Lessons to Learn from the Google Penguin Update
Welcome back Susan Silver of Cirquedumot.com, contributor today.
Keeping up with the Google penquin update
There is a lot of SEO advice out there in a world since the Google Penquin update. Much of it repetitive. If you have been blogging or writing online, then you have heard some of the solid advice that already exists. I think the real challenge is sorting through the fads that are out there. The link schemes and new tools that could get you in hot water down the line when an update like Google Penguin update or Panda updates occur.
Today I want to talk about strategies that focus on long term results, not short term gains.
Link Building
It may seem that Penguin punishes us for link building activities. It is the opposite, the focus is on spam links that are too heavily optimized. The targeting feature being a lack of diversity in anchor text.
Lesson: Understand that links are dynamic. A natural link profile will have some silly looking links. For example, when people link to my blog they write Cirque du Mot. In french this is correct. I prefer Cirquedumot.com, but I cannot control what text people link to the website with. It does seem to change my search results.
Bad Neighborhoods
One aspect of SEO that not many people understand is that the source of a link matters. Low quality websites are “bad neighborhoods”. Check your link profile for these guys. To clarify, just having a link to your website won’t hurt your ranking at all. It is clearly explained in this post from SEO Moz. The danger is for new websites and those who have participated in black hat exercises already. On average these bad links disappear on their own due to being devalued by Google. This may hurt your rankings if those websites suddenly disappear, but you will be better off for it.
Lesson: When you link to websites make sure they are trust worthy. Do not just choose the first link you find in a Google search. Choose one the same way you vote for a political candidate. When you link to another blog you are literally giving them your vote as a trusted site to the search engines.
Long Tail Keywords
Focus on long tail keywords and evergreen content. The tool ubersuggest is a great way to find them. It will give you plenty of ideas related to your websites keywords and the search phrases people actually use to find them. This tool really is a blogger’s friend.
Lesson: Writing on the latest hot topic is less important than writing relevant content. Maybe that post goes viral, but it won’t necessarily convert to more readers or purchases. Exposure is not what is key to your blogs livelihood, but content that draws in readers.
What advice have you heard about SEO? What was the best advice? What seemed like the worst? Has the Google Penguin update affected you?
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About Susan Silver
Susan Silver is celebrating her third year as a contract copywriter. She has written for several online publications on the topics of social media, marketing, and pop-culture.On Cirquedumot she teaches her audience about the blog life cycle.
17 Responses to Lessons to Learn from the Google Penguin Update
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I keep hearing a lot of chatter about SEO, but I am a newbie and offer no advice. Thank you for the information.
If you want to learn more about SEO check out SEO Moz and Search Engine Land. This two are my go tor resources and the people I trust most in the business.
Susan Silver recently posted..Tweaky Marketplace: Affordable WordPress Customization [Interview]
Hey Susan,
Thanks for sharing this. I was always taught that any spammy links or just links overall that link to your blog that have nothing to do with your content can hurt you in the eyes of Google. Not that it has anything to do with rank per se but that it’s like it devalues your content so is that still right?
I never did any black hat link building myself and the first hit didn’t affect me but I did lose some traffic from the last one. It obviously didn’t hurt my site any though. For that I’m thankful but these are still lessons to be learned. I especially hate it when some “guru” is pumping your head full of great ways to get your site up in the search engines and that’s what comes back to bite you.
Great post and nice to have you here at Lisa’s place. Hope you ladies have a wonderful day.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..How To Take Blog Commenting To The Next Level
As I was researching this article I wondered that to, but then I realized it doesn’t make sense. Bad neighborhoods really effect you when you personally link to them in content. It shows, I guess, that you might be participating in link exchanges and what not. The SEO Moz post really debunks an old myth that who links to you matters. There is a big scare going on now with “Negative SEO”, so I wanted to include something about it/ To give a fresh perspective on what it is or is not.
I don’t think the average blogger has to worry much except for making sure they are linking to good resources.
Susan Silver recently posted..Tweaky Marketplace: Affordable WordPress Customization [Interview]
Thank you Susan, I think we just need to each do what’s best for us and if we want our blogs to live up to a certain standard then we have to watch who we have linking to us.
Adrienne recently posted..How To Take Blog Commenting To The Next Level
It is always a good idea to track who is linking to us. Especially to thank them for doing so!
Penguin, Zebra and the whole zoo. Of course Google is updating the ranking algorithm all the time and implements small changes to ‘optimize’. And if their goal is to improve the quality of the Internet I understand that. On the other hand, quality by whose standards? And what are those standards exactly?
I try to watch to what sites I link. Directly linking to a link farm is not a good thing, not even when Mrs. Google is not watching.
I am all for high quality blogging ‘just’ for fun *and* if you are running an on line business. The thing I am having trouble with is the fact Google messes with your income if you blog for an income…
That is a huge issue. It is like we feed the beast and then get our hands bit off. The truth is, Google is a business. The updates are part of their bottom line. Danny Sullivan is much more eloquent on these topics than I. But, I have felt that frustration too. So, I try to appease myself content wise and focus on building relationships.Friends are bound to do more for me than Google in the long run. Certainly easier to put my trust in them.
Susan Silver recently posted..Tweaky Marketplace: Affordable WordPress Customization [Interview]
Thank you Susan for this informative post. You are correct, there are too many articles, or tips about SEO, Google Penguin Update shield and the likes, but not all of them are working, or not all of them are derived from the original concept which give the same effect.
On the other side, there are various helps on how to boost blog traffic, the only problem is – “how to use them correctly”. I guess, it’s all about how we apply and use them, and how patient we are to wait for results.
So far, I have several trusted blogs specialized for SEO, and one of them which I can see that is successful in their journey from building a blog from scratch is MBT or mybloggertricks!
Anyways, we can still linked, however we have to use the “nofollow” tags if we are not sure the link will last or the link is safe enough but somehow helpful to our idea.
Thanks for this post Susan!
Prime Aque recently posted..Rebuild Your Path – a Way to Better Blogging
Lots of great points in this comment. I will check out the blog you mentioned. A sure sign that someone’s advice is the real deal is to see how their website performs. And how hard they are hit by changes. If they can weather the storm, the advice would seem more relevant (to me at least).
Susan Silver recently posted..Tweaky Marketplace: Affordable WordPress Customization [Interview]
Thank you Susan… and just now I have visited your blog. The first thing I see is your title, I could not just proceed without reading your about page! It catches me in the first place. I am sure I will enjoy your expertise and great tutorials for blogging.
See you
Prime Aque recently posted..Quality, Professionalism and Marketing Lead to a Successful Blogging
Need not to say something a lot because you have mentioned very good.
Spam link affect so much. i never did this and in future will not be by me.
Thanks for sharing with us on a informative one.
Hi Susan,
Nice points for SEO dear
I’ve read that Google penalizing for spammy links and for linking with low quality websites. However links are not only the spammy resources. One thing I’ve experienced is there are some comments which secretly link back to fake traffic generation websites. With such comments we experience huge traffic boost but it’s all are fake ones generated by bots. Google penalize for ‘em too 
Long tail keywords are really healthy
I agree with you. It’s about predicting our potential visitors and what keywords they would used to find our content. That’s a BIG plus point for SEO 
However I like penguins (Animal) and techniques that Google rolls out. All counts for convenience and to increase user experience. I always believe in quality content and exposure is another thing that you need once you got quality content. More strategies on SEO, but I’m simply blogging
if we are on good practices and understand basics of SEO, updates won’t hit on us.
Thanks for your information related to SEO dear
They are really helpful on the aspect of SEO.
Cheers…
(dofollow)
Mayura recently posted..3 Great Twitter Stats to See How Effective Your Twittering Is
Thanks for the comment. I really believe that if we focus on readers then our SEO will go with that. When I do keyword research it is to find a phrase that matches with the content I want to write on. I think of it as a way to be inspired to write.
Susan Silver recently posted..Tweaky Marketplace: Affordable WordPress Customization [Interview]
Hi Susan,
thanks for offering us some more information about the Penguin update. I saw that a lot of bloggers have criticized this update as it has affected their rank and traffic.
Content is always the most important part and you are so right, it really doesn’t have to be related to newest trends but sometimes it helps if it is.
Mariella
Mariella Lombardi recently posted..The Jillian Michaels Premium Weight Loss Plan – Does it Work?
Yes, my advice should be taken with a grain of salt. I do not montesze my blog at the moment. Therefore I have not been as hurt by the updates as some bloggers I know.
I find that using Social Media makes up for much of the losses I suffered due to the updates.
Susan Silver recently posted..Tweaky Marketplace: Affordable WordPress Customization [Interview]
Good post Susan, and I am sure most useful to a lot of people. Keeping up with G’s updates can be pretty overwhelming to webmasters and seo’s. If you do the right thing, and stay on the “”white”" side, the updates should not affect you / us. I created a post with a Google Penalty List for you or your readers to check out.
Justin recently posted..Do Backlinks Have To Be From A Relevant Site