P-P-P-Penguin update???

[SamSites]

Hi, I'm fairly new to domaining/website building, so I'm fairly new to the game, and all the sudden I've heard of this big google update, nick-named penguin, which means you need links to get -anywhere-. I don't have links, probably won't be able to get them, and have lost some significant rankings. Can someone please explain whats happened/happening/what this update means? Surprisingly one of my low-popular sites is performing really well out of the blue to counter the other losses.

 

[Systreg]

Have a read of this 14 page topic all about penguin updates: http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/search-engine-optimisation/102385-penguin-update-synopsis.html

 

[SamSites]

Cheers for link.

 

[storebuilder]

Until this Penguin update Google placed a high emphasis on backlinks and anchor text.

Several Google initiatives have de indexed blog spam networks and other low quality garbage links.

If you write quality content and plenty of it you will have no problem ranking with just a few links. It's always been that way just that now a lot of sites that relied on links alone have suddenly disappeared en masse from Google Index.

 

[marko777]

Until this Penguin update Google placed a high emphasis on backlinks and anchor text.

Several Google initiatives have de indexed blog spam networks and other low quality garbage links.

If you write quality content and plenty of it you will have no problem ranking with just a few links. It's always been that way just that now a lot of sites that relied on links alone have suddenly disappeared en masse from Google Index.

I do seo and this isn't quite true.Alot of sites with quality content etc got hit with penguin and a panda update happened a day or so before peguin so some people have no idea which hit them.
Penguin looks at factors like hidden html,your meta keywords,any hidden links in the html,basically content the end user would not normally see unless they use firefox and right click view source.

I know by your repsonse you do not do seo because no one would make a statment like that because I know some top level seo's and no one has a total understanding of what penguin does.Panda is the backlink update algorithym,penguin looks at anchortext,hidden html code amongst many other things and is a filter you need to go through before panda comes into play on your site.

I could show you some mega keyword sites ranking #1 with dire backlinks,I won't because there is always someone who is jealous of other peoples income but to assume quality content and a few links will rank you #1 for competitive keywords is dreaming.In some niches it APPEARS that way,look deeper you get the whole story the.

 

[Nova]

That's quite interesting Marko. I'm using a WordPress theme that allows you to hide header and content information with one click. The likes of "this site is powered by WordPress" etc.
I wonder if doing this is having an adverse affect on my seo now that penguin is out?

 

[marko777]

That's quite interesting Marko. I'm using a WordPress theme that allows you to hide header and content information with one click. The likes of "this site is powered by WordPress" etc.
I wonder if doing this is having an adverse affect on my seo now that penguin is out?

If you're site dropped around penguin it's possible however penguin has multiple factors.Some sites I have looked at have very obvious issues,primarily with over optimized keyword use.
It's a good idea if you are trying to find issues with a site to step back and look at the site from a visitors perspective.Is there over use of keywords,if so try lowering your keyword %,if has you mention your site has hidden coding which may be inadvertently hiding links try switching the plug in off.

Do one thing at a time then build some links so your site gets spidered again and googlebot picks up the changes then monitor the results.High pr bookmarks will get indexed fast therefore your changes will get picked up faster.

 

[solaris]

That's quite interesting Marko. I'm using a WordPress theme that allows you to hide header and content information with one click. The likes of "this site is powered by WordPress" etc.
I wonder if doing this is having an adverse affect on my seo now that penguin is out?

That shouldn't matter if the plugin just removes it - usually they do. In your browser via >View >Source you can see if it is still there.

Hidden text here is mostly stuff that really is in the source but not visible to the human user, usually hidden by CSS.

 

[Nova]

Okay thanks guys ill give your suggestions a try.

 

[JamesMac]

Panda was a quality freshness update. Penguin was not meaning that Google did not care about improving the quality of the serps but instead punishing people abusing their guidelines. Primarily Penguin focused on your link portfolio - I think this is pretty obvious given the results posted from multiple sources and the fact Matt Cutts points to links every time he gets questioned why a specific site got punished. It will be some sort of weighting towards the quality of your link sources against the distribution of your anchor text.

During the time penguin first rolled out they also updated 50 different performance indicators AND rolled out a Panda update shortly after. You need to check your traffic and your dates to work out what is going on and why your site has been punished. If it was Penguin my first advice would be to look at you back link portfolio and how you can go about removing some of your poor quality manipulative links.

 

[naughtydog]

Penguin is link related, not enough anchor test diversity, I lost a site to penguin - diluting your backlink profile I think is better than removing lnks, which is hard to do.
More fresh content, low bounce rates will help going forward.

I dont think hidden text is a current tactic, that was something from the 90's in my eyes.

not science just my opinion.

 

[Admin]

I'm getting emails, even threatening ones, telling me to remove links from some of my sites to others. I didn't realise people would consider my sites such a poor back link, some are even PR4

Admin