Google’s Penguin Update

On 24th April 2012, Google released a new algorithm change, called Penguin. It has done this to improve the results that show up in their SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) when a user types in a search term.

Some web site owners, design companies and SEO specialists – even on our doorstep here in Chester – had been trying so hard to get placed at the top of search results, they resorted to tricks that broke Google’s own Webmaster Rules. Websites that employed spammy techniques, where keywords were repeated over and over in pages (also known as keyword stuffing) have suffered falls as a result.

This has been devastating for businesses whose eggs were all in one basket as their sole source of traffic has gone up in smoke.

But it’s not all bad news. On the whole, high quality, well written sites with strong content should have benefitted from the update, rising upwards. Indeed, many websites that have had little or no SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) work carried out are outperforming others that have had lots of time and money spent on techniques that were dubious to say the least.

The Penguin update is the latest in a long line of algorithm changes. In fact, Google is constantly tweaking and changing things to ensure the results in searches are the best they can be. That’s their business.

Previous big updates were called ‘Panda’, ‘Farmer‘, and ‘Caffeine’. Each designed to penalise websites that tried to cheat the system.

So what can you do to rescue your website if it has dropped off Google?

It’s kind of obvious, but here’s what we recommend:

  • Dump any spammy content and get rid of any keyword stuffing.
  • Write new content for humans, not search engines.
  • Steer clear of spamming blogs and forums.
  • Don’t touch companies who post really poor, badly written and nonsensical articles on article websites with a barge pole.

Google Search Support In Chester

We’ll be more than happy to carry out an audit on your existing web site and fix any issues that we find. Give us a call today on 01244 566286.

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