 April 2012.
This update meant to drop off the search engine rankings of the website which violets the Google’s webmaster guidelines. This update majorly affects the websites which use same anchor text for the link building, keyword stuffing, participating link schemes and link farms, black hat techniques, links from same niches and more to boost the search engine rankings.
What have changed in the link building after Google Penguin update:
Table of Contents
1. Anchor text usage
The best part for the link building is to use keywords in the content linking back to your website. Now that Google Penguin update has penalized the websites using same anchor text for the back link purpose. Now the usage of anchor text gets more significant than collecting a link.
I have seen that most of the websites got affected with using same anchor text frequently on the spam or crap content. The method of link building to rank higher in search engine by using anchor text to rank a certain keyword got tougher than ever. It seems that post Google Penguin update has made search engine optimizer take the challenge to get rank without conventional link building activities.
The conclusion is that to rank higher for a particular search term, the usage of the same anchor text as less as we can. The use of URL or the site name in the anchor text need to be increase as non brand keyword usage can increase
the probability ratio of high percentage of same anchor text. It shows that to rank higher in the search engine for the key phrase which is used in the anchor text from the high quality and relevant pages. Getting high position for the new domain for the difficult queries has turn out to be more testing than ever.
2. Participating link scheme and link farm
Google starts penalizing the websites with the thin and crap content when Google Panda update came. Link scheme which are now penalized by Google update previously selling thin and scrap content on their websites and blogs to give the links.
Initially this link scheme has good success as Google algorithm passed the link structure. This link scheme usually gives paid links in their blogs or websites. These link schemes provide thin and low quality content. Hence participate this link scheme is like inviting Google to filter your website from the search engine results.
3. Black hat techniques
The black hat techniques like keyword stuffing duplicate content, cloaking, interlinking, hidden text or link, doorway pages and automated content and links has turned out to be methods which penalize websites by Google Penguin update. Most of the time usage of these techniques causes de-indexing of the website from the Google search engine.
Google always try to provide the best and useful information to the users. Hence, in order to rank higher in the Google search results by using black hat techniques will be destructive for the website. Google has changed their webmaster guidelines to make people aware to optimize their website Google search engine friendly.
4. Links from Bad neighborhood
The title itself is more sounding that the links which are bad from the Google prospective. The links which are paid, interlinked domain and link exchanged with the spam websites has degraded the link value. Post Google Penguin update there are websites which has filtered from the search engine results for buying links and link exchanged with spam and penalized websites.
Google always try to minimize the spam results to be appeared on the search results and hence the websites which violates the guidelines get penalized and filtered. Recently Google has launch disavow links tool which will help webmasters to disallow the bad links to pass on the link juice. With the help of this tool webmasters can filter the unwanted links from the Google database.
5. Auto approve content and blogs
It is more easy to the webmasters to get links from the auto approve websites and blogs. Google Panda update already penalized the article directories which allowed the scrap content to be published on the website with the links. The links from the low quality auto approve blogs has been degraded the link value.
The traditional link building methods like article directory submission and blog commenting on auto approve blogs which has been considered to be low quality link building as compared to good quality link building like guest blogging, press release submission and forum participation which is moderated. Hence, getting links from the auto approve content and blogs will be wasting time after Google Penguin update.
6. Keyword stuffing
One of the most used technique which is known as keyword stuffing has made huge impact on the SEO industry from over the years. It has change the face of the search engine optimization right from the winning and losing.
Google is updating its webmaster guideline for the keyword stuffing since the Penguin updates. It is very clear that keyword stuffing in the website in the form of Meta tags, body content and in the URL will be punish by the Google. Hence, it will be challenge to the optimizer’s to use the keywords in the website smartly.
7. Building niche websites
Mini and micro websites under same niche and build with low quality and thin content has been affected by the Google Penguin update and EMD update (Exact match domain). Many webmasters have earned good money with this websites with just few pages and less content. These sites were crap and added no value to the users.
Most of these websites are affected due to low quality back links. Just to rank higher on the search engine results they have stuffed keywords and give backlinks. Google have penalized these websites by filtering and de-indexing them from the search engine results.
Tips to stay away from the Google Penguin update filtration:
1. Links to only homepage
It’s obvious that Google have the algorithm which can identify the maximum back link count for a particular page of the website. Webmasters tend to link homepage more than the other pages of the websites. Most of the time webmasters target many keywords for one page and the majority of the time it is homepage.
Google gives value to the website having multiple high quality areas which can be termed as pages. Link building to the other pages will improve the overall value of the website and ultimately help to boost page rank too. Hence, the risk factor to get trapped in the Google filtration by having links for only homepage will reduce.
2. Social signals
Google does give value to the website with social signals. This is one of the best ways to get link and boost from the search engine results. This can be done by sharing your website to the social networks and platforms where users can vote for your content. The more social shares you receive the more chances to get your social signal strong.
This help to make sure that your link building does not look unnatural. Hence, this will help your website to stay in the search engine results and get traffic from different sources.
3. Link building speed
This factor is important as Google does record the link building speed. Many times webmasters tend to do link building in one phase and then stop suddenly which looks very unnatural to the Google. The graph with a big peak of the link building verses time taken can be devastating. Incoming links from different sources and sites has deviating speed. Hence, to look natural link building make sure that link building should do in regular intervals.
4. Frequency of new quality content
The two major updates by Google which are Google Panda and Penguin update has one thing common and that is filtering the website with low quality. Google panda affected websites with low quality content and Google Penguin has affected websites with low quality link building.
The frequency of new quality content on the website and off the website can help to be safe from getting hit by any of these two updates. Make sure good quality content is the key to earn the value which will ultimately help to boost ranking in the search engine rankings.
5. Links from quality websites
Link from one quality is always better than bunch of links from crap and spam websites. It is also applied when links taken on the no follow attributes from quality websites. Google does rewards for the high quality links from the authority websites.
This websites majorly found with good ranks like government, educational websites. Websites with high page rank and Alexa rank are the most preferred for linking. Also don’t forget to link only relevant websites which is a key for the search engine rankings.
6. Link diversity
Too many links from one website won’t help to boost the search engine ranking. Link diversity is the factor which helps to increase domain authority, page rank and search engine ranking. This defines the reputation of your website in terms of link count.
7. Anchor text variation
This is one of the most important things to implement when doing link building for the website. The question is how much the variation should be done? Well, there no standard ratio for this to apply. You can use your main keyword in anchor text around 10-20% and including other keyword variation as a anchor text.
It is seen that Google do penalize even there is keyword variation used in the website. This is due to using the variation of the same keyword. Using other related keywords, synonyms and URL as anchor text can help to dilute the over optimization of certain keyword.
Google is releasing new versions of the Penguin update as it was released its third version on 5th October 2012. It is the best time to make sure that your website is Penguin proof and will rock in the search engine results.
Good points have started my own web design company recently and the web is a crowed place so using these rules helps a lot have a bit more info.