The Google Penguin Update - Help And Recovery Tips

By Author: seouk 2012
Total Articles: 5
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Last week it was announced that Google had released its latest algorithm update, somewhat cutely named “Penguin” but with a rather less cuddly intention in mind.

As always with such updates websites have noticed rises whereas others have fallen down the rankings. It is a worrying position to be a webmaster whose website has taken a rankings knock but it’s even more worrying when the reason for the drop is unknown.

What is the Penguin Update?

The idea behind Penguin is to cut down on spam particularly pages on websites that had been intended to spam Google. The spam pages in question involve things like keyword stuffing and cloaking, all of which violate Google’s guidelines.

Penguin is fully live according to Google meaning that it has now been rolled out amongst its search results.

Have you been affected?

Penguin was released on 24th April so check to see if your website rankings and traffic have changed since then. A sharp drop means you probably have been hit, a rise in both rankings and traffic means you have likely benefitted and no change indicates ...
... that you have not been affected by the Penguin update.

Ok I have been affected, how do I recover?

Well the obvious point is that Google hit the website because it sees there are “spammy” pages. The objective is now to find out which pages these are and remove them.

Google may have even sounded out previous warnings to you about spam behaviour or content even if there was no malicious intent. Look back and find out if there had been any previous notices that made it clear that Google had spam concerns about your site.

If not then conduct a thorough review of the website to try and uncover which pages may be regarded as spammy. In Google webmaster central there is the facility to make a reconsideration request however because this is an algorithm update the ranking changes are applied automatically so in this case a reconsideration request won’t be of any use.

If you feel that Penguin has got it wrong and unfairly tagged you with the spam brush then you can use Google’s Penguin feedback form or post your concerns in webmaster central.

Over Optimisation Penalty

This has been harped on about for weeks now and to avoid any confusion, yes Penguin is the over optimisation update that everyone has been talking about however it’s not turned out to be the update everyone feared – all Penguin does is target spam on webpages.

Do be aware that on the 19th April Google updated Panda which targets poor quality sites rather than spam. Therefore if you suffered a rankings drop it’s important that you understand when it occurred as this can give you a valuable insight into why it happened and how it can be overcome.


Conclusion on Penguin

Many website owners are up in arms about Penguin and claim it has ruined the search results, of course that is only the feedback from those who have been negatively affected. You don’t normally hear much from those that have gained.

Like Panda, the Penguin update was always going to attract controversy but remember this is an update that is only impacting on 1% of UK searches and in theory it is pretty easy to avoid the Penguin spotlight, that is just don’t allow spammy pages to dominate your website. If you have by some accident allowed spam material to feature on your website then hunt it down and get rid of it.

For more help and advice with Google updates then speak to SEO UK , an expert optimisation company based in the UK who always keep up to date with the latest news and updates with Google.