It’s almost been a week since the evil penguin waddled his way into the algorithm world. Has the dust settled or is Google just getting started with their fix, and as some people like to call it “their attack” on SEO. Really this all depends on how you look at the situation; also it depends on how quick the mean little penguin is working. Who knows, your site might be affected and it just hasn’t happened yet. Some of the pro-penguin people might change their minds if their site is all of a sudden affected in the coming days or weeks.
So your site was hit and you have no idea why, it could be that you paid for text links matching an exact anchor text, maybe you engaged in comment spam, or did some guest blog posts on questionable sites. Did you do some work on article marketing sites, or even link back to your site from “dangerous” sites? In reality these are all things that Google has always said is a big no-no, but Mr. Penguin is more likely to catch up to these tactics. If you did partake in these tactics, then shame on you and it’s probably best that the penguin caught you.
My question is pretty simple: Why did some sites get hit while others are perfectly fine? I am hearing from person after person that they had almost the exact marketing plan for different websites, yet some are doing better than ever and others are wiped off the map. Is this just an indication that the new update is taking a while to catch up with certain sites, or is it an indication that this new update is not as good as we are lead to believe. Could it even be the topic that the website is about, maybe Google looks at certain sites with more leniency depending on the subject matter? Of course this is just speculation, but if that is the case, is that fair?
It seems like everyone is confused and caught in the vicious circle that is the ever-changing Google algorithm. So what are you supposed to do to get your rankings back if you were affected by the penguin update? The short answer is who knows. It’s obviously time to go in and clean up your website, go out there and clean up your links, make sure you don’t have any spammy links pointing back to you, start creating fresh content, make sure you don’t have too many ads, and without a doubt make sure your business is on Google+. Again these are guesses on my part and I have no idea if they will help you regain your rankings.
I believe it’s time to devise a strategy that doesn’t rely so heavily on Google, this way your not going to take a major hit or have to worry about a hit every time Google changes their algorithm. Which seems to be very often these days, did you know there was a Panda update just 7 days before the Penguin came splashing through the web world?
How do you devise a plan that doesn’t rely on Google? You can start with a solid e-mail marketing campaign; try to partner with other companies that will send e-mails on your behalf. Look towards Google’s competitors such as Bing and new search engines such as Blekko or DuckDuckGo. And please diversify your tactics; don’t just focus on one blog network or backlink building tool. Use videos, social networks, e-mails, and guest blogging, all with good unique content. The last thing I would say is to be patient, let Google work things out with their algorithm and your rankings might just come back naturally.
I know this blog seems a little schizophrenic, however that’s how I feel about Google right now. I guess the good thing is that all of us so called SEO experts are on this rollercoaster ride together. All we can do is hold on tight and wait for the big drop that hopefully never comes!
