Penguin 2.1:
In case you hadn’t heard, Google rolled out a significant Penguin update on Friday October 4, 2013. To recap, Panda updates mainly concern your on-page SEO (on your website/s) whereas Penguin updates are about off-page issues (your backlinks, basically).If you missed it, here was the industry chatter about Penguin 2.1:
http://searchengineland.com/penguin-2-1-and-5-live-173632
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-2-1-17474.html
BTW, one of my fave tactics for getting additional insight on a topic like this is to read through ALL the comments. In fact, I often pick up more gems in the comments area than in articles themselves.
And, you can read some early analyses of Penguin 2.1 (e.g what it’s targeting) on Traffic Planet here:
http://trafficplanet.com/topic/7282-penguin-21-launched-today/
So if you have been slapped by Penguin 2.1, here are some response options for you:
1. Don’t give up on SEO.
Usually when there’s a high impact algo update and stories emerge like this:
[a] AdWords ads get (probably) less than 5% of clickthroughs on Google’s SERPs
[b] Most ad campaigns lose money – banner clickthroughs are shockingly low
[c] Paid traffic is a specialist area that requires proper study, analysis and fine tuning i.e. time commitment
[d] Visitors clicking on ads probably have higher levels of resistance to salesy messages than those coming from a referral or Organic listing
Now a no-cost but time-using alternative is Forum Marketing but that doesn’t suit every niche (try Forum Marketing for clients like funeral companies, local dentists, locksmiths or real estate agents!) – it’s best for the expert/information/software type operations.
SEO has always been in a war with Google and constant adaptation has therefore been essential. It’s simply a fact of life with SEO. Paid traffic also requires constant trial-and-error plus changes to platform rules (plenty of mega-spending Internet Marketers have been booted out of AdWords over the years too).
Before long – it’s too early yet – we’ll have a better understanding of trigger factors on Penguin 2.1. Plus, don’t forget that there is ALWAYS variation in Google results (deliberate on their part I believe) to avoid 100% accurate reverse engineering by SEOs. In SEO, we’re always working with generally consistent trends that MOSTLY work, not 100% foolproof blueprints (there are always exceptions).
2. Get your traffic back in 48-72 hours.
What you really want is the targeted traffic more than specific rankings. To that end, depending on your niche, an Authority Parasite Strategy could work.What’s that exactly?
It’s where you bring traffic through a page on a site that Google ALREADY regards as high authority. Using my normal SEO methods, I’ve gotten inner pages on Authority Sites to Page 1 in about 48 hours and often they outrank the relevant category page on that same Authority Site (because the category page wasn’t SEOd).
Examples of sites suitable for this approach include:
- YouTube videos (obviously)
- PRWeb press releases
- SB Wire press releases
- LinkedIn profile pages
- Pinterest pages
- Amazon product pages (e.g. if you have a Kindle book)
- Udemy product pages (e.g. free/paid mini-course on Udemy.com, Udemy pages rank fast and high with good SEO)
- Facebook pages
- Forum thread pages (e.g. Warrior Forum, Traffic Planet or major forums in your niche – don’t forget to keyword optimize your title when starting a new thread)
- Twitter profile pages
- Storify inner pages
- Yahoo Answers
- Lynda.com
- Appsumo.com
- Groupon deal inner page
- Tumblr (riskier option)
- Squidoo (riskier and has been slapped by Google in the past)
- Rebelmouse.com page e.g.
Basically, just keep an eye on the SERPs and see what the Google darlings are.
If you want to pursue this option, email me at support(at)terrykyle.net and I’ll go over what you need to rank your Authority Parasite page/s.
Plus, take a look at what this past (accidental) traffic win did for one of Shoemoney’s sites:
It reminds me of when I started my mobile ringtone website. I did it because it was fun. Then one day it appeared on digg.com and went from 1,000 visitors a day to 150,000 and remained a consistent 75-100k unique visitors a day for years. This is where you see my famous 134,000.00 adsense check from. That site made next to nothing for years.
http://www.shoemoney.com/2013/02/07/how-ray-lewis-made-deer-antler-spray-lucky
3. Create new sites ASAP.
Instead of being too emotionally attached to that site that was just slapped by Penguin 2.1 (and it may or may not be coming back), setup several new smaller websites and get those to Page 1 in 3-4 weeks (email me on your SEO strategy).That’s my current average for most new sites and 5-10 pages of content is plenty (my British writer is $22 per 1000 word article so the re-entry cost isn’t high – the cost of waiting and hoping for your slapped site is WAY higher). Yes try to bring your site back (see below on the Link Detox tool) but ALSO get some new sites moving, at the same time.
Spread the risk around across several traffic-bringers to minimize (but not eliminate) the risk of future slaps (that’s also where the Authority Parasite Strategy above is very useful).
4. Check out the Link Detox tool from Chris Cemper.
We’ll be testing this software tool out a lot more in the next couple of months but Chris and his software users have a bunch of interesting case studies up here (nothing on Penguin 2.1 of course yet but several on Penguin 2.0). Interesting:
http://www.linkresearchtools.com/case-studies/
5. Stay up to date on analysis of Penguin 2.1
Basically, by monitoring threads like these, you can track where the SEO community is up to on this latest Penguin update.http://trafficplanet.com/topic/7282-penguin-21-launched-today/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4614730.htm
Stay tuned on Penguin 2.1 because we’re going to be hearing a lot more about it…
Have a great Sunday.
Terry K.
My SEO Agency – Blogsurge.net (password required) – Traffic Planet – High PR Kingdom – Rankmaxx
Read more: http://sundayseo.net/5-things-you-can-do-today-about-penguin-2-1/#ixzz2h11Vhx00
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