Google Penguin Update Webinar

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Google Penguin Update & the Future of Internet Marketing What is going on in the minds of Google? Over 50 updates per month and more than 500 updates per year. There are more questions now than ever regarding how to best optimize your site and play within the rules set by Google. The future of SEO and Internet marketing has not only changed over the year but, most recently, over the past few weeks. Online marketers are questioning there link profiles, SEO work they have done in the past and what they should do moving forward. Ken Chris Countey Mike Stricker Todd Bailey Wisnefski Director of SEO Director of SMO VP of Digital Strategy 2 Founder & CEO

Quick Introduction Ken Wisnefski Founder & CEO  Member of the Philadelphia Business Journal 40 Under 40  South Jersey Business Journal 40 under 40  Forbes Americas Most Promising Companies Winner  Philadelphia Business Journal Best Places to Work  South Jersey Business Journal Fastest Growing Company 3

Quick Introduction WebiMax has been featured and written many pieces about the Penguin Update and it‟s impact Penguin is:  A Google algorithm update with a penalty aspect included  Applies to 3.1% of queries  If you target high volume key words, you are subject to Penguin  It has reached Penguin 1.1, which is a data refresh affecting .1% of queries  755,000 or more GWT Messages went out to webmasters  85,000 or more blogs were de-indexed  It is likely that well in excess of 1M websites Ken Wisnefski have been affected to date Founder & CEO 4

Penguin Explained Penguin is an update that penalizes websites for “bad behavior” but is not a penalty itself. • Penguin, like Panda, exists outside the scope of the main algorithm • Penguin will receive a data refresh at undisclosed intervals, much like Panda • Removing spam links and duplicate content will immediately restore rank • Penguin is algorithmic as opposed to a manual tweak to your website specifically Google is constantly trying to improve its search engine for their customer: the person searching. This is the only constant in Google‟s history. Everything else that has changed can be linked to this goal. Google uses artificial intelligence and calculations to make decisions about which pages are right for your query. 5

Penguin Explained • The best indicator is a sharp drop in organic Google traffic on or around April 25, 2012 • A site search for your brand or domain name will also reveal a problem If your brand or your domain does not appear at the top of page 1 of Google when searching for your domain, your site was probably affected 6

Penguin Timeline Matt Cutts hints at an "over- "Webspam Update", later known optmization" update at SXSW as "Penguin" rolled out 3/16/12 4/24/12 12 Mar Apr May 12 4/24/12 Time Between Penguin Updates 5/25/12 The impact of this update was not subtle. Sites that were affected saw a dramatic drop in organic traffic from Google. 7 Made with Office Timeline 2010

Penguin Explained Some sites that were impacted by Penguin had messages like the one below appear in their Google Webmaster Tools account 8

Penguin Explained If your website dropped in rank drastically, you may not have received a direct hit from Penguin. Websites that link to you may have instead been severely hit and removed entirely from Google‟s index. This would result in a loss of “link juice” and ultimately, loss of positions in the SERPs. Dropping just 1 position in the SERP can have a dramatic effect on traffic. 9

Penguin Explained Triggers and Vulnerabilities Competitive Queries! Over-Use of the 3.1% particular "money keywords" or "competitive queries" (transactional or converting keyword phrases with buy…, best…, cheap…, instant cash loans, auto insurance, etc.) 10

Penguin Explained Overuse of Exact-Match Anchor Text links Over-reliance on exact-match anchor text, instead of expected human-built links using domain name, brand name, URL, „click here‟, etc. (exact-match anchor text in irrelevant (thin, shallow, scraped) content on low quality domains, article farms, content farms, or in in combination as comment spam or usernames, etc.) [especially as it applies to Keyword-Named Domains and URLs threshold 60 - 65% VS brand-name or domain-name anchor text] (OSE or Ahrefs) 11

Penguin Explained Too Many Links from Low-Quality Websites especially in association with other factors • Irrelevant domains, encyclopedic link farm directory, “SEOfreeDirectory”, foreign-language directory • Disproportionate number of bad blogs, dirty directories, articles, link farms • Prevalence of Links from irrelevant content, pages and/or domains • Immoderate Reciprocal Links that result in irrelevant links • Links from Duplicate Content (thin, shallow, scraped) 12

Penguin Explained Links from Associated Websites or a Link Scheme, whether paid or home-grown (i.e. same IP, similar C names, matched Analytics code) (Ahrefs, Majestic Neighbourhood, WhoRush) 13

Penguin Explained Imbalance of Link Types (blog comment spam, „dumb‟ directories, shallow articles, inauthentic social bookmarks etc.) (Link Detective or sort) 14

Penguin Explained Links from irrelevant Foreign Websites Links from Paid Links/Premium Links/High PR Links Networks (web business owner should know what‟s paid; agency or SEO should know) Examples of De-indexed or penalized Link Networks: BuildMyRank (BMR) AuthorityLinkNetwork (ALN) Unique Article Wizard MyArticleNetwork BlogBlueprint LinkVana Article Marketing Automation ArticleRanks SEOLinkMonster RankJumpers… etc. 15

Penguin Explained Too many Site-Wide Links (from every page of a website: sidebars, blogrolls, global footers, etc) (OSE or Ahrefs) Bulk Linkbuilding Links from Bad Neighborhoods, Penguin-bit sites, de-indexed Link Networks and blocked Blog Link Wheels, penalized directories, etc. (supplementary, domino-effect) (check blacklists, indexation, rank for domain name or page title) 16

Penguin Explained Lack of Trusted Links - Few relevant incoming links from authoritative domains and websites in the same niche or from the CORE high- authority trusted 100 17

Penguin Explained  Identification of worst links  Check index status of (bad) linking websites  Document contacts of offending websites or sources of “bad” Inbound Links  "Link Purge" - Ask/beg/pay to have links removed – record communications  Disassociate from Link Schemes whether your own link wheels or paid satellite sites, feeder sites  Resign all paid links (except trusted vertical directories Angie‟s List, Thomasnet, or Yahoo! Directory) Fix all these link issues, eliminate any on-site instances of keyword stuffing, spun content, cloaking, and other spammy tactics Submit the site to the Google Penguin Feedback Form with: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ • Citations of efforts • What guided your decisions - similar to WMT letter or “Another step to reward high-quality sites” • Lists of deleted links • Lists of linking sites that defied contact • Commitment to principles of Google Quality Guidelines  Produce tangible evidence of on-site social engagement by real people with your website, pages and products, as well as your off-site social media channels themselves.  Build better evidence of genuine authority, proximity to trust and useful content among a relevant suite of naturally-associated websites. Do this both by sensible link-building and real social engagement using authenticated personal and company profiles, both on-site and off. 18

The Future of Internet Marketing 19

The Future of Internet Marketing  Brand - Google focus on big brands  Citations & Trust – Google rewarding these signals  Social – Identity signal: +1 content = higher CTR (indirect relation)  Personalized Search is a Reality – Affects SEO through social connections and increased CTR (indirect relation)  Authorship – Identity signal: rel=Me/Author (AUTHOR RANK) Investment  VC has steered to Enterprise SEO, Social Signals and API Development Innovation Leaders  SEOmoz  Majestic SEO  HubSpot SERP Rankings  Still important to understand the health of a site  Focus should be placed more on what Analytics is telling you: • Conversion Optimization • CTR and Time on Site/Page  Google uses human quality raters extensively in testing algorithm changes 20

The Future of Internet Marketing WHO IS IMPORTANT: • PR • Journalists • Writers • Bloggers 21

The Future of Internet Marketing Links On-Site Content Off-Site Articles Black Hat Social Media Engagement indirectly affects SEO in a positive way with personal search, CTR‟s as well as earned authority. • Authoritative Identities • Post • Monitor • Engage 22

The Future of Internet Marketing Author Rank Aberrations or Deviations in Ranking Signals – Unnatural Google‟s new direct answers results in more searches 50 updates per month Amit Singhal 500 updates per year Senior VP - Google 20,000 experiments in 2011 23

The Future of Internet Marketing • Brand vs. Non-Branded • Organic Traffic Interaction Goals (or Events) • The anticipated merge between SEO, SMO and Content Marketing with PR is now and is titled Inbound Marketing • Not just Press Releases • Creating relationships with communities, blogs, news outlets • Guest Blogging with authoritative authors 26

The Future of Internet Marketing • On-Site Optimization (Technical – Within Google Guidelines) • Content – Fresh ON and OFF Site Content (High Quality) • Guest Blogging – Relationship Focused / Relevancy • Brand Monitoring – High Priority on Reviewing your Link Profile • Link Building – Less Focus on Anchor Text (Diversify), More Focus on Trust at the Core of Integrity • Public Relations – Pitches, Interviews, Citations and more • Social Engagement – Routine Updates and Communication • Thought Leadership – Become an Influencer, Authoritative Content, Whitepapers, Webinars • Earned Shares – Position High Quality Content Socially and Market • Traffic Replacement – Paid Opportunities, CPM/Ad Networks, Retargeting, Referral Traffic, Display • Gamification – Customer Rewards, Loyalty, Badges, Discounts, Coupons • CSEs (Comparison Shopping Engines) – Free or Paid (Google Merchant now Google Shopping) • RSS & Subscribers – Build Authority for your Site through its Feeds – RSS, Aggregator & Subscriber 27

The Future of Internet Marketing Todays presentation will be available in the coming days at: http://www.slideshare.net/webimax http://www.youtube.com/webimax For immediate questions regarding your web site please contact: 888-932-4629 penguin@webimax.com 28

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Google Penguin Update Webinar

by WebiMax on Jun 06, 2012

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