Algorithm Rolled Out: October 4, 2013
Google has officially revealed Penguin update 2.1, the newest update to its search algorithm, as of October 4th, 2013. This new data refresh follows Google’s introduction of its new Hummingbird algorithm, which was made just a few weeks ago. This is Google’s fifth Penguin update since it initially appeared in April 2012. It should affect about 1% of English inquiries.
Algorithm Overview: Overall Gist
What is Penguin 2.1?
Penguin update 2.1, like its predecessors, is a Google algorithm update aiming to weed out sites that may be considered “spammy”–due to link farming poor quality link profiles. Also, other factors are in favor of high-quality sites with popular, relevant links and natural link profiles.
These updates result from Google’s ongoing efforts to enhance the results it provides to its users. Providing the most relevant, useful, and high-quality results improves a searcher’s experience. This is why Google introduced its new and enhanced Hummingbird algorithm. It will fine-tune that algorithm with ongoing upgrades and data refreshes like Penguin.
Algorithm Winners & Losers
While you may notice some ranking swings over the next few weeks, as many sites did when Penguin 2.0 rolled out in May, the best course of action, for now, is to wait and observe. Patience is a virtue that must be had when adjusting to Google’s algorithm updates. Penguin 2.1 isn’t “a complete game-changer,” and it’s far from the last word on algorithm upgrades. Big, lasting changes in rankings aren’t the usual with refreshes like these. Instead, we might anticipate a period of turbulence in the next weeks.
When you have a refresh like this, dust is stirred up, and rankings become more fluid for a brief period until everything settles down after a week or two. Penguin update 2.1 is most likely to blame if you’ve gotten results for certain searches that you’ve never seen before. Significant dips in ranks aren’t always permanent, and neither are big surges up in the search results. Google’s refreshes and these outcomes take time to stabilize and are borne out over several months. The temptation with revisions like these is to panic, assume the changes are permanent and hurry to modify linking methods and make rash SEO judgments without tracking the changes carefully.
Algorithm Solution: Ways to implement or take to cope with Google algorithm guidelines
Now is the moment to focus on a few SEO fundamentals that will assist you in the long run, Penguin or no Penguin. Continue to establish high-quality, relevant links. Create a site with up-to-date, high-quality material that automatically attracts links and social shares. Concentrate on technical SEO and strive to correct technical flaws that may be harming your site’s rankings and aggravating users. Toxic connections should removed or disavowed. Diversify your techniques and stay away from anchor text that is an exact match. Continue to enhance your online authority and brand via blogging, content marketing, active social media participation, etc.
To fully realize the importance of Penguin 2.1, you must first comprehend three points:
- The importance of contextual links in SEO
- Article spinning
- Tiered link building
The Importance Of Contextual Links
Links, as you may know, are the lifeblood of SEO. They are still one of the essential factors in deciding your site’s rating, despite assertions to the contrary. Contextual links are hyperlinks that appear within an article’s material. These links are more important to Google because it feels they are more difficult to manipulate. To receive a contextual link from an authority website, your website must include relevant and interesting material. As a result, SEOs are on the lookout for such links.
Article Spinning
It easier said than done to create high-quality content. Creating content that people want to link to requires time, effort, and knowledge. Writing and spinning their articles and submitting them to article directories or Web 2.0 sites like WordPress.com and Blogspot.com is one way SEOs get around this.
Putting articles via software that employs “spintax” known as article spinning. “Spintax” is a database of synonyms & related terms that the program uses to substitute words in original articles, resulting in various unique articles. You may punished if you publish multiple copies of content from another website; this strategy acts as a workaround. A well-written article can generate tens or even hundreds of different pieces. Uniqueness does not imply that an article is of good quality or even (human-)readable. Still, it does allow SEOs to insert links inside the text.
Tiered Link Building
Tiered link building is a more complex SEO strategy that creates microsites to complement your main site. These websites can developed on Web 2.0 properties like WordPress.com or Blogspot.com or hosted on their domain name. The previously spun content will subsequently placed on these websites. Tier 1 links or Tier 1 websites regarded as more trustworthy in Google’s views since they come from inside a website’s content.
They’ll next employ automated software to create risky connections to their Tier 1 sites to have them indexed and gain additional link juice. According to stories we’ve found online, Google focuses on major blog networks like the SAPE network and those that use tiered link building to rank their sites. Links from comments and forum profiles are examples of these links, which might number in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. Tiered link building is classified as a grey or black hat SEO strategy.
Real-Time Implementation Example
Penguin 2.1, like the rest of Google’s changes, has made constructing tiered links much more difficult. Extreme caution requires staying under the radar and not discovered as a connection network. You’ll need to utilize alternative domain name registration information, email addresses, and Google Analytics accounts. Even your site hosting is becoming a significant SEO factor.
We’re not suggesting that SEOs abandon tiered link development or that it’s no longer effective. It’s simply that doing it well is significantly more difficult. I won’t be shocked if some astute SEO has worked out a method to create tiers that Penguin 2.1 cannot identify.
Here’s a screenshot, showing a decline since February.
After getting all the unnatural links clean ups, we managed to compensate the drop as shown below:
Final End Result
It’s tempting to blame the Penguin update for all of your troubles. This, however, might not be the case. Penguin 2.0, for example, impacted Finger foods, an Australian catering firm situated in Sydney. They identified duplicate content concerns and malicious links added on random pages of their website after a deeper look.
Even if your website has affected by the Penguin update 2.1, there still actions you may do to restore it. However, this may be a time-consuming and exhausting operation. If possible, you might wish to explore starting again with a new domain for some businesses. Any update rollout might be vital to your site if you do not have an SEO service. They know how to avoid getting hammered as Google becomes increasingly stringent on what helps your site rank above your competition.