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Google Penguin Algorithm Introduction

Since the advent of the internet, there have been many changes in terms of how people gather their information. Internet has become the primary mode of doing so. Apart from this, internet has also become one of the most popular ways to earn money.

Today, we see the highest number of digital marketers, SEO professionals, and content writers. Their primary source of income is through the use of net. However, not everyone uses this means in an ethical way and tend to flout the guidelines and rules provided by the webmaster.

Thus, to make sure that there is fair play in the market, Google keeps upgrading itself and rolls out updates in order to purge the net of all those who are indulging in malpractices.

So, if you are one of those who are concerned and would like to ensure that all your hard work that has gone into the ranking of your website does not go in vain, then you must be familiar with all the rules and regulations - especially related to backlinks.

Thus, you must be aware of Google’s Penguin Update. So, read this definitive guide to know all that is there to know about Google Penguin and how it can affect you.

What is Google Penguin?

The first and foremost thing that one must keep in mind when talking about Penguin is to understand that it is an algorithm. What Google does to determine the rank of your website for any given keyword is by using many algorithms.

What Penguin does is that it checks the backlink of your page and then determines whether there was any form of manipulation done to manipulate search results by making use of link spam.

Link Spam is nothing but an unfair adopted by many in order to get a higher rank by putting the backlinks on various web properties.  So, when Penguin identifies a website that indulges in the practice of link spamming, then it prevents that particular page from getting any rank at all. In this way, Penguin keeps these websites that are involved in such malpractices at bay.

Before Penguin came into the picture, some SEO’s used to provide a rank to a website for a particular keyword by spamming backlinks all over the internet.  This was not fair to people who were following the guidelines and playing by the rules of the webmaster.

Thus, Google identified this problem where searchers were also facing problems of seeing more of marketing gimmicks and messages rather than what they were looking for. Thus, Google decided to take a step against this foul play and therefore, came Google Penguin!

Google Penguin is affected by Two Factors:

Google Penguin update took place specifically for two major reasons. In order to get higher rankings and be more visible in the online space, people started adopting various strategies, even if it meant not following the rules and guidelines provided by the webmaster and flouting the necessary requirements that were given.

In recent times, the number of people indulging in such illegal practice only increased with time. Thus, Google took this problem up and gave the solution in the form of its update called Penguin.

With the introduction of Google Penguin, there was an uproar on the internet as it changed the dynamics for many pages, SEO professionals, and content marketers. But, you need not worry just yet.

If you are a digital marketer and are wondering what your web page must have also been impacted by this, we would like to tell you that it is not the time to panic at the moment. No harm will befall you if you have been following the rules and have acted accordingly.

Google Penguin was made to target two categories. They are given as follows:

1. Link Schemes

Link schemes are nothing but buying, acquiring or developing the backlinks from websites and pages that have no connection with your page whatsoever. They are basically purchased in order to manipulate Google in order to acquire high rankings for their own very page.

This is one of the ways that people were increasing their ranking on Google. Moreover, these links had no relevancy to the topic that was covered in that particular website. Also, another factor that is considered when talking about link schemes is to understand how fast the links were bought or purchased.

If there is an unusual hike in the links in an extremely short duration of time, then it is nothing but a classic case of link schemes. Thus, in order to be not affected by Penguin, you must take into consideration these very two important things about links.

You must not have unnecessary links that are of poor – quality, there should not be irrelevant links and the links must not be acquired at an unusually high rate. If your website contains too many spam links and hit by a google penguin algorithm, then its time to disavow the links using disavow file generator.

2. Keyword Stuffing

This is one of the most common mistakes that people do in order to get more popular in cyber space. However, this has become so common that Google took action against keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is nothing but stuffing of keywords in an article, blog or a web page. In simple terms, it is basically repetition of a set of words in order to get a higher rank.

This is done so that when someone searches for a particular topic on Google, because of the multiple times that word has been used in a particular page or article, your page comes on top and gets a high ranking.

While it is a good thing to mention about the topic in great detail, it is also bad as what has been adopted by most peopleis that they insert the keyword anywhere and everywhere in their content, without it having any meaning or relevance. This leads to poor quality content and thus, has been identified by Penguin as a major issue.

What are the signs of Google Penguin?

After the update has been rolled out, every person is worried about the update and its implications, and to know how badly it will affect them and their business. It is imperative to understand that Google Penguin will not affect or hit you if you have been carefully following all the instructions that are provided by the webmaster.

However, if you have not followed them, then it is more than likely that Google Penguin will have an adverse impact on your web page and its rankings.

So, are you now confused whether you have been hit by the Penguin update or is it just a one – time thing? Do you want to be absolutely certain and know the definite answer to this question? Do you want to know more about the signs of Penguin and want to make sure that you do not become its target? Well, do not worry.

Keep reading on to discover the signs of Google Penguin and discover whether you are a victim of the update or not.

Decrease in organic traffic

Organic traffic is traffic that is generated organically. The main agenda of websites is to generate more traffic for it and increase its readership or viewership. A lot of marketing is done by SEO professionals to make sure that their website or page is ranked at the top when searching on Google.

However, if recently, you are experiencing an increasing decline in the organic traffic of your page, then it is time to sit up and take notice. It is not necessary that it might be the only reason, but then again you need to be very cautious about it.

If you have been doing all the wrong things, then it is a high possibility that this decrease in traffic is because Google Penguin has identified your website and has taken action against it. But, if you have done nothing wrong and have followed the rules diligently, then you must not be worried about being hit by Penguin.

Drop-in Keyword Ranking

If you are an SEO professional, then there is no need to highlight the importance of ranking in this business. Ranking matters a lot in the cyberspace and mostly the whole internet and the digital world revolves around it. So, keyword ranking is said to be an important parameter in SEO.

However, if you have recently experienced a significant drop in your keyword ranking, then you must immediately take notice. Once Penguin was rolled out, a lot of websites experienced this issue. After carrying out a study, it was found out that drop in keyword rankings was a major sign of being hit by this update.

So, if you have experienced this off late, then you must check the quality of your web page to ensure that you have not done anything that will make Penguin cause trouble to your business.

So, if you have seen either one or especially both of these signs recently, then you must take the corrective measures as soon as possible in order to make sure that Penguin does not cause any major harm to you.

How to recover from Google Penguin Update?

By reading this guide, you must have understood whetheryou have been hit by Google Penguin or not. Well, considering now that the damage has been done, it is time to take some corrective actions to solve those issues. The first and foremost thing that you must do is carefully read the webmaster’s instructions and guidelines.

This will help you in understanding the points where you went wrong and then take action accordingly. Then, the next thing you must do is do a quality check and take control of your page. You must check the links for their quality and remove all the links that are unnecessary and lack any relevance.

The next thing you must do is be mindful of the content that you are publishing. Do a thorough revision of all the content that is there and remove content or pages that are nowhere related to your topic.

Avoid keyword stuffing and make use of words only where it is necessary. Adopt some of these measures and you will notice a gradual change in the quality of your page.

Latest Google Penguin Update 4.0

Google Penguin has seen many versions of it from the year 2012. The latest Google Penguin update 4.0 took place in the year 2016, in the month of September.

One of the biggest challenges that came out when this latest update was rolled out was the fact that the algorithm that was initially launched for spam busting had now become a core part of the main algorithm.

This was extremely crucial as with the earlier versions, the webmasters who were able to solve their issues were required to wait for a Penguin update in order to witness their pages get a good rank. With this update, however, people could see the results immediately and did not have to wait at all.

Moreover, we can also say that with the release of Penguin 4.0, the backlinks got devalued on its own. Thus, to put it simply, we can say that Google did not rank those websites at all. Earlier Google used to demote the sites that were trying to get ranked higher by illegal means but with the new version, Google decided to not rank or reward them.

Conclusion

Thus, to sum up, we can say that despite what the scenario is, you must not buy links at all. Purchasing links has a high risk involved with it and can make you hit by Google Penguin in no time at all. If you are hit by Google Penguin, then its implications can be quite serious.

So, it is better to steer clear of such activities. So, you must not indulge yourself in such things and keep your web page free of any such illegal means. Google Penguin is a wonderful algorithm that can help your web page get a higher rank only if you are good at what you do and you follow the rules of the book.