How Google Penguin Affected Link Building Efforts

It used to be that Panda was the benchmark Google update. The one nearly every Internet marketer remembered. And yet, over a year later, Google has given the community something new to think about with its most recent update, Penguin.

Panda targeted websites with poor content and excessive keywords. The Penguin update has turned a scrutinizing eye on shady SEO methods, particularly in link-building. The two algorithm changes are both part of Google’s stated effort to improve the quality of its search results.

If you’re lucky, you and your websites have escaped Penguin unscathed. If you’re not, however, you may be panicking as your Analytics numbers tumble and your sites plummet through the search rankings.

Thankfully, even the hardest hit can recover, but you’ll need to understand how Penguin works, and how you can get back into Google’s good graces.

How Google Penguin Affected black-hat SEO methods

What Does Penguin Target?

Penguin is meant to ferret out all of the black-hat SEO methods Google has been loudly discouraging for some time now.

There is a big difference between working with Google’s algorithm and exploiting it. And those who fall into the latter camp have led to search results that are irrelevant, overly commercialized and lacking in quality.

For Google, maintaining its loyal users is of paramount importance, as it’s only through the massive traffic generated through the search engine that its other programs can profit. If you look at the situation through Google’s eyes, punishing websites that could damage its bottom line is only natural.

Penguin looks for :

• Keyword-stuffing
• Copied content
• Suspicious backlinks
• Other signs of black-hat SEO practices

How Link Building Efforts are affected by Google Penguin?

The cause of much of the devastation among marketers is their backlinks, which have long been an essential part of SEO.

Google, in part, determines rankings based on how many links point to a given website. Having many links implies that the website contains authoritative, useful content. Of course, there are many marketers out there who didn’t have the patience to let their links build naturally.

Writing poor guest posts on low-quality blogs, paying for backlinks or spamming comments will no longer help your rankings, and will in fact hurt them. If your website has hundreds or thousands of links to it from junk sites, or many links posted at the same time, Penguin will find them and your traffic will drop like a stone.

How to Make Penguin Work to Your Advantage?

But, obviously Google does not want to entirely squash out Internet marketers, who provide the platform for its lucrative advertising program. Although the nature of SEO has changed for many, the basics remain the same as they’ve always been.

• Let your content speak for itself and make your keywords sound natural. Participate in the community. Be patient. Google wants to see webmasters enriching its search results, not greedily grasping for every last page-view they can lure in.
• One of the best ways to gain legitimate links is to write thoughtful guest blog posts for other well-ranked websites, or to start a dialogue with another webmaster.
• Start cleaning up any bad backlinks you may have accrued, particularly if you are seeing a drop in traffic.
• Most importantly, keep an eye on what Google says it wants from its search results. So long as you follow Google’s guidelines, you should never have to worry about suddenly losing your main source of income.

Some Useful Articles For Google Penguin Update

• Link Building After The Penguin Update
• Post Penguin Update Steps For Better SEO
• How To Safeguard Your Website Ranking After The Penguin Update
• Why You Should Still Need To Invest In SEO Even After Penguin Update?

Some bloggers have hailed Penguin as a disaster, and in many ways it and Panda resemble powerful earthquakes, rumbling across the Internet. But earthquakes only flatten the buildings that are poorly constructed and unprepared, leaving the strongest still standing.

By ensuring that you build your websites with the right kind of SEO, you too can hope to be one of the success stories the next time Google decides to send out a shock-wave.