Most people had rightly guessed that after the Penguin update came into effect, SEO After Penguin Update would become much more challenging to get good rankings on the search engine. Many sites were badly affected and their search engine rankings plummeted. However, the intent of the Penguin update was not meant to be a penalty, it was just an update of the algorithm used for search engine rankings. The best method to overcome the Penguin onslaught is by changing your SEO strategy.
Algorithmic update such as Penguin will apply to all websites covered by a Google search. Its effects are visible when search results show a change in rankings. A particular keyword may have dropped in rankings, which made it appear in page 4, instead of page 1. However, by careful analysis, corrective measures can be carried out to regain rankings, even after the update.
Though there is no clear and defined path to get the SEO right, one thing is clear, the relevance of what you are doing is going to be important for your ranking. There are a few basic SEO steps, which may require tweaking, to get past Penguin.
Get Your Link Profile Up To The Mark
Your link profile is as important as intellectual property and must be treated as such. In fact, after the Penguin update, this is your biggest asset. When the Google search engine crawls through your link profile, it recognizes websites that are linked to yours. It also finds out how these links have been acquired and what the anchor texts used for these links is. If it detects that the links are dubious, such as paid links etc., then the warning flag goes up. Therefore, it is best to get rid of any such unrelated or irrelevant links up front. Remember, the domain’s link authority depends on a combination of high-value links.
SEO After Penguin Update With Problematic Links
Some of the problematic links which will be flagged by the search engine are side-wide links and links from low quality websites. Side-Wide links are those which are found in the footer/header of every page in the website. These links are sure to be flagged by Google. The other problem which occurs is too many links which are associated to low quality websites. Since this is a common spamming practice, it acts as a red flag to the search engine. By getting rid of such links, potential ranking problems can be avoided.
Keep the same URL’s
Whatever the reason, be it due to new software or design, changing the URL frequently, creates more problems than solutions. Whichever way you treat it, there is a high probability that a 301 re-direct will snip off a small portion of all link values, relevant to the page. Therefore, maintaining the same URL makes more sense.
Check out every page on your website
Check each page of your website carefully and know the structure in detail. Make a detailed assessment of what will work for or against each page of the website. You may find a lot of weak areas which could cause your ranking to drop. Analyze and filter such content so that it has better, most specific keywords. The content of the page should also be improved to help SEO.
Tom, an authority in SEO, is a regular contributor to www.make-a-web-site.com.
About Josh Nadeau
I guess I was unaware that people changed their URL’s that frequently. I usually leave them alone once they’re up there. Even if it’s a blog post, I don’t mess with it because I’d get far too many 404 errors.
Let me ask you, if you change your title tag too much (like, say, every few months) will you get penalized for that?
Link syndication should also be avoided