Google Penguin updates are being launched one after another in the world of SEO forcing webmasters to alter their ranking techniques. Till now, Google has released five Penguin updates. The details of each update are as follows:
- Penguin 1: April 24, 2012
- Penguin 2: May 26, 2012
- Penguin 3: Oct 5, 2012
- Penguin 4/Penguin 2.0: May 22, 2013
- Penguin 5/Penguin 2.1: Oct 4, 2013
Basically, Google Penguin is the name given to the Google Webspam Algorithm. Google’s aims at eliminating web spam to ensure high search engine ranking placements (SERP’s) for quality sites. It seeks to decrease search engine rankings of website which do not follow Google’s guidelines and use Black Hat SEO techniques.
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Google Penguin updates take into account following points:
- Anchor text matching
- Bad Links
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On-site real activity missing by visitors
Black Hat Techniques
Keyword stuffing, hidden text, linking software, comprise of Black hat techniques. SEO professionals who have been making use of these tactics would have already been penalized whether they realized it or not.
Unnatural Back Links
One of the reasons websites search rankings are affected is because of the large amount of unnatural links linking to their site as compared to natural links. Unnatural backlinks can be created by either paying for links or through reciprocal linking i.e. linking to a site if it links to you.
Unnatural links can also take the form of comment spam. Through comment spam people leave their links tagged with their comments on blogs or in discussion boards. Such types of links must be avoided as Google can easily identify the link between two websites. If they are not interrelated, Google is going to penalize such sites.
Anchor Text
Anchor text refers to that label text clicking on which gets you to another webpage. Google can easily identify difference between natural and unnatural links created through anchor text.
What can you do to get your website rank higher?
Most important strategy to build your website’s presence and to get it rank high organically is to create high quality content. Creating informative and valuable content will definitely get people to like and share your stuff online.
For some Google Penguin has come as another challenge while some seem to be celebrating. It has given other sites a chance to rise to the top of search result rankings. For those who use spam techniques and black-hat SEO, their sites might be in trouble, and incorporating more legitimate means to build traffic could be only way out.