If you started to get interested in SEO, you probably read things about the Google update called Penguin and maybe you’re wondering how to improve your site’s ranking.
Google in recent times is giving a very strong signal to all webmasters who have “attached” to those strategies that in the past have borne fruit, but which now risk being ineffective, if not harmful.
The most used search engine in the world comes with versions that are named after animals (at least so far); some time ago there was the Panda revolution and now we moved on to that of the penguin.
This recent change in the algorithm has brought significant changes and new rules to follow to ensure optimal positioning.
Here’s what you have to do…
How to improve your ranking after Penguin
1) Check the quality of your backlinks
The SEO after Penguin has changed more about the evaluation of backlinks and their quality: Penguin hits hard all the sites with low quality backlinks, imposing a limit of 60% on the total backlink with Anchor Text. Anchor Text means a keyword behind which the link to a particular site is hidden.
As there will be further updates similar to Panda and Penguin we strongly advise you to reduce this number and above all use the technique of “a few but good” backlinks. But how to recognize them?
2) Learn to recognize a good backlink
A good backlink comes from sites that have a solid brand, high reputation, indexing and authority in their field. Another important element is that the links are present in a text (for example article) in such a way as to be useful for users.
You can easily monitor your backlinks through tools like Monitor Backlinks and many others that you will find for free on the web.
3) Locate the “Weak” pages
Another factor to bear in mind is that of identifying the so-called “weak” pages, that is, those that are less indexed or that may result in duplicate content, such as post archives.
To prevent search engines from penalizing your posts you need to report them as “noindex”, or ensure that they are not indexed by search engines.
4) Avoid as much as possible to change URLs
Changing URLs to your site can result in moving pages on which you may have a good number of backlinks.
The risk is that these backlinks lead to blank pages and completely lose their effectiveness. Although for design reasons, new software and anything else the URL of the site is frequently changed by webmasters, it is necessary to limit this practice as much as possible.
5) Monitor the SEO of your site
The changes in SEO after Penguin have meant that you have to constantly monitor the SEO of your site and correct all the weaknesses.
For this purpose we suggest some useful control tools such as the Internet browser plugin SEO Quake or Google Analytics Debugger.
From Google Penguin to Penguin 4.0
Since the release of the Penguin update in the now distant 2012, there have been several versions of the algorithm; let’s take a look at the most important ones.
- Google Penguin 1.1
On March 26, 2012, Google updated the algorithm data. Sites penalized by low quality backlinks but which have brought improvements have seen their positioning improve. The sites that survived the first checks by Google were instead subject to penalization. - Google Penguin 1.2
October 5, 2012, again an update to the algorithm data. - Google Penguin 2.0
On May 22, 2013 with this update Google began to check even more pages of the sites, looking for low-quality backlinks. - Google Penguin 2.1
4 October 2013, an update of the data and improvement of the ability to read the internal pages of the sites. - Google Penguin 3.0
On October 17, 2014, Google released this update that further extended the controls for poor quality backlinks. - Google Penguin 4.0
On September 23, 2016, Google integrated Penguin into its core algorithm. This decision has greatly improved the speed with which you can see the results of your improvements to the link structure on your site. With this update, penalties for poor quality backlinks have been reduced and have become much more gradual.
This historical overview of successive versions after Penguin can give you an idea of how Google moves and what direction future updates might take.
Conclusion
With these tricks you will bring SEO after Penguin on your side and you will avoid losing positions.
The battle that Google is carrying out is about the quality of the backlinks and also the relevance of the content with respect to a given keyword. Since it will be possible for new algorithms to come out after Panda and Penguin, it is important to base your work on quality and not quantity.
If you have any questions, write us in the comments… we always reply!