Struggling
to know what to do in the wake of Google’s Penguin Update? Here are initial
advice from Google on the topic, mixed with experts opinion.
Was
your website Hit?
It’s
easy to run some search, see that your site has gone and assume the worst.
While Google does report some spamming offenses through Google
Webmaster Central,
it tells me there’s no way currently to log-in and know if the Penguin Update
hit you.
The
update launched on April 24. Look at your search-related traffic from Google
immediately after that date. Do you see a major drop compared with a day or two
before? If so, you were probably hit by Penguin. See a rise in traffic? You
probably benefited from Penguin. See no change? Then it really had no impact on
you.
How
Do you Recover?
Since
this was targeting spam, you need to remove any spam you might have. In some
cases, Google may have sent
messages to you about spam activity in the past.
Messages may even be waiting
for you in Google Webmaster Central, if you’ve
never verified your account.
Obviously,
correct anything that Google has flagged as spam with your site. If nothing’s
been flagged — and you’re sure it was Penguin that hit you — then correct
whatever you can think of that might be spam-like.
Within
Google Webmaster Central, there’s the ability to file a reconsideration
request.
However, Google says this is an algorithmic change — IE, it’s a penalty that’s
applied automatically, rather than a human at Google spotting some spam and
applying what’s called a manual penalty.
Because
of that, Google said that reconsideration requests won’t help with Penguin.
Because this is an
algorithmic change, Google has no plans to make manual exceptions.
.
What
If Google’s Wrong!
Feel
like Penguin has nabbed you for spamming incorrectly? As explained above, you
can use the new Penguin
Feedback form.
As Google’s statement above also explains, you can post feedback through
Google’s webmaster
forum.
If
you do this, my advice is not to go in with the attitude that Google has
wronged your site. Maybe it did, but Google’s more interested in whether its
search results that are doing wrong by searchers.
Give
an example of a search where maybe you were previously listed. Explain the
quality of your site. Explain what remains, especially if what remains seems to
be benefiting from spam or is of low quality.
Of
course, giving examples like this is also seen by some as “outing,” and there’s
a belief among some SEOs that it should never be done. Others disagree. If this
bothers you, then at least explain the quality behind your site and what’s
being missed by searchers, not an emphasis on things like how much traffic or
business you’re losing.
What
About The Over-Optimization Penalty?
Google
had initially warned that an
“over-optimization” penalty was coming. This is the penalty it was talking
about, but it
has clarified that
it’s not meant to target some hard-to-pin down “over-optimization” but rather
outright spam.
What
About Panda 3.5?
Yesterday,
Google confirmed that it also released an update to its Panda algorithm, Panda
3.5,
on April 19. Unlike Penguin, which is meant to target spam, Panda is designed
to target pages that aren’t spam but aren’t great quality.
The
date is important. If your traffic dropped on April 19 and never recovered,
then you were probably hit by Panda rather than Penguin, and you need to follow
advice for recovering from Panda.
What
About That Parked Domains Mistake?
Around
April 17, a number of sites reported lost traffic. That turned out to be a
problem with how Google was incorrectly classifying them
as being parked domains.
If
your traffic dropped around April 17, it’s probably related to that, especially
if you recovered by April 18. It shouldn’t be responsible for any drop you
might see after April 18. Rather, Panda and Penguin are more likely culprits.
What
About All Those Link Warnings?
Around
mid-March, Google began taking action against some blog networks that seemed
chiefly designed just to generate links to those participating, in hopes of
boosting rankings. Then around the end of March, Google also sent warnings
about “artificial or unnatural links” to a variety of sites.
If
you saw your traffic drop in mid-March, it could be for one of two reasons.
First, Google might no longer be letting the traffic from the link networks you
were in carry weight. You’re not penalized. You’re just not benefiting any
longer. Second, Google might have actively attached a penalty to your site.
It’s
really not clear which has happened to people. Getting a warning doesn’t
necessarily mean you got a penalty, it seems. But we’ll try to confirm this
more from Google in the coming days.
What
About Negative SEO?
Especially
in the past week, there’s been a huge rise in forum discussions that “negative
SEO” is now a serious problem. The idea is that if being in a blog network or
having paid links could hurt you, then anyone could point bad links to harm
another site.
This
fear has existed for years. It’s not new. It’s even something Google acknowledges
can happen in some limited cases. The fact that we’ve not had many sites over
the years complaining that negative SEO has hit them should be reassuring.
Is
Penguin Bad For Searchers, Small Businesses….
If
you read forum discussions, the Penguin Update has ruined Google’s search
results. The reality is difficult to tell.
Make
no mistake, it’s easy to find plenty of weirdness in Google’s results, as I
covered in yesterday’s post, Did Penguin Make
Google’s Search Results Better Or Worse?
However,
these still remain anecdotal reports. It’s always been possible to find
oddities like this.
There’s
been no mass outcry from ordinary Google searchers that it’s suddenly gotten
worse. There’s also typically outcry mostly from publishers who have been
harmed by updates and not from publishers who have gained. Those who’ve gained
have no reason to speak up.
As
a result, after any update, it’s always possible to come away with a skewed
view that the sky is falling in terms of relevancy. The reactions I’ve seen to
the Penguin Update? They could have all been drawn directly out of reactions
from the Florida Update of 2003. This presentation I did for concerned publishers at the time
are equally applicable today.
After
that update, Google was accused of trying to do everything from put small
businesses out-of-business to trying to get more AdWords cash out of big
brands. And SEO
was dead yet again.
If
SEO is dead, it sure has been taking its time dying, as I’ve written in the past. If Google really does have a grand master
plan to wipe out small businesses, then it’s going on 10 years now that it
hasn’t managed to do it.
The
reality is that the vast majority of small businesses are getting plenty of
traffic from Google, real small businesses that make real things or provide
real services.
Of
course, if the definition of small business is someone who writes hundreds of
articles for a blog, to carry Google’s or someone else’s ads alongside, then
“spins” those articles using software into slightly different versions for
three other blogs to carry more ads, then yes, those types of businesses are in
danger. They were from the beginning, actually, and it’s surprising they’ve
lasted so long.
None
of that is meant to take away from anyone with a quality site who has been
harmed by latest update. If Google’s screwing up on listing relevant sites, we
want to know, and we sure want that corrected. But as someone who has witnessed
Google updates for as far back as we’ve had Google — who can remember panic
over updates with Excite that existed before Google — this seems fairly normal.
Search
didn’t suddenly stop sending everyone traffic. Google didn’t just stop sending
sites tons of traffic. A bunch of people were definitely hit, some of whom
probably should have been hit. A bunch of people were rewarded, some of whom
should have been rewarded. Most people probably noticed no change at all.
Here’s hoping the people who were hit mistakenly, or who weren’t rewarded as
they should have been, get corrected in future updates.
