Penguin Update: Where do we go from here?

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wickedDUDE

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Jun 25, 2006
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Hello,

Like many webmasters, my site was also hit by the Penguin update. I still have roughly the same amount of pages indexed, but traffic has dropped by about half. It's very disappointing to say the least.

I add new, original content to the site almost daily, and haven't changed the design/backend/seo in about 4 years. My site was actually growing year by year in terms of content, traffic, and sales, and I'm completely "white hat" in terms the optimization techniques used.

In fact, I only employ on-site seo, and have never relied on any shady tactics whatsoever out of fear of being penalized by Google. I read the description of the sites and tactics that the Penguin update was intended to target, and my site does not fit the description by any means.

In addition, I held the #1 spot for a very popular keyword for 3+ years. I am still on the first page for those keywords, but I am no longer in the top 3. The sites that are now in the top 3 all have unoriginal, low-quality, and even duplicate content. And I'm not just saying that out of bias.

I have spent the last 5 years building up an authoritative site only to have low quality sites now preceding mine in Google's search results. From what I have read and seen, I feel that the Penguin update has actually done the opposite of what it was intended to.

My question is: Where do we go from here?

Is it worth waiting out/doing nothing?
Should we be making changes to our sites?
Complain to Google?
etc.

FYI: In the last 5 years, I have hardly paid any attention at all to Google's algorithmic updates. I was never impacted by them "for the worse" until now.
 


Wait around and build more sites as you are waiting.

I think focusing on new sites is the key here, as you don't know if your old site will get back it's rankings any time soon.

Try building a forum in your niche, that's pretty much fail safe as you'll rank for countless longtail phrases as the forum gets indexed etc.
Just make sure you post 10+ times daily good content and get others to join and post etc.
 
Also try some youtube promotions by uploading lot's of videos, as youtube rankings and google rankings are 2 different things.
 
Start new sites and use your old penalized sites to link to your new ones. Now you have higher quality links than you could buy, low OBL, full control over your links, etc. etc.

As your newer sites do well and make money, eventually they'll shit the bucket and get penalized too (oh well).

Then if you're lucky the old sites will pop back up and start earning again, if not, just repeat the process.
 
cubicle.jpg
 
I don't give 2 fucks about my main sites ranking in Google at the moment.

Spend some time analysing the SERPS and you'll start to notice patterns with particular authority sites ranking very well that allow you to quickly add content/links. Facebook, Gumtree, IMDB etc... there are countless ones. Get a little creative.
 
google raped the shit out of anybody using grey, black and blue hats. (however some black hat sites still remain)

right now you gotta choose: 100% white or 100% black.

building a biz? go with sweet vanilla.

building dozens of mfa sites for quick profit? go with dark chocolate.

no more interracial SEO
 
JanJanX said:
google raped the shit out of anybody using grey, black and blue hats. (however some black hat sites still remain)

right now you gotta choose: 100% white or 100% black.

building a biz? go with sweet vanilla.

building dozens of mfa sites for quick profit? go with dark chocolate.

no more interracial SEO
Click to expand...
No they didn't.
 
Hello friend,

The key to beat google is for make new websites faster then their new algorithms can penalize. That way always be one step ahead google.

Or can just build business that no all depend on free traffic from google for revenue.

Good luck bro
 
It's funny that some people on here promote "white-hat" SEO's when white-hat websites ALSO get slapped.

Weight your risks and get to #1 by any means necessary.
 
We don't really know what google want from us. This update was the biggest update ever. Google is trying to make the search engine to give proper result but google doesn't know it's holly shit.
 
The key to making money in this day and age is to totally forget about SEO.

Thank me later.
 
Just focus on ad networks and referral traffic methods.Place your links on pages which are already at #1 in Google.I think SEMrush is quite helpful onwards.
 
clyde said:
It's funny that some people on here promote "white-hat" SEO's when white-hat websites ALSO get slapped.

Weight your risks and get to #1 by any means necessary.
Click to expand...

That is primarily because no one is sure on what is "white hat" anymore.

Most people believe that anything "manual" is Whitehat, whereas all of us know that's not the case.
 
All of these threads are amusing as hell to me, and not just because my properties were unaffected. The more unique and branded my sites, the more net positive their lift in the serps was.

I see guys with 10-40 articles on a site, making $xx,xxx+/mo, thinking the honeymoon would never end. While that is a fucking nice ROI, how on earth do you think 40 articles could make you a brand, let alone an authority?

Here is the question to ask yourself. Be honest. How much scrutiny could your site hold up to in a manual review? Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself:

Is your logo unique? Did you spend more than $5 having it made?

Do you have unique design work on your site? Is there a mascot or custom graphics?

Is your site name or URL brandable? Do you seriously think payday-loans-arizona.com is brandable?

Is there a legit option for user interaction? Do you have user reviews or rating? Is your site just another shitty wordpress theme?

Is your layout custom? Is google going to find x,xxx other sites with the same css files? Is a designer at the bottom of your list of resources to spend money on?

Would anyone with half a brain realize that your lead form posts to another site? Is that a leadpile form on your front page? Is the only form on every page of your site, a mailchimp form?

If you're adsense only, do you have any forms on your site? Do you give users any other option than to click to other articles or click ads?

Did you spend a cent on a coder? Is there even a single bit of unique code powering your site?

Do you accept and answer emails? Do you have multiple email addresses or a catch-all on the domain? If someone complains, do they get a bounced email? Do you even give a shit what your users think?

Would someone outside of the SEO world consider linking to you? Would a high school kid get away with referencing your site in a paper?

Do you have a contact page, t&c, privacy policy, and all that crap stuffed into your footer? Does it all work? Did you spend more than a second making sure all of those links work and have some level of design work done to them?

Do you add pages more than once a year? Once a month? Every other day? Do you update your existing content based on industry news?

If you allow user comments, are you keeping up with the spam? Are you moderating comments as they come in, or once a month in batch?

Do you spend more time looking at stats, than you do building new content or driving more traffic? Do you follow industry news related to your niche at all?

Do you get direct traffic? How about yoururl.com search traffic? Are people bookmarking your site?

If you want to build shit sites, and expect the traffic to flow forever, you need to wake the fuck up, and go get yourself a day job.
 
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