NEGATIVE IMPACT OF THE GOOGLE PENGUIN UPDATE

One negative impact I have seen with the recent Google penguin update is that they are favoring authority very highly, and in some cases authority is favored over relevancy.  Google obviously has a ways more to go in working out their algorithm, and we will be seeing more changes in the future as they work out the kinks.

The Google penguin update was said to have targeted over optimization.  This is referring to websites that have their main keyword over used through out the pages, as well as link anchor texts.  Most of the sites that were hit seemed to have had over 50% of their links dedicated to one main keyword.

The other main impact I have found is that sites which had little relevant backlinks were highly affected.  This means that the sites affected were primarily linked to from domains that did not have content or a domain similar to that of the websites that were hit.

POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE PENGUIN UPDATE

One great part about the Google penguin update we have seen is the increase in site links!  If you are not aware, site-links are links to pages within a certain website that show up in Google.  It looks like this:

Sitelinks tend to show up on websites that have good site structure and pagerank.

By site structure, I am referring to having a url structure within your website that is tiered.  This is also a great way to get pages on your website to rank higher because it tells Google that pages closer to the root domain that also have subpages are more authoritative.

WHAT TO DO

1. Don’t Over Optimize

The main takeaway that Google seems to be pushing is over optimization.  While this is part of the effect of the penguin update, this is not the only factor that you should focus on.  Make sure that your keyword density is not too high, and vary your anchor texts.  As always, you should be backlinking inner pages as well as your homepage, but it would be smart to mix in anchors such as “click here”, photos, and your company name as well.

2. Focus On Relevant Backlinks

Relevant backlinks/domains seem to have become more important with the latest update.  While I wouldn’t worry about this too much, (Don’t start trying to take links down that are not from your niche) you should try to have niche specific links.  Google is trying to combat automated linking which is generally not niche specific, but like usual, Google is exaggerating a bit.  You should make sure to have diverse backlinks, because anytime you have backlinks of one source/type, you set off red flags.

One great way to get relevant backlinks is to build your own network of microsites.  Google targeted a few major link networks recently, but if done correctly, niche sites can be very effective in getting rankings for your specific niche.

High quality blog networks are also effective, but you do not want to use major blog networks.  Smaller networks that are less well known, are controlled well, and have no footprints will be most effective.

3. Focus More On Social Backlinks

Google seems to be taking into consideration social signals even more so with the penguin update.  This means that you should be actively engaging on sites like facebook, twitter, and Google plus, and link back to your website, or posts on your website often.  There are simple ways of automating the process so that when you post on your blog, it updates your social networking sites at once.

This is also a great way to emplement link baiting.  By creating interesting content or posts on your website and sharing them through social media, they have the chance to go viral and instantly get your website a huge increase in backlinks and traffic.

4. Structure Your Website

This has always been important for rankings, but it seems that with the Google penguin update, they are rewarding it even more now.  By adding more sub pages that expand on ideas on a main page, you are giving more authority to your main page.  Doing this more will give your website more content, more organization, make it more user friendly, and help rankings, as well as increase the chance of getting sitelinks.

Until next time,

James Pate

Visual Guide to Rich Snippets on SEOmoz created by BlueGlass Interactive.

I recently released a wordpress plugin I coded myself for getting rich snippet stars as well as your author image to show in Google.  I released it on the warrior forum and I will be closing it soon.

Rich Snippet Stars Wordrpess Pluin

Getting rich snippet stars as well as your author image to show in search results will get you ahead of the game, as not many people have caught on to this yet.  It is the best way to set your listing apart and grab first position clicks from the middle of the page.

Cheers,

James

Through Twitter!

By using twitter, you can have customers send the text “follow toplinktoday” to 40404 (to join our VIP program etc.,), and they will be subscribed by text to the twitter account “toplinktoday”.  Each time the business owner tweets to their account, the subscribers will receive a text.

You could use this just as you would a regular SMS platform to offer coupons, and build a list, except there would be no complicated setup or maintenance, just a twitter account.  Subscribers do not have to have a twitter account, and you can even send out texts from your phone.

There are two different ways you can send out texts via twitter from your phone.  The first way is just to download the twitter app onto your phone to tweet.  Second, you could link your phone to your twitter account via SMS or via the web and then all you have to do is text your tweet to 40404.  Check out these other Twitter SMS commands you can use as well.

The main downside to this platform is that it is obvious you are using twitter, and there is an introductory text from twitter greeting the subscriber.

Visit Twitter’s Blog for more info.

-James

However, due to recent changes in Google, you are free to implement this star rating system into your website and have it show up in Google!  Take a look at our site:

This is fairly new, and It does seem a little buggy and takes time to go into effect.

The best way to implement this is to install the wordpress plugin GD Star Ratings.  The stars will then show up on the bottom of every page, allowing users to rate your pages.

After you have install the plugin, and have a rating you can go to the Google Rich Snippets Test to check and make sure that it is showing up correctly.

For a tutorial on adding a KML file, go here:

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tut.html

-James Pate

Now, with a 7-box local result, the additional reviews are not even noted!  all you see is the Google reviews.  This is important to take into consideration when deciding where to send your clients to review your business.  Below is the 7-box:

So what does this mean for a business owner?  If you don’t all ready, you need to get your clients to give you reviews!  Put a link on your website to your Google places page, and send your clients a link to your places page kindly asking them to review your business.  You can also hand out slips of paper in your store with a link to your Google places.  However you do it, get those reviews!

-James Pate

I absolutely love the potential Google is bringing with their new Google+ Social media platform. Not only will this compete with Facebook in the social realm, but I have a feeling that this will offer new options in the realm of SEO. After you sign into your Google account, you will notice that Google shows little +1’s in their search engine results. After you +1 content, it shows up in your feed for others to see.

Since this +1 seems so closely tied to search engines, as well as the online social world, it is hard for me to imagine that this will not have an impact on search engine rankings! I have a feeling that in the near future, this will take on many of the features similar to the Facebook like button. I am all ready hoping that someone will integrate the +1 into squeeze pages, so the visitor will have to +1 to get something free, or view content. This has potential to make pages go viral!

Fishkin, a guy from SEOMoz did a study of how twitter and Google+ effect your website indexing. Now Google recently cut off twitter from the major effect that it used to have, but the results of the study concluded that both Google+ and Twitter can help you get your website indexed. The Google+ test page was ranked to #1 in 2 hours for a non-competitive phrase, and I can only imagine that it will end up impacting ranking as well. So, make sure you have a +1 button on your website along with a Facebook like button, and encourage people to click it!