Google Penguin Info

[BlackHatPanda]

Useful Info On the new Google Penguin Update that went into effect late April 2012.







What niches were affected the most by this update?”
Gambling,Hosting,weight loss, insurance, make money online, pharma, Loan --> Guys those are the most competitive niche of the web and the 2 websites I managed which dropped are categorized in the 2 first niches I mentioned.

Why were these niches affected my by the penguin update?
1) More back links (broader, and more in quantity)
2) More Keywords oriented content
3) More Black hat Methods
4) Well at the end more spam, they were the models of a working BH SEO strategy (I believe those websites has served to build a spam selection models based on their signals, the crappy results we see at the moment on those peculiar niches and others tough ones tends to concur on that matter. It is as they have reset those niches)

Here are my questions based of the thousands of posts I’ve been reading the last couple of days, I've barely sleep the last couple of days in order to be able to work efficiently with this update in spite of most of the websites went fine here.

Are Link Pyramids still efficient?

What tends to prove my spun content theory above is that crappy spun Web 2.0 is ranking in the search engines. (That’s a straight WTF for me there)

Web 2.0 are usually heavily back linked and served a buffer websites purpose and they increased in ranking (hum interesting) So spunned spammed web 2.0 are still rankings.

That led me to conclude to 4 possibilities:
1) The link juice is now not passing for more than 1 tiers going from the lower.
2) Backlink have lost a ton of value (going to prove otherwise below) and the SEO juice of those web 2.0 properties come from the main domain of those web 2.0
3) If the OBL of the web 2.0 are targeting one or a very limited numbers of websites then no value (which is quite relevant a spam signals)
4) A combination of the above factors.


Is Blog Commenting and Xrumer Campaign Dead ?

This is a tough question here, and my answer will be so far a no.

I know someone who has been playing with SB massively for a month or 2 now (30k links indexed in that amount of time) and Keywords oriented content, and he has been through the update easily. It is a very disturbing example!

He used a load of anchors though and increased his link diversity with many kind of links, but most of them were targeted to his website.

I've also used SB and Xrumer straightly on my websites but only on highly selected list (edu / gov / high PR / AA / and very few high OBL ones) and they remain un-hit !


Did EMD gain in value ?
Yes, I believe they did! The URL gained in a value that's for sure. "python-hosting", "make-money-online.co.uk" are bluffing examples and so are the web 2.0 properties which has the keywords in URL.

The domain authority may have also gained in value as can show error 404 pages from yahoo.answer for exemple.

However, I always thought they will loose in relevancy as they tend to attract more spam websites, so i find this a little confusing to be honest.


What is left from all these to be responsible of our drops ?

1) Massive Link Pinging
2) Irrelevant Contextual backlinks
3) Link Pyramid Juice Lost
4) On site SEO
6) Anchors Diversity.
7) Recurring OBL on some Web 2.0 properties, or Bookmarking Accounts

Don't forget that for this update, not only spammed website got hit, and also white hat ones. So what kind of signals can be shared across the 2 methods beyond the spam ? (I’m actually asking the question to you guys !)

What can i do to fix my website ?

1) Add fresh and quality content (this will never hurt you and may rank for new keywords as fresh content may have been valued)
2) On site Optimization such as net linking, page speed, rich content, sitemap, content relevancy. However, pay attention to your inner links titles so far. Go as descriptive as you can and forget the keyword stuffing on this. I'm still reviewing the effect of such netlinking on my website which has been hurt and it is a possibility that it was targeted as i had this keyword which was ranking exclusively thanks to netlinking and it had dropped. I'll come with results.
3) Manual Backlinking, Manual web 2.0 properties, High PR site as usual as long as they are no return on the efficiency of SEO tools. This is what i would do actually, until I’m 100% positive that we can use them again and we will the question remains on the how.
4) For Penalized sites you can redirect your page to a new one with the same content and no backlinks. The penalty would more likely doesn't go through the 301. I'm testing that method on a dropped page and on a penalized one.


Additional Comment
"2) Backlinks have lost a ton of value (going to proove otherwise below) and the SEO juice of those web 2.0 propoties come from the main domain of those web 2.0"

after 3 days of analyzing my webs - i could not agree more on this point.

i have 1 web still ranking at first spot, and all that web had is 100-200 web 2.0 linking at it. No blast to those web20 were done at all. Just pure web 2.0 link, that's all

and i have bunch of webs totally dropped by 50-100 position, those webs had web 2.0 but and all those were blast with thousands S***** links.

So what happened?
web 2.0 stopped serving as a buffer
web 2.0 stopped passing though link juice to my money site and they have dropped

surely, i had some other Backlinking sources, unfortunately can't see any logical pattern on BMD, AMR,NHS or similar stuff


My sites have been hit pretty hard, but I have a couple of interesting observations at this point:


pages with keywords I had targeted in backlink anchor texts have dropped 50-70 places
pages which were not the target of those keywords are frequently ranking higher than pages which were targeted (so site is still ranking for interesting keywords, but on un-related pages)
some pages are ranking for keywords related to my niche, but which I never targeted (so if I targeted "coffee mugs" I am now ranking for "cups of java" - ok, terrible example, but you get the idea)




I've been spending a painful amount of time analyzing Penguin's effects, and talking with other bulldog SEO</acronym>'s
to discover what factors were implemented in the latest algorithm
update. One thing that we all instantly agreed on, was that the Penguin update has been unlike anything we've ever seen before. We expect to see a major revamp and tweaks to the algo soon.



Examples of Low Quality Garbage Rising to the Top:



Credit Card Refinance

5th result on Page 1



The site that's ranked has 7 pages indexed, of which are all
default pages for a stock CMS. The total content on this site is all on
the homepage, which is a short blurb that was clearly written in a matter of minutes.





Website Stats:

Exact Match Domain

Backlinks: Zero Backlinks

Age of domain: 2 yrs old

PageRank: 0



Paid Surveys

5th result on Page 1



The site has 140 pages indexed, but most are duplicate, tag, or thin
pages in general. Overall the site is very thin, with unmasked affiliate
links! Overall, not a site you'd expect to be prominently displayed on
the first page of Google for the keyword 'paid surveys'.



Not an exact match domain, but includes the keyword 'survey' in domain







Website Stats:

Backlinks: 354 (ahrefs)

Notes about backlinks: A great majority of the backlinks to this domain
are from BuildMyRank and other networks that have been deindexed
entirely. Some directory links, but overall a very thin link profile
that is blatantly artificial with little anchor text diversity

Age of domain: 4 yrs old

PageRank: 1



Other Crappy Rankings:



mexico pharmacy

5th result is a movie review for a Christian Movie on a popular movie review website

Zero links pointed to this page with any keywords related to "mexico pharmacy"

It's very unlikely that this was a hacked, redirect, Google mask, or anything more than a ranking mistake.



credit card review

10th result on Page 1 is a Wikipedia link to Amazon's page!



Similarities Among Sites Crushed by Penguin:



Sitewide Above the Fold Call to Actions/Forms



I've been spending a god awful amount of time on Google's Webmaster
Forum, which is a great resource to find sites that were negatively
affected by the recent algorithm update. Frustrated webmasters provide
their full URL in hopes that someone will point out the horrible
mistake(s) they've made so that they can correct it. Don't waste time
reading the responses, you'd get better advice from an Eskimo.
Regardless, its a good resource for finding actual URL's of sites
affected, and in niches that you may never hear about or think about.



One commonality I'm seeing is that sites with large sitewide Call To
Actions/forms above the fold were hit, and hit hard. Think insurance
related websites, investigative websites, and most lead gen type sites.



Case-Studies of Above-the-Fold Penalty Theory



Site #1





Website Stats:

Backlinks: 9,000

Age of domain: 16 yrs old (well branded)

PageRank: 5



Notice the huge orange button? The large form to enter information in?
Each and every page on this website has this same exact lead gen form on
the top of the page. It's clear that a team of people have poured their
hearts and souls into this site. Painstakingly optimizing each page on
the site with unique, well written content. But, there's a lot of
overlap in terms of design of each page, and that big form takes up most
of the real estate ABOVE the fold. Viewing the site in 800x600
resolutions, there's NO content above the fold.



All other optimization factors could qualify as amazing, great
backlinks, good anchor text and incoming link diversity. A very well
branded domain with an ancient old domain (16 yrs old!)! The SEOMoz team
would get their rocks off if they had something to do with this domain,
its that good. It's astonishing, if anything, this domain's
optimization is too good (another Penguin theory of mine).



Site #2



Website Stats:

Backlinks: 37,000

An unbelievable backlink profile, with no signs of artificial
linkbuilding. Links from .edu's, .gov's, .mil, and just about every
authority type of TLD that you can imagine. This is nearly the pinnacle
of a backlink profile that SEOMoz would give as an example of what to do
for a white-hat, well branded domain.

Age of domain: 12 yrs old

PageRank: 7



Again, notice the white fields at the top of the page? That's how it is
on EVERY page of the domain. The top header section is simply a lead gen
form that's sitewide. According to this guy in the Webmaster forum he
had sustained amazing rankings until the recent Penguin update. This was a leader in this niche, and had been for many years.



Site #3





Website Stats:

Backlinks: 257

All backlinks appear to be natural, with no sign of manually built links.

Age of domain: 8 yrs old

PageRank: 4



This is a UK based site that was also hit very hard according to the
owner on GWT forums. According to the owner the site has plummeted in
the rankings after Penguin was rolled
out. Notice the huge header image? When viewing on the pinnacle 800x600
resolution there is NO visible content on the site. For the content
itself, and title tags, it could be considered over-optimized with the
primary keyword showing up on just about every page, with slight
modification.



Major Take Aways:



While it's still early to determine the actual changes in the algorithm,
when can begin to paint a picture and make some hypothesis about
potential changes. My gut feeling is that Penguin largely affected on-site factors
rather than off-site factors. Sites that would be considered perfectly
optimized, are some of the best examples of sites that got crushed in
the latest Penguin update.



Above the fold penalty



It's very likely that Google has implemented this into Penguin.
Sites with forms, advertisements or large images that fill up area
above the fold sitewide appear to have been hit hardest. If you think
this was your problem try viewing your site in a 800x600 screen
resolution, how much unique content is visible in this area? You can use
Google's own tool (http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/)



"Bad Backlinks" AREN'T Reason for Ranking Drops



Like many BH SEO</acronym>'s,
I've got a ton of domains that I've done testing with. Manytest domains
with nothing but massive Xrumer and Scrapebox spam skyrocketed in the
SERPs after the recent algorithm update.



A couple examples I provided above that increased in rankings have links
from BMR, ALN, and other networks that have been deindexed! The rest
are lower quality article directory links, low quality social bookmarks,
and nothing to really write home about.



If anything, link "penalties", because of over-optimization, were distributed a few weeks ago, but not as a direct result of Penguin.

[xtube]

Super post!

But your suggestion that bad backlinks does not affect the ranks are from what I can see false. I have had Authority pages drop in ranks and from what I have seen I am pretty sure it has to do with link diversity and HIGH OBL sites.

I am running LSI targetted anchors up to the 300+ anchortexts and I am seeing improvements in ranks!

[It'sOkayNow]

It is more become complicated to reach G SERP 1 now..

[clusterspark]

This is one of the best posts I have ever read in this forum! Thank you so much for the insight.

[F0l2saken]

There are things going on that people haven't touched here.

Something with alt image tags, easy SEO trick, but one of my sites that got nailed by penguin now only generate traffic from google images and not the normal search, this has something to do with using alt image tags. alt=keyword

I think blog networks have been devalued, especially the sites used in programs like SE Nuke. I mean think about it, how hard is it for google to penalize sites that fit a link profile that comes from se nuke. Hmmmm we always have the same sites linking to this site somethings wrong here.

I 125% disagree with your comment about backlinks not having anything to do with it. I've read over 200 posts on this, and 90% of them have good explanations as to why some of penguin checks your link diversity. You have to have naked urls, generic keywords, and then a very small amount of your main keywords. If too many of your backlinks have your keyword in the link as anchor text it looks un natural and penguin somehow finds this.

IT makes no sense to me so far, my main site took a slap from #1 and now it keeps bouncing from #5 - #9 so i didn't completely get slapped by it. Another site got wiped out and only gets traffic from google images, and then two other sites I have that i used the exact same seo tactics on went up, those sites are also designed the same way. I still can't make much sense out of this.

[BlackHatPanda]

I appreciate the comments! I will make more efforts in the near future!

[microgreen]

Interesting comments here. Anyway, I attended this evening Affiliate Recon webinar that was hosted by Chris Rempel, who suggest us to use the "wait and see" approach as he's expecting the penguin effect to be a temporary effect since Google is allowing thin sites and blogspot sites to achieve 1st page ranking for competitive niches.

[BBHF.BOT]

perfect
i read all info
thanks
keep it up
Fu*k google update

[Les Chiens De Guerre]

Some thought provoking info and ideas here.
Everyone has opinions on what Google want / expects / needs to see in a site.

I was chatting over the weekend to 2 mates, 1 still swears by Angela and Paul type backlinks while the other guy says they are dead in the water and he doesn't use them.
Who is right ?

[Eutaw]

Great Info Thanks for updating