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[Betsy Vayda Company: Seacret Direct Contribution Level: 3]

Okay Google has changed its algorithm again and we all have to jump. sigh.

Penguin is Google's attack on the over use of keywords in anchor text as well as on-site interlinking.

Although, I don't like these sudden changes and I don't like the big brother aspect of Google, I cannot disagree with them.

Perhaps these changes will get better quality stuff out there on the web.

What do you think?

What To Do To Make Sure Your Site Is Penguin-Friendly.

* Make sure your Page titles are written for humans. No more use of pipes. Use the keyword only once.

* Do the same for your headlines and body of your pages.

* Do not sprinkle your keyword on your site. Putting it in your page title is enough.

* Remove smart plugins that inter-link keywords between pages (SEO Smart Links) and plugins like WPSyndicator, etc.

* Use a more themed plugin such as YARPP (yet another related post..)It uses the post titles rather than a keyword

*Avoid sitewide footers and sidebar widgets.

*Add social sharing widgets to your website so people can easily share your content

*Ensure your inbound links have many different anchor text words, and definitely don't use the same one of two keyword phrases over and over again.

*Check with Webmaster tools and look at your links. Remove all links you have from dead blog networks

*Add fresh content to your website

Yes, backlinking still works, but you cannot use the same anchor text repetitively. Throw in some "Click Here" anchor text and the like.

Most likely, in a week or two Google will make some corrections.
If your good quality website, which abides by the suggestions above, got tanked by Google it will most likely
come back.

You can alway ask for it to be reviewed via Google feedback, but make sure it is in good shape first.

The Key Things To Do:
* Write for humans, not search engines
* Promote social media interactions,
* Do not use too many keywords
* Do not use repetitive anchor text

If you do those things, then you should be fine.

What do you think of Penguin? Is the change a good thing?

[Flo Kay Contribution Level: 2]

Great tips Betsycz

For me the biggest lesson I have got from Google Penguin update, Panda (and whatever they will call the next update) is that you must diversify your traffic sources.

I and many others have found that try as we may to do all the right things, our sites still get hit by some of these updates and this is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Your business could be gone in a matter of days!

Now is a great time to build a list and use social media much more in your marketing efforts.

Diversify, Diversify, Diversify..

[Chris Brown Contribution Level: 3]

If you try to pull trick Google, Google will eventually catch it. Google is like the IRS you may get away with something for a while but eventually they will catch you.

When I do my SEO I ask myself is it a trick? Even if it is a trick or a loop whole that you can you in your SEO does not mean you should not use it it just mean you need to do more stuff that is not a trick or what I would call as high quality SEO.

So you should do 80% of high quality SEO and if you are going to use trick no more than 20%.

Because of this the first site I SEOed my site was in back in 2006 today it is still #1 spot - now the sites that were #2, #3, #4 back in 2006 are no longer there because of the method of SEO that was used.

SEO your content for the long term

[Betsy Vayda Company: Seacret Direct Contribution Level: 3]

thanks.

Yes, diversity and non-tricky SEO will win every time.

One side door issue that can slam you with Penguin is links from other sites.

In my opinion, this is a big red flag for the update.

You can be maliciously wiped out by someone sending "bad" links to your site.

The home page for one site I have, which otherwise has clean SEO efforts, has been hammered by Google because of two sites that have inexplicably linked to it.

One is a IP speed and advertisement site. They are in Moldovia. I talked to them - luckily the man spoke English. (Gotta love Skype!)

They said they would delete the 46 links they have from various unseen pages on their site to my home page. So far no action.

There is another one with 20 links that has no phone, I sent an email. Have not heard back from them.

Crossing my fingers. It is a bit frustrating to be dinged because of others actions. The other pages of that site are still ranking very well. It is just the homepage with those "volunteer" links that is suffering.

I guess I will have to have a lawyer write a letter if they don't remove them soon.

Have you had issues with bad links to your site?

[Tyronne Ratcliff Company: Legal Shield Contribution Level: 2]

Use varying anchor text to cover your tracks, write for humans not the search engines, submit articles to high quality article directories to get quality backlinks, diversify your backlinks, blog comment on quality blogs,etc...

[Sabrina Gage Contribution Level: 2]

Informative sharing. But I'm not sure if we really have to do changes to follow the penguin updates. Here are several updates I summarized from many others' insights:

1. The relevance of links and the diversity of anchor-text is incredibly important with the new Penguin update;

2. If your keywords don’t flow naturally with the content on your site’s pages, remove them. Use them a max of 2-3 times if possible, and only use them if they make sense in context!

3. the freshest content is delivered for users’ search queries.

4. The title you create for your site should be not only relevant, but also easy to read and should make sense to the reader.

[Betsy Vayda Company: Seacret Direct Contribution Level: 3]

Hi Sabrina, It seems you are saying we need to make changes for Penguin.

Regardless, whatever updates happen in the future it seems that if you keep to writing great original content for humans without attempts to trick search engine's or yell your keywords too loudly your site(s) will come through unscathed.

That is, if you don't have people gunning for your site with malicious backlinks. ( I certainly hope that Google fixes that loophole soon. )

[Lester Diaz Contribution Level: 2]

I agree with a lot in this post, I had a few sites hit with the penguin update that were doing good and are now recovering on their own.

I also had a few sites improve and move up to #1 and #2 spots not only in Google but in Bing & Yahoo. I have a very simple SEO method that works every time and still works today no matter what Google does.

Its called "backlinks diversification"

Here is exactly what I do with a new website I want to rank on Google:

1) First start with social bookmarking at least 100 to get it index fast
2) Create 1-2 big article submissions per month to about 500 directories.
3) Create 50-100 .edu & .gov strong backlinks
4) Create 250+ High PR do-follow backlinks from blogs and forums
5) Create a deep linkwheel + linkpyramid using web 2.0 sites

You are going to have so many links coming from different places Google won't know where to start, it has worked for me and the sites I do this on stay and climb the Google SERPS no matter what.

Cheers..

[Galen Morgigno Company: MyLeadSystemPRO Contribution Level: 3]

Betsy, thanks for posting this. It certainly has been something on everyone minds. My site and content took a hit from the penguin and needless to say it was frustrating. But I know that I am not the only to get hit.

It's interesting and helpful to see the feedback from BetterNetworker members. It's why I enjoy being a part of this community.

Thanks everyone for your input!!