Google Penguin Updates – An Update

                The change that Google have made to make the web search experience more user-friendly has everyone clamoring for new tactics and strategies in SEO.  Although the algorithms are top-secret and has everyone guessing which sites will fall off the ranks- one thing is for sure, the old aggressive strategies are out the window and black hat SEO is not even worth mentioning.

                The latest Penguin Update dubbed as Penguin 2.0 was released on May 22, 2013 and is supposed to be a major update compared to the third and the fourth releases.  This had SEOs and webmasters bracing for what’s coming as Google has always been vague regarding what really is in store.   All they had to say was that this time the new “Spam Fighting” Penguin goes deeper than the original version.

After the scheduled release, the SERP weather stations had their statistics and numbers analysed the impact on the queries were not as major as expected.  However, there is a notable jolt on the ranks for gaming and porn sites- an indication that the updates are doing the job they are meant to do. 

Over-all, Google is doing its best to be true to their promise of getting their search engines to return with results that actually matter to their users.  As for SEOs and Webmasters, the main idea to minimize the Penguin impact is steer clear of the following:

·         Web- spamming

·         Link bombing

·         Keyword Stuffing

·         Over optimization

The key to survival is to focus on building on the trust and authority of your sites and if you have been penalized, do the major clean-up, submit a re-inclusion request or as a last resort use the Google Disavow tool.

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Website Redesign and the New SEO Strategies

For some websites, webpage reconstruction is the only choice to get online traffic, since Google’s Panda updates have been rolling out, these changes are inevitable.  Loss of traffic is usually loss of converted sales.

First place to start doing re-vamp is the landing page.  If you had a good online traffic before Google Panda, and your site took a big hit right after, you will need and overhaul.  Take note of the general rule though, the landing page should be optimized and engaging as well as informative enough for your viewers that they decide to explore your site and not think of clicking back. Somehow, everyone in the SEO world has agreed that keyword stuffing has gone out the window and informative content has taken its place.  Which brings us to the next point – keywords. 

Keywords are still hold great importance but the old strategies such as careful inclusion of keywords and level of keyword density is not a rule anymore.  The best SEO strategy when it comes to keywords is to make use of them naturally; some SEO experts also recommend the use of related keywords and synonyms.  However, the SEO keyword rule regarding the title tags stays so, if it looks natural, go for it.

Next comes other elements on the web page - videos, images, infographics, they are engaging and they can be optimized as well. Be creative in labeling images and videos.  Here is where it is crucial that you, your web developer, your web designer and your SEO service provider are of the same mind set.

Offsite SEO is next step to build up on, and it is best to have a dynamic SEO team who knows how go with the flow.  The past few months have been a whirlwind of changes and those who stayed on top of the SERPs are the ones who had a speedy reaction time.  Just as quality content has taken over, quality backlinks has also taken center stage.  Backlinks coming from featured authors, and likes, shares and tweets from social media sites have brought sites up the SERP ranks.

To sum it all up, the effective SEO strategies revolve around the online user’s intent and behavior.  It is not about beating the search engines but to work alongside them to give the best possible online experience we all have to offer.  Yes, it’s all about marketing and about playing by the rules that the biggest search engines put in place, and those who play nice wins every time