At the back-end of last month, Google announced it’s latest update - Google Penguin. 

Google Penguin is the latest algorithm (mathematical code that is used in helping Google rank websites) that specialises in targeting artificial link acquisition - i.e. link spam.

Without getting too technical, link spam manipulates link-based ranking algorithms, giving websites higher rankings the more highly ranked websites link to it.  Link spam, or spamdexing, can be found numerous ways from spamming in blogs, where ‘spammers’ place a desired keyword in their hyperlinked text that refers back to their website, to link farming - a community of webpages referencing each other, falsely giving the impression that they are important.

So, what have Penguin done?

It’s hard to know for certain, since Google doesn’t reveal details. But a few things are clear:

• Penguin actively penalises sites that Google believes engaged in link spam. This is new. Until now, Google generally took away ill-gotten link authority and penalised sites that were selling links.
• Penalised sites generally plunge out of the top ten for their own brand names, as well as any other meaningful terms.
• Links that are part of artificial link networks will trigger a penalty.
• If a huge percentage of your links use the same, commodity-related anchor text, you’re in trouble. So, if you sell toilet paper, and 75% of the links pointing at your site have the link text ‘toilet paper’, Google will get suspicious. 
• If a huge percentage of your links come from blog comments, forums or site footers (all common places for spammy links), again, Google gets suspicious.
• Google sent out warnings to some, but not all, Penguin-targeted sites.

Our advice

If you know you’ve got a lot of link spam pointing at your site, clean it up and fix them a little bit at a time. Make sure you get reputable high-quality links while almost removing the spammy ones. 

Don’t panic and still pay attention to SEO best practices: Visibility, authority, relevance. Make sure all three are in good shape.

(Source: portent.com)

Making use of keywords is one of the most important and high return activities in the search-marketing field.  Whether this is a hot topic of yours or something that is relatively new, keywords (or key terms) is a must, and is really important in helping you optimise your website either with PPC campaigns or updating webpage content.

Keyword research can help you predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions and produce content that your potential customers are already actively seeking.  So when a customer does a search for a particular brand or service you provide, you want your site to appear – and the ultimate aim is to have your website occupy the #1 spot.

Next time you have a few minutes spare, look at your website or blog and consider tweaking and adjusting your content in ways that may cause it to rank higher.  Have a look at your website and think to yourself – when was the last time I refreshed my web page content? When did I write my last blog article? What phrases do I want my website to be found for? What am I currently being found for? Where do I rank in Google searches if I search using these words?

Would you benefit from having an expert advising you on all of these things and more every month? Talk to us about Innovation Club from AsOne starting at only £39/month.

There has been a lot of talk about the ‘new’ Google Panda update. This is a change to the Google filtering used to rank sites. The update is designed to hurt the sites that try to cheat or use what is called ‘black hat’ techniques to get to the top. The people it is affecting badly are the sites with traditionally high traffic and rankings. If they have used sneaky methods to inflate their position they will suddenly drop and others don’t necessarily rise, they just don’t drop. The net effect is they appear to rise.

However, a lot of SEO companies are advocating changing the sneaky methods to new sneaky methods to compensate. They fail to realise that the practice is the reason Google introduced Panda and when they see people working around it they will just make a new update. Its’ an expensive battle to keep on top of Google’s attempt to normalise results and keep high quality sites at the top. It’s why AsOne believe that Social Networking and Social Marketing using the power of people is a more reliably long term strategy and the foundation on which your Marketing should be based.

Think of this, Business has thrived for thousands of years based on word-of-mouth. You best clients tell their contacts and before you know it you have a good business. Concentrating on Search engines is like advertising in the yellow pages … time, effort and money getting a good advert, good position. Remember people changing their company name to ‘1st widget company’ so they appear first in the book? Google is the modern Yellow Pages. It relies on people ‘picking it up’ and looking for what they need. 

Social Marketing goes back to the beginning, it’s the modern equivalent of word-of-mouth. People will always trust their friends over an advert. Use that power to encourage and assist your customers to advertise for you.