You are here: Home > Blog

Google Panda Recovery And Penguin Recovery Method – Part 1

· Show me you are alive?

Recently, I have been working overtime to keep up with  Google’s radical  algorithm changes called Panda and Penguin. These changes have been so big, that I have shut my door to new customers whilst I have to struggled to keep up with numerous changes I have been forced to make.

Whilst I have managed to maintained or improve my Google rankings on my customer’s websites, my own site has greatly suffered. For example, I used to hold the top three positions for “SEO Money Back Guarantee” but I am now position  #49 for the keyword phrase with  “SEO Guarantee” I used to be in the top 3 but I am now trialing at #69. In order to recover my position my site, I am committed to carrying out the necessary changes that my other websites have benefited from..

Google Panda Factors

Google Panda and Penguin introduces for the first time website penalties and the concept of  ‘user experience. Whilst old backlinking method are not negated, they are greatly reduced by penalties that can accumulate over time. The new equation for Google ranking is:

Google ranking effectiveness = Old backlinks efforts x Google Panda quality score x Google Penguin quality score

 

So let’s say your ‘old backlinking efforts’ result in an effective theoretical score of 100. However, after an accumulative Google Panda website review over 4 to 6 weeks your website is given 2 marks out of a possible 10 ( there is no reason the Panda website score  is not similar to Google Adwords quality score) then 2/10 would give you a Panda score of 0.2. As a consequence, your Google ranking would be some thing like:

Google Ranking effectiveness = 100 x 0.2 – so that in this case 20

 

Similiarly Panda  Penguin can apply further penalties. Let us say you get a mark 5 out of 10 – in other words  0.5

Google ranking effectiveness = 20 x 0.5 = 10

As a result, your Google ranking effectiveness has been reduced from 100 to 10. This means that your backlinking efforts have been reduced by a factor of 10. In other words you will need to work 10 times harder to get the same results.  That is,  unless you address Google Panda or Penguin penalty issues.

So what is Google Panda algorithm and how is the penalty score determined?

Panda Penalty Equation

The simple equation I would give for Panda is:

Google Panda penalty score = “User Experience Score” x Website score

User experience is most probably determined by:

  • Bounce rate
  • Page load performance
  • Average time on site

Website score is, determine by many factors including:

  • Ads to text ratio – too many ads lowers score
  • Poor navigation
  • Poor Ad position including too many ads above the fold
  • Poor navigation
  • Duplication of content that leads to losing the snippet war. (see
  • Missing essential pages (contact page, privacy, terms & conditions)

Google Penguin Factors

Google Penguin I believe particulary has taken aim to penalise websites that have over optimization their pages. However, I believe Google first iteration of this algorithm change has been poor.

In particular I have noticed on my sites that I might I have been penalized for:

  • Obvious attempts to emphasize keywords in order to meet a keyword density.
  • Using the keyword in the title or on the page inappropriately.

I don’t have a complete picture at the moment of all the main factors but I believe I have enough evidence from my own sites and my customers that a clearer picture will emerge.  The first iteration of Penguin has been a disaster that is why there is has been silience on  the subject from Matt Cutts and from the Google Inside Search

My reading references that have been useful:

http://www.micrositemasters.com/blog/penguin-analysis-seo-isnt-dead-but-you-need-to-act-smarter-and-5-easy-ways-to-do-so/

http://seobraintrust.com/red-pen-test/

http://www.thelazymarketer.com/blog/2012/05/09/how-to-rank-after-google-penguin-and-how-to-recover-if-your-site-got-hit/#.T6_PXustjK0

How Google Evaluates Blogs

· Show me you are alive?

Here is another patent narrated by SEO By the SEA – patents are a good way to determine what might be in Google algorithm. Nevertheless, the except below provides intresting reading.



Google was granted a patent yesterday on Blog Search, and how the search engine might filter blog posts out of blog search based upon a number of factors. The patent was originally filed in 2006, and it’s the first patent filing I’ve seen from Google that uses the term “splog.” The screenshot from the patent below shows some of that potential filtering process


A flowchart from a Google patent showing some of the aspects of a blog post that might cause it to be filtered out of blog search results


View the original article here


What I found interesting in the above article is that link proximity to the top of post could have a postive factor. That means links, tags and related posts that is usually at the bottom of a post, have a lesser value. Additionally, there might me a detection for  affiliate outgoing links, popups and adult sites that again may have a negative bearing.


 

Outbound Linking Can Boost Rankings

· Show me you are alive?

I always try to link out to relevant sites in my blog and encourage my SEO customers to do so likewise . When you think about, this is natural. Good websites do link to each other in order to improve the ‘user experience’.


The following article emphaise my views better by giving  a number reasons why outbound links are a good idea.


Many of the poorly ranking websites that I am asked to fix share a common problem – they do not link out to any websites.  Apparently, some people still think this is a terrible idea and go to extremes to never link out to anyone. Taking any idea to an extreme is generally never a good plan.  By changing the outbound link policy, I have been able to help many sites boost their rankings.  Let’s be clear – I am not talking about blindly linking to random sites.  I am talking about linking out to quality websites that are relevant to the specific web page content.


Why would I be so generous with my link juice?  Here are some of my thoughts:


View the original article here


I hope after to reading the above article that you are convince relevant outbound links that are good for your website as well as your rankings. I am testing out a WordPress plug-in that suppose to create outbound links to authority sites automatically. If you are interested, I will report on whether I see an improvement.

Best 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic for 2012

· Show me you are alive?

I stumbled across this rather long article from SEOMOZ and I liked it because it had many useful ideas. It also laid out the landscape statistically in terms of traffic. I believe it is a good idea to test everything online because virtually everything can be measured.


When strategizing about who you’re writing for, consider that audience’s ability to help spread the word. Some readers will naturally be more or less active in evangelizing the work you do, but particular communities, topics, writing styles and content types regularly play better than others on the web. For example, great infographics that strike a chord (like this one), beautiful videos that tell a story (like this one) and remarkable collections of facts that challenge common assumptions (like this one) are all targeted at audiences likely to share (geeks with facial hair, those interested in weight loss and those with political thoughts about macroeconomics respectively).


Daily Google Searches 2004-2011
sources: Comscore + Google


Taking advantage of this massive traffic opportunity is of tremendous value to bloggers, who often find that much of the business side of blogging, from inquiries for advertising to guest posting opportunities to press and discovery by major media entities comes via search.


View the original article here

My favourite tip from the above article was the app for social web management because my goal for 2012 integrate social media signals in everything I do. It is obvious to me the online search will become more personal – this the direction Google is going with Google+ and where they feel most threaten. What do you think?

Best SEO Practices Means Using Social Media To Protect Your Brand

· Show me you are alive?

If you want to improve you your website rankings then you must use Social Media to improve your ‘link profile’ – diversity of links. Despite social bookmarks, I have found it is best it is best to concentrate efforts on handful of social media elements.


The following article gives details  four social media platforms that is worth a read.



Whenever you are involved in an ORM (Online Reputation Management) campaign, your goal is to displace negative results in the search engines with positive results. In a previous post we looked at creating microsites. In this post, we are going to look at leveraging social media profiles.


As with every search result in Google, the top results are generally made up of the most trusted and authoritative results, so it makes the most sense for us to talk about the most trusted authoritative social media sites at the moment: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google plus.


View the original article here


The social media platforms I focus on are YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I am testing out Google Plus but I have yet decided it is worth the effort compared to the others. However, I believe it is important to integrate your social media efforts on your main blogging platform – that is why I love WordPress that has some many social medial add-ons it’s a joy!


 

Applying the best SEO methods can get you easily $100,000 worth of PPC Traffic

· Show me you are alive?

I the example below of how one SEO’er easily achieved over $100,000 worth PPC traffic. In otherwords, that means if they got the same amount of traffic from Google PPC they would of paid over $100,000. How did they do this? By sound and consistent SEO methods.



Over $100,000 Of PPC Ads Equivalent


We wanted to know how much that organic traffic was worth to us in terms of equivalent PPC ad spend. So we went to the Google Keyword Tool and looked up the Exact Match estimated CPC for each phrase where we ranked. Then we multiplied that number by the actual visits we received for that Exact Match phrase.


For example, we rank for “call option” which has an estimated CPC (for Exact Match) of $13.66. We got 286 clicks from that phrase in 2011, which would have cost us 286 x $13.66 or $3907 if we had purchased those clicks via PPC. Do that same exercise for all of the phrases that sent us organic traffic during 2011 and you get a number in excess of $100,000. Those are visits we got for free because of our SEO. (Did I mention how much we appreciate our training from SEOmoz yet?)


View the original article here


I must do the same above arithmetic on one of my websites. Personally, I use PPC to quickly test landing pages and test out new keywords otherwise I find it too expensive.


Following best SEO methods does give you a lot of ‘free’ traffic, however ‘free’ always means SEO time and effort. What do you think?

Google’s Query Based Analysis and Reranking of Search Results

· Show me you are alive?

One repeated tactic in finding out what Google algorithm incorporates is to inspect patents filed by them. The idea is that if Google has patented a method then they are either using it in their algorithm or think it is important.



Babe Ruth, well known as a New York Yankee, in a Red Sox uniform.



Of course, these are only patents and patent applications, and it’s possible that Google might be doing something somewhat different than what is described within the claims of these documents. But it’s worth spending some time thinking about how Google might be analyzing search results for queries performed at their search engine, and how it might influence what searchers see when they perform a search.


View the original article here


I believe the patents mentioned above relating to the freshness of content and number of backlinks to the page offer the best SEO insight. With over 200 parameters that determine rankings, I am constant search which one matters most because you cannot possible cover everything!


 

My Best SEO Advice – What Worked In the Past Does Not Work Now

· Show me you are alive?

The following article from SEOMOZ is interesting to read because it explains that SEO changes are constant. What worked in the past doesn’t really work now. There is a constant drive to learn new things and new methods. That is why I am my normal day is 16 hours – no problem because I love what I do.

Many years have passed since our beloved first search engines have gotten acquired or went out of business, you know Excite, AltaVista, Lycos – even though they never became Google, they all worked towards the same goal Google and Bing do every day…reward the websites who create real businesses, good content, connect with the community and earn links with high rankings. Unlike my buddy Eric Ward, I am not 100% sold that 2012 is the year when all of this comes together, but even if it is 2013 or 2014, he is right in the fact that its coming. It’s been coming since the inception of the first search engine, I’ve been watching it for 13 of those years…search engines will figure it out. The question is do you want to always stay just one step ahead and have that stress or do you want to start adding value?

View the original article here

After you have read the above complete article then you will realize there is a cat and mouse game between the Black Hatters and Google. Additionally, a website’s link profile cannot affort to use one or  two types of links.  Instead, a variety of different types of links needs to be created and maintained. Although, things like ‘homepage’ contextual links on high authority domains are considered to be the most powerful.

Best SEO – Google’s Human Reviewers Ranking Factors Revealed

· Show me you are alive?

Rumours have been floating around for a couple of years now that Google has employed an army of human reviewers who evaluate websites to assist their website rankings. However, I think nowadays virtually all top SEO’er doesn’t consider it as a rumour anymore because there is just an overwhelming amount of evidence. Even recently, a 125 paged document had been circulating in SEO forums that was claimed to be Google’s official guidelines for their human reviewers.

Further evidence of Google interest in the human review process is reflected in  Google’s Panda update changes. This is where Google attempts to mimic human review process in their algorithm to determine a websites quality, relevance, and uniqueness.

Working through the huge amount material available on the above, I have tried to present the most salient points below in bullet point form.

  1. ‘Google’s Duplicate Content Penalty’ is no longer a myth. Websites that have content that have been scraped from other websites can be penalized. However, if the website that has duplicated content has higher authority than the original source, or if the content is presented in editorial way penalties can be avoided.
  2.  If duplicate content is applied to a certain page then the whole site can suffer!
  3. Keyword density on the page considerations can lead to a penalty. I often criticize old timers who still mention how keyword density of around 3% is necessary. I personal focus on where the keyword is placed on the page rather than how many times the keyword occurs.
  4. Duplicate content checks looks like they are performed in two distinct ways:
    •  By Google’s algorithm using snippet of text to make comparisons. However, they seem to be using PR/Trust authority to determine the originator of the content
    • Human reviewers searching for an exact sentences occurring elsewhere on the www
  1. Websites are evaluated in and classified in terms of :
    • Vital
    • Highly relevant
    • Slightly relevant
    • Useless
    • The above evaluation is performed in the context of the keyword. So “buy Sony” may have different evaluation than the results than “Sony Review”
  2.  Bad things to watch out for your website are:
    • Too many affiliate links and ads
    • Generic and low quality content
    • Too much emphasis on “Buy buttons” pointing to affiliate sites
    • Duplicate content of any kind.
    • Poor layout and  bad website design.
    • Small amount of pages
    • Lack of relevancy with respect keyword
    • Keyword repeated too many times or inapproprately
    • Backlinks from non relevant, or low human traffic sites
  1. Good things to include in your website are:
    • Price comparisons of the product/service in question
    • Unique valuable content that shows that you are an expert.
    • Good website design.
    • Large amount of content
    • Rich media content – text, pictures, video and podcast
    • Social media backlinks, buzz and brand reputation

Best SEO Strategy For New Or A Domain Not Responding To Your SEO Work

· 1 Comment

There are two challenges you can face in your SEO efforts that can solved by buying an aged domain with PR authority.

1) A website not responding to your backlink efforts.the best seo company 2 150x150

2) Building backlinks to a new website too fast.

In the case of the above point 2, you should be concerned because if you build backlinks too fast, there is a chance that your website might be delisted or sand boxed. Either way, it is hazardous to build links at a high rate on a new domain. The best thing I have found is to buy an aged, high PR domain and re-purpose it for your site. This can be done by:

  1. Creating text links on the  old domain and redirecting them to your current domain.
  2. Update the content of the old domain and redirect your new domain to the old one.

Warning! Do not redirect the old domain to your new site, I have found that this results in the loss of page rank of the old domain afterwards. Thus rendering your purchase of the old domain useless.

Domains for sale occur on many different websites and forum, but you must take care to check the credentials of a domain before you sale because there are lots of fake PRs unscrupulous vendors.

My check list is as follows:

1) Check the domain using the “info:domain.com” where domain.com is there actual domain you are interested in buying. What you want to make sure of is that the domain shows up in the results, and it is the same name for the sale.

2) Check the PR rank for the domain using SEOQuake for Firefox/Chrome

3) Check the domain with Whois using www.domaintools.com Avoid domains that have suffered a drop. A drop means that it could easily lose its PR in the future.

4) Check the credentials of the vendor. Obviously, look for a 100% positive feedback record.

5) Check for extra value by keying into Google “site:domain.com”, whilst with SEOQuake turned on. Sort via PR to determine whether any inner pages have high PR.

6) Check the quality and validity of the existing backlinks, using SEOSpyglass, Majestic SEO or SEMOz

7) Lastly, and most importantly when purchase the domain, make sure you place a privacy guard on the domain so that Google does not know it has changed ownership.

 

Where you can buy Aged domains