If you\u2019ve been affected by Google\u2019s latest major algorithm update (Penguin 2.0), chances are you (or your SEO contractor) were doing things that Google considers dark grey or black hat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve compiled a few \u2018best practice\u2019 tactics to help you dig yourself out of that hole and ensure that you hopefully don\u2019t get stung with future updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
continued below…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
The penguin algorithm focuses heavily on where your links are coming from and how relevant they are to the content on your site. It could be dangerous if you have links pointing to your site from \u2018spammy\u2019, \u2018link-farmy\u2019 type places where links may have possibly been paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve had an SEO company working on your link building and you\u2019ve been affected negatively by this algorithm update, you may want to consider looking for another SEO provider. Before you do though, there are a few things to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Google frowns heavily on links that have been paid for so try to steer\u00a0clear of this tactic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Google takes notice of the neighborhood your links are in and the company\u00a0they keep. If they are in a \u2018bad\u2019 neighborhood and have a lot of non-relevant\u00a0links surrounding them, they will most likely harming your SEO efforts. (one\u00a0tactic some dark grey\/black hat SEO \u2018professionals\u2019 use is to buy domains that\u00a0have already accrued decent PR and to use these as templated link farms that\u00a0are neither good for any visitor or Google).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make sure your links have accurate, informative and relevant content surrounding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
There are a multitude of different types of sites out there where you can\u00a0acquire links from. If you focus all your energy on only a couple of them (such\u00a0as blog comments and directories), chances are you won\u2019t have much success\u00a0improving your rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social Media, Social Bookmarking, Press Releases, Articles, Blog Posts, Forums, Directories, Personal Blogs, Guest Blogging \u2013 these are just a few different types of places links can be acquired \u2013 remember to spread them around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Overuse of Exact Match and over-optimised anchor text is seen as \u2018spammy\u2019\u00a0in Google\u2019s eyes.\u00a0Try to use variations of your keywords as anchor text in order to keep Google\u2019s spam filter from being flagged due to your links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>Referring to the link farms mentioned above in point 2, the links surrounding your links are taken into account when Google is analysing how much\u00a0weight your link should be given. If the surrounding links are non-relevant\u00a0(worse case; porn or gaming site links), any weight those links may have\u00a0contributed to your site is most likely to have been stripped by either the\u00a0first Penguin update or this new Penguin 2.0 update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Try to keep your links in good, relevant neighborhoods with good, relevant surrounding content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An advertorial is a post paid for by an advertiser and a sponsored post is a post in which somebody pays a blogger to cover a certain topic on their blog. Paying for links in this way is frowned upon by Google if it isn\u2019t clearly\u00a0stated that a post is an advertorial or sponsored. Either way, Google will not\u00a0pass weight through from these posts if they discover they have been paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Site-wide links are great when used in the correct manner \u2013 a footer may\u00a0contain menu items such as privacy policy, contact us and other internal links\u00a0that have a good reason for being there in both visitor\u2019s and Google\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When links appear that go offsite and are not relevant to anything on the actual website they appear on, this can trip Google\u2019s spam filters. Many SEO companies use their personal website footer as a mini link farm where they link to their client\u2019s websites and try to pass on link juice. This is a bad practice for a couple of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a website has been de-indexed by Google, chances are they were participating in less-than-savory link building tactics. Try to get any links you may have from de-indexed sites removed as soon as possible or, as a last resort, use Google\u2019s Disavow tool (explained below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A tactic used for many years that doesn\u2019t work so well these days is article spinning. This is where an article can be \u2018spun\u2019 using software that\u00a0replaces content in the articles with synonyms and \u2018like\u2019 words so that the\u00a0articles has the\u00a0same message but is seen by Google as completely different content \u2013 multiple\u00a0articles can be spun from a single article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google is a bit smarter these days and the algorithm can pick up on this type of content. Another downside to article spinning is the legibility of the articles that get produced \u2013 most of the time they are extremely difficult to read and serve absolutely no purpose to the reader whatsoever. Considerations to take into account when creating content for any link building strategy are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Is the content relevant to my offering? If you\u2019ve unsuccessfully tried to get your links removed by contacting webmasters\u00a0directly, you should consider using Google\u2019s\u00a0Disavow tool. This is a method of telling Google which links to your website you want them to\u00a0ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To Sum It Up<\/strong> If they aren\u2019t forthcoming with this information, chances are they have something to hide and it\u2019s probably time to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve been affected by Google\u2019s latest major algorithm update (Penguin 2.0), chances are you (or your SEO contractor) were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,117,3],"tags":[],"ai":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-google-blog","category-seo","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\n\n\n5. Are my links surrounded by other non-relevant links(possibly to porn and game sites)? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n 6. Do any of my links come from advertorials or sponsored posts?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n 7. Are there site-wide links to my site from others (site-wide meaning every\u00a0page on a domain such as a footer or blog-roll) <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n 8. Are there any inbound links from de-indexed sites? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n 9. Is the content around my inbound links legible (has the surrounding content\u00a0been \u2018spun\u2019)? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Will this make sense to a human audience?
3. Will my audience find this content valuable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n What Can I Do If I\u00a0Can\u2019t Get Some Of My Bad Links Removed? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Any good SEO company will document where all the backlinks they have created have been placed. If you suspect your SEO company may have been placing links in some bad neighborhoods, ask them for the report on where exactly your links have been placed pointing to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n