Google Penguin Survival Strategies

Since Google’s Penguin update came out, the internet has been flooded with tons of magic Penguin-killing bullets including, diversifying your anchor texts, the creation of unique content and the removal of irrelevant or paid links.

There have been numerous stories of Google penalising websites because the links (once so highly prized) are now considered by Google to be inappropriate. Google is not a fan of people paying for links that pass PageRank. It is considered by them to be a manipulation of search results and a violation of Google’s quality guidelines, which are the focus of Google’s Penguin update.

Some webmasters have even gone so far as to threaten legal action over sites that are linking to them.  Greg Finn at Search Engine Land has pointed to a specific example where PSKL got a DMCA take down notice from Life Shield, after writing a positive review.

Now, to be clear, this DMCA takedown notice is not in reference to any content theft or content use. It’s about links. It threatens legal action. It says:

I request you to remove from following website (pskl.us) all links to www.lifeshield.com website as soon as possible.
In order to find the links please do the following:

1. If this is an online website directory, use directory’s search system to find “Life Shield” links.
2. If there are hidden links in the source code of website, open website’s main page and view its source code. Search for “lifeshield.com” in the source code and you will see hidden links.

It also says:

Life Shield will be perusing legal action if the webmaster does not remove the referenced link within 48 hours.

From Google’s perspective, Penguin is about punishing those optimizers who use “illegal” SEO techniques such as sneaky redirects, keyword stuffing, link spam, copying somebody’s content (duplicate content), and others.

The questions people should be asking are:

• How many keywords per page constitute keyword stuffing?
• How can I identify link violation?
• Does an affiliate website that uses the merchant’s description on a partner site constitute duplicate content?

Is there a satisfying answer for these questions?

There is an answer to all these questions and you will find them on Page-One of Google for each of the keywords relevant to the product or service you sell, the answer is the top 10 websites rankings. Monitor them and see what they are doing, post-Penguin Search Engine Ranking Placements.

Here is a free Search Engine Spider site that will let you monitor the keywords used on each of the top ten sites as well as your own website. http://www.metamend.com/seo-tools/search-engine-spider-simulator.html

The number of keywords on a page as related to the overall amount of text is referred to as “keyword density”. Therefore, here is a free keyword Density website that will let you identify the density of the keywords on each of the top ten sites as well as your own website.  http://www.dnsqueries.com/en/keyword_density.php

Analyse:

• The number of keywords in page titles;
• The number of keywords in site copy (in general);
• The number of keywords in anchor texts.

When it comes to making minor adjustments in order to reach the final destination there is no better story than Apollo 11. The flight was only on track 8% of the time and as a result adjustment were constantly being made to the flight navigation system.

The truth is Google do not want this process to be easy, in fact the harder it is the more money they make. Not from SEO but from the frustrated website owners who turn to AdWords to secure them a Page-One ranking.

Trouble is what most advertiser do not know is they are paying five times more to get there using AdWords than they would using SEO for only 18% of the click traffic. The SEO section pulls a massive 82% and position one an unbelievable 52% of that 82%.

I am certainly not dismissing SEO for this is most certainly a smarter option than AdWords but the smartest way is DNO the SEO Revolution.