The Google Penguin update has caused widespread panic and mayhem. It came after Google Panda, which penalized numerous websites. The Penguin changed the situation even further, causing the death of some traditional, well-established search engine optimization techniques.
Do you know how to recover from Penguin penalty? Understanding the update, the techniques it penalizes and the best ways to overcome the search engine traffic decrease are of uttermost importance to help you achieve good positioning once again.
Google Penguin: What Really Happened
Google Penguin update was introduced in late April 2012. It caused tremendous upheaval because various websites performing well until that moment lost a significant portion of their search engine traffic.
Penguin was introduced to penalize spam and black hat practices connected to link building. Some of the techniques that Google decided to penalize include paid links, participation in link schemes and the usage of link networks.
Google advised website owners and web masters to remove these links in an attempt to restore their previous status. Penguin and Panda together killed some of the most popular SEO methods including link building strategies and the usage of keywords.
The panic made some website owners undertake drastic measures. People began removing links, even the high quality, natural ones that add a lot to a website’s search engine positioning. Many have been incapable of achieving SEO recovery regardless of the changes and the acceptance of new search engine optimization techniques.
Google Penguin and Link Building in a New Way
Google has made it clear that all of the practices failing to correspond to the Google Webmaster Guidelines will be penalized. The problem stems from the fact that many people fail understanding the guidelines. Additionally, Google is issuing warnings every now and then that make it very difficult for people to understand what is acceptable and what should be avoided.
How to recover from the Penguin penalty? First, put emphasis on your website’s useful content and remove all of the links that Google is considering shady. This does not apply to natural links that come from high quality, well-positioned websites.
Link building is still tremendously important; you simply have to be careful about it. Today, quality matters a whole lot more than quantity. Directories were severely penalized but niche directories that have good Google standing can still help you achieve your search engine optimization goals.
The easiest way to determine whether you are having an actual problem is to look at your traffic figures. What is the Google traffic percentage and has it gone down significantly over the past few months? If so, you are probably experiencing such a loss of search engine popularity due to bad links. Try to figure out which ones are hurting your website’s standing and work on having those removed.
It is difficult to determine what strategy is efficient because Google is issuing updates and new warning on a monthly basis. These provide controversial information, making it impossible for webmasters to determine what works and what might get a website penalized. A good strategy should focus on the experience of the website’s visitors. Useful content, good navigation and well-structured pages will certainly benefit your SEO efforts and lead to the appearance of natural backlinks.
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