Tactics for Dealing with the Latest Google Algorithm Updates - Pubcon New Orleans 2013

Tactics for Dealing with the Latest
Google Algorithm Updates
Presented by:
Bill Hartzer

Overview
• Recent Major Google Updates
– Panda, Penguin, EMD, Page Layout Updates
• Google Knowledge Graph
• UnNatural Link Warnings
• Cleaning Up Your Links
• Link Removal Requests
• Google Disavow Tool
Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO
Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer
Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog

What is Google Panda?
• Ranking factor added to the Google algorithm
• Filter designed to identify ‘low quality pages’.
• Provides better rankings for high-quality sites
• Doesn't run continuously due to analysis processing
• Updates every 4 to 7 weeks
• Named after Google engineer Navneet Panda

How Google Panda Was Developed
• Google Engineer came up with questions.
• Sent questions to human quality testers who rated sites
– Rated based on quality, design, trustworthiness, speed, and
whether or not they would return to site
– Google came up with definition of “low quality”
• Launched Personal Chrome Site Blocker extension earlier.
– Allowed users to specify sites they want blocked from search
results
• Compared data from both sources (Raters and Chrome Blocker),
and had 84 percent overlap, indicating on right track
• Came up with Classifier to indicate Low Quality vs. High Quality
Sites, to be used mathematically in Google Panda.

Google Panda History
• Rolled Out to US sites around February 24, 2011
– http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-
in.html
• Rolled out to Globally to all English language Users around
April 11, 2011
– Also began to roll out data from sites that users block
• Latest update Panda #25 — March 14, 2013
- Panda updates now on rolling update schedule (previously
manually pushed out). Updates less transparent now.

Google Panda Update History
• Panda/Farmer — February 23, 2011
• Panda 2.0 — April 11, 2011
• Panda 2.1 — May 9, 2011
• Panda 2.2 — June 21, 2011
• Panda 2.3 — July 23, 2011
• Panda Goes Global (2.4) — August 12, 2011
• Panda 2.5 — September 28, 2011
• Panda "Flux" — October 5, 2011
• Panda 3.1 — November 18, 2011
• Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012
• Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012
• Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012
• Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012
• Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012
• Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012
• Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012
• Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012
• Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012
• Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012
• Panda #20 — September 27, 2012
See the Google Algorithm Change History:
http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change
• Panda #21 — November 5, 2012
• Panda #22 — November 21, 2012
• Panda #23 — December 21, 2012
• Panda #24 — January 23, 2013
• Panda #24 — March 14, 2013

Were You Hit by Panda?
• Look at Web Analytics
• Sites affected had traffic loss starting in February, 2011.
• Google Analytics for your site (Web Trends, Omniture, etc.)
• Google Trends for any site (http://trends.google.com)

Recovering from Panda
• Make sure all content on site is “high quality”
• Review Google’s List: 23 Questions to assess quality
– http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-
high-quality.html
• Identify and remove least-visited pages
on site via your web analytics
• Take out the trash, so to speak.
• Prevent Pogosticking from SERPs.

Panda vs. Penguin
• Panda focuses on sites providing a bad user experience
– Sites with low quality content
• Penguin focuses on spamdexing and link bombing.

What is Google Penguin?
• Google: “algorithm change targeted at webspam.”
– http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-
high-quality.html
• Goal is to “decrease rankings for sites that violate Google’s
Quality Guidelines”.
– http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?
hl=en&answer=35769#3
• Examples:
– Keyword Stuffing, Over Optimization
– Unusual linking patterns (outgoing links)

Google Penguin History
• First reported April 24, 2012
• Penguin #2 — May 25, 2012
• Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012
- impacted 0.3 percent of queries
• Penguin #4 — Coming Soon… but was announced in
“Search Police” session at SMX West March 20th
.

Were You Hit by Penguin?
• Panda 4/19/2012, Penguin 4/24, Panda refresh 4/27, then Panda 10/5
– Search Engine Journal: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/penguin-or-panda-how-to-
determine-which-google-algorithm-update-impacted-your-website/43751/

Recovering from Penguin
• Perform a full SEO Audit of web site
– Identify and fix problem areas on site that violate Google
guidelines (keyword stuffing, over optimization, etc.)
• Review Google Webmaster Tools for messages, suggestions
• Perform full link analysis of site
– Download links from Majestic SEO, SEOMoz Open Site
Explorer, a hrefs, etc.
– Review anchor text, clean up links to site
– LinkResearchTools.com for further cleanup
• Work on Authority, Trust of your site

Exact Match Domain Update
• Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update — September 27, 2012
Should be called the “Commercial Phrase” Update. But for PR purposes, I realize
why Google calls it the “EMD” update.
• Google targeted “commercial phrases” with this update.
• AdWords CPC Cost + # Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase
• Example:
– $5.00 CPC + 20,000 Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase
• Valuable Domain Names include Keywords (commercial phrases)
• Not all keyword rich domains affected
• Sites without keyword rich domains were affected
• Recover by cleaning up your link profile, especially anchor text

Page Layout Update
• Page Layout #2 — October 9, 2012
• Google targeted pages with too many ads “above the fold”
• http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

Knowledge Graph Update
• Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012
• Added KG functionality to non-English queries, enhanced KG
• Get your site, business ready for Knowledge Graph.
• TIP: get listed in Freebase.com, part of Knowledge Graph.

UnNatural Link Warnings
• Got an unnatural link warning in Google Webmaster Tools?
• Sample Unnatural Link Warning shown below
• Process for Recovering from Unnatural Link Warnings:
• Clean Up Links, Disavow, Reinclusion Request
• IMPORTANT: Clean Up Your Links!
– Disavow, Reinclusion Request not required!

Cleaning Up Your Links
• Review all your links (Majestic SEO, a hrefs, Webmaster Tools)
• LinkResearchTools .com Link Detox Tool
• Identify Toxic and Suspicious Links. Review by hand!
• Notify site owners of toxic links, review suspicious links
• Be nice, ask, beg for removals. No C&D from your lawyer!
• If no answer, prepare Link Disavow list

Link Removal Requests
• Get organized. MS Excel, Google Docs spreadsheet
• Include URL, Status, Date Contacted, Anchor Text, Notes
• Find domain owner (whois data, contact info on site)
• Ask for link removal or anchor text change if appropriate
• Realize that some links won’t be removed (thus disavow tool)
• Remember: Disavow is not required in order to recover.
• How to respond to a link removal request
http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/how-to-respond-to-a-link-
removal-request/

Google Disavow Tool
• What is Disavow? (Bing has Disavow tool, too)
• Disavow is an advanced tool – use with caution
• Not all sites should disavow links
• Should You Disavow Links? How to Know
- check your backlink profile, look for toxic links
- if you have a rogue former SEO firm who built bad links
- if you have negative SEO done to your site
• Disavow should be a “last resort” effort. It’s not a magic bullet
for ranking better.
• Carry on with your ‘normal’ linking, link earning activities (or
do more of it)
• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main

And Finally…
• How many characters can you fit in a Title Tag in
the Google SERPs? Most say 70 characters or less…

110+ Characters in the Title
• Measure title tag length in pixels, not characters
• Google doesn't truncate title tags in SERPs based on
the number of characters in your title tag.
• Blog post and tool to measure title tag pixel length:
http://bit.ly/titletaglength

Thank You
Bill Hartzer
Director of Search Engine Optimization
Standing Dog
www.StandingDog.com
Twitter: @StandingDog
Facebook: Facebook.com/standingdog
Personal Blog: www.BillHartzer.com
Twitter: @Bhartzer
Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer

Tactics for Dealing with the Latest Google Algorithm Updates - Pubcon New Orleans 2013

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Tactics for Dealing with the Latest Google Algorithm Updates - Pubcon New Orleans 2013