Google Penguin Updates – History, Penalty, Guaranteed Recovery & Preventive Tips & Future

What is Google Penguin Update?

Google Penguin update was unleashed upon unsuspecting websites in April, 2012. Version 1.0 was aimed at sites featuring questionable ‘unnatural’ links as well as overly-optimized anchor texts. Subsequent roll outs followed, targeting websites with dubious back linking activities.

Google Penguin Update History

The timeline goes like this;

• Penguin 1.0 (Penguin #1) – 04/24/2012
• Penguin 1.1 (Penguin #2) – 05/25/2012
• Penguin 1.2 (Penguin #3) – 10/05/2012
• Penguin 2.0 (Penguin #4) – 05/22/2013
• Penguin 2.1 (Penguin #5) – 10/04/2013
• Penguin 3.0 (Penguin #6) – 10/17/2014 | Multi-week roll out
• Penguin 4.0 (Penguin #7) – 09/23/2016

If your site experienced a significant drop in organic search traffic around these dates, it was Penguin to blame. At that time, Google Penguin penalty checkers along with Google penguin penalty recovery services got high in demand.

When Google rolled out Penguin 1.0 websites fell left and right, webmasters went crazy overnight, and many so-called SEO experts lost their jobs for good! The Google Penguin Update survivors were better prepared when Penguin 2.0 came around, so it didn’t result in as many casualties as it did in the first attack.

But the truth is that Google’s Penguin Penalty has hit all sorts of websites, big and small. From authority sites to small businesses, a lot of websites were hit by Google Penguin.

What did Penguin actually do?

Simply put, it doesn’t like unnatural and manipulative inbound links and the following are the links that Penguin target;

• Coming in from bad quality sites
• Stuffed with keywords
• Paid for
• Linking from irrelevant sites
• Links to pages with overly optimized anchor texts

What is Google Penguin 4.0?

As compared to previous updates, it is not updated after some time, but it is actually working in real-time. Instead of adding links in website’s back link profile, Penguin 4.0 simply ignores the link if it is not up to the mark. So if you have been building links and there is no change in your website rankings, be warned that Penguin 4.0 has been in action. In simple words, you need to change your backlink strategy for getting higher in SERPs.

How to Make Your Website Penguin-Proof?

Here are the 3 things you need to do starting RIGHT NOW to avoid Google Penguin Penalty, whenever Google decides to launch its ‘cute’ penguin to hunt the SEOs on backlink spree.

Avoid Black Hat Techniques

Nothing good will ever come out of black hat techniques except for short term rankings boost ultimately leading to a penalty thereby nullifying all the hard work done on the website.

Including irrelevant keywords, keyword stacking and stuffing, haphazard doorway or gateway pages, bait-and-switch tactics and indulging in content plagiarism are just some of the ways in which you are risking the future of your website.

You’re using strategies that Google does NOT recommend and when time comes for them to make changes to their search engine, they plan on coming after anyone and everyone using Black Hat techniques, they’ve made it very clear.

Performing black hat SEO leads to a getting website banned from search engines, and even lawsuits for copyright infringement. There are many other ways of legitimately improving website visibility in the SERPs, please don’t let a hasty black hat technique be one of them.

Stop Making Spammy Backlinks

DO NOT use shady software or any manipulative strategies to try to influence the search engines. You’ll only end up making them angry in the long run. And once they find out what you’ve been up to, there will be a lot to pay for. Any advantage that you may have enjoyed in the rankings will disappear and worse, your website may even be blacklisted from the search results for a very, very long time.

If your back links are all-natural, they may still hurt your website if they are coming from websites that have been marked as spam by search engines. No legit website will want to be found associating with the spammy kind in any way. So find out who’s linking to you using a backlink analysis tool like OpenExplorer.org or MajesticSEO.com. And then clean up spam links which are pointing to your website. And whatever can’t be removed must be disavowed using the Google Webmaster Tools.

Just remember to spread out your link building endeavors, so the whole thing looks natural.

Create Amazing, Engaging & Original Content

Google is the no. 1 search engine, and it has achieved and retained this position for so long by providing its users with the best quality content. Help Google achieve this goal, and it will reward you with a higher ranking in results. Try to cheat Google with plagiarized, copied, unoriginal content and it will push your website to the depths of search hell and the Penguin will make sure it stays there, for a very long time!

Google works very hard to find and penalize websites that offer poor content. And if you want your website to avoid the list, focus on creating the best possible content. This includes the webcopy, blogs, news section as well as any images and infographics. If you are hard-pressed for original content, try accepting guest bloggers or outsource the blog or article writing to the pros.

Disavow Bad Links

A professional can map out a plan of action and use some powerful tools for the link removal process. Ones that can’t be removed will have to be disavowed. You, or this penguin recovery professional, will have to reach out to webmasters, and talk them into removing backlinks with bad anchor texts to your site. For links or domains that simply can’t be disconnected from your website but must be removed from Google’s consideration, the disavow tool comes in handy.

Be Patient!

When all this is done, it is time to sit back as Google will re-crawl and re-index your site and this may take several weeks.

Penguin wasn’t the first one, and it won’t be the last Google update to shake-up the search results. It is a good idea to build your SEO on white-hat practices instead of back-handed tactics to update-proof your website. It may take a while, but in the end your secure position in search engine results will be worth it.

Don’t Let Your Site Be a Casualty; Protect It from Penguin!

Do the above mentioned things for your website and it will be forever thankful. Remember once a site is hit by, Google Penguin recovery services are VERY complicated, time-consuming and costly. Be proactive and protect your website from any mishap.

Days of badly spun, plagiarized, low-cost SEO articles are gone! If you have already been hit, be ready to spend a lot of time and effort into rebuilding your lost rankings. Make fresh content your best friend and your newer, improved, more resilient website will thank you for it.

What to Expect From Penguin in The Future?

The idea behind the Penguin Algorithm is to reduce spam and enhance the accuracy of search results. And with time, it’s getting smarter! So webmasters with dubious linking practices should expect a little turbulence in the future if they haven’t been hit already.

Links have traditionally been an important ranking factor for pages and websites on the whole. However, now Penguin has mandated us to think about the types and quality of the back links that lead to our sites.

For starters, STOP if you are working on any of the following;

• Link schemes
• Low quality bookmarking websites
• Free articles/PR/blog directories
• Link exchanges
• Paid/Sponsored links
• Unnatural links from irrelevant websites
• Links from duplicate/spun content
• Links from banned websites
• Links from bad neighborhood
• Unnecessary use of exact keywords as anchor text

In simple words, it’s all about integrity and purpose!

Next, it is time to re-think your SEO approach. Learn how to build proper links that can withstand another merciless rollout of Penguin Algorithm. Try getting links that are;

• Based in your niche, so get links from sites that are relevant to your niche.
• Created links using advanced link building techniques
• Legitimate and Justifiable. They should be practicable marketing vehicles
• Using Varied Keywords as anchor texts. The text should be natural and focused on getting a click-through.
• Focused on Content Marketing since Google likes fresh content that is shared and naturally linked.
• Cite Properly since Google likes the help with statistical data and co-citation when it’s ranking sites using off-site factors.

Count Us for Effective Services for Penguin Penalty Recovery & Survival for the Long Time to Come!

If you are already suffering from Google Penguin penalty and need help with any of the recovery or preventative measures, contact the pros at Search Berg. Be sure to fill out our form to get a free Google Penguin Audit Report.

Let us contribute to your quest on how to recover from Google penguin update and stay safe in the future from the brutal attack of Google updates with our effective SEO and writing services with real value.

Our professional SEOs and writers ensure that your articles, blogs and web content actually add value to the readers’ knowledge instead of writing for the sole purpose of publishing content. This is the age of the newer, smarter SEO and Search Berg is the perfect weapon you need in your arsenal when fighting the ranking wars!

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