After Panda Update, Google introduces another update Penguin Update in April 2012. Google Penguin Update deals with only link Quality, nothing else. Sites which get links in a wrong way always come in this update and hit by Penguin.
Sites that have purchased links or have acquired low-quality links through places such as low-quality directories, blogspam, or link badges and infographics could find their sites no longer ranking for search terms.
Which Sites Might Be Affected
Here are some of the reasons why your site might be affected by this recent Penguin update:
Hidden links and hidden texts (Black-hat SEO practice)
Serving duplicate content from sub-domain (Fixing WordPress duplicate content)
Low quality backlinks
How To Recover From Penguin Update
Whether your website is affected from Penguin Update or not, you can check it from Google Analytics. If your traffic has dropped down during Update release date, then your site might be affected from Penguin Update. Here is few tips to recover from Penguin Update:-
Link Quality
Increase Anchor Text Distribution
Stop Building Unusual Links
Get rid of all unrelated links on your website
Only obtain backlinks from relevant sites or by providing great content.
Try and get links to your site with different anchor texts.
Try and include only contextual links.
Real Time Penguin
In its previous update(2016) Google has said from now Penguin will be Real time Penguin. Now webmasters do not need to wait for update. This is a bad news for whom who create links in illegal way for few times only. Here is more to know about Real Time Penguin.
After investing lots of time and money in Website development; now website owner again invests into it to get more traffic. The SEO Experts invest their knowledge and time into it to get more traffic and better ranking but due to few mistakes he never gets it.
These are the mistakes which do not seem like mistake but they have large impact on the website.
Copied/Duplicate Content
Have you hired Content writer ?
Yes.
Even after that you are getting the copied content. Shame!!!
Really this is unacceptable. Whenever you get a content from your content writer never forget to recheck this. You can take the help of Copyscape which checks the duplicate content from all over the web.
For the On site content too you need to follow this. There should not be any copied or repeated content in your internal pages too. This is important to perform a SEO audits on regular basis in order to check content. It is better to be aware of your content which might be copied from internal or external website.
Content Only Keyword Oriented
Have you only Keyword Oriented Content?
What are you giving to your Users/visitors ?
Do not write content only Ranking or Traffic oriented but produce something for your visitors too.
Writing keyword oriented content is good practice but stuff only content is not. Sometimes it happens when SEOs do the keyword stuffing in order to get ranking but this is not far better. Your website might get the initial hits, but this is not going to work for long way and one day you are going to be hit by Google. Google has many algorithm and tools to check the content so always put quality content.
Use of Meta Tags
This is the first thing which user see and get to know about your website. Whenever someone performs a search in Google he spots the first thing is website’s Description and Title. User visits to your website after reading these things. So, never underestimate this it is looking small having few words of content but it has have weightage.
Never forget to use meta tags (Title Tag, Description Tag) in your web pages. Write your unique and persuasive title tag with important keywords.
<head>
<title>Your Title Is Here</title>
<description>Your Description Is Here</description>
</head>
Not Configuring Webmaster Tools of Major Search Engines
Have You Google Search Console (the new name of Google Webmaster Tool)?
Yes.
And Bing’s and Yahoo’s ??
No.
It is so common to have Google Webmaster Tools and it is also common to miss the other webmaster tools.
Isn’t it ?
You must know your website in respect of every Search Engine. Every Search Engine sends notification which may differ. So, do not waste your all efforts till you have put and configure the webmaster tool of every major Search Engine like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Broken Links
Links That no longer lead to the intended or expected destination are known as Broken Links.
It can be Internal and External links.
For Internal Link, you should always keep checking your webmaster tools. It tells about 404 pages or broken links. It is very to download them from here and fix them. Due to broken links you can lose number of visitors. So, always keep tracking your webmaster tool and fix them.
For External link, you should have a record of your every backlinks. Try to check them on regular basis. It happens that we forget to keep checking those links although it is hard work but you must do it. You have invested your content and time for these backlinks and these are the backbone of your website.
If there are any error you can inform to Owner of that Blog/website and request them to fix the occurring error.
Besides these mistakes, there are other mistakes like 404 errors, not using correct anchor text, failing to install Google Analytics and countless others.
Don’t let these common mistakes kill your SEO strategy. It’s important to keep update yourself to prevent these mistakes from occurring.
As we know Google makes update at least 3 or 4 daily in its algorithm. Till now we have seen countless updates like Panda Update, Penguin Update and HummingBird Update and more.
This new “Fred” update has left several assumptions which has made SEOs demented.
Why it is “Fred” ?
Suddenly changes in ranking and traffic without any confirmation from Google side, has left many questions. The SEOs were very worried about it. They started to ask Google and its team. After some persistence, Garry Tweeted (unofficially and jokingly); “Every update unless otherwise stated, shall be called Fred.”
This is how the new update got its name “Fred”.
Meaning of Fred from Google
I have just performed a search in Google with “Fred Meaning” and look what I got from Google…
After seeing this meaning I am just taking it as Penguin’s little sister which is wiser than it.
What The Folks Were Thinking ?
Since there was nothing confirmed about it from Google side so the search experts started to give their point of view over it. Some of them said it is all about backlinks but some of them said its content. After many research and analysis the folks reached at the point that it is all about Low Quality Link.
For Whom it is Enemy ?
Let’s talk about who might be affected from this. Here is the few points which may be the valid reason for this
Since it has been already disclosed that it is all about links. Then there may be following two reasons:-
It affects those websites who has backlinks from spam sites.
It penalizes low quality content site which does not offer any value to the users.
How to recover from it ?
Are your website affected from it ?
If Yes, follow these few tips to overcome this hit:-
No Compromise with Quality
Yes you must announce this in your team meeting that you are happy with few Quality links instead of several low quality link. Never prefer any spam or low quality links you may be hit any time due to it.
Never Use Automated Backlink Generator
There are lots tools which claim to provide you quality links but this never happens. It generates backlinks in bulk so there is no way to be them as better as it needs. So, never try any paid or free tool to generate backlinks.
Get Relevant Links
Never go irrelevant topic. Just because of few links never accept irrelevant backlinks. It never provides you as much benefit as it harms you.
Use Appropriate Anchor Text
Always pick those keywords which are meaningful, relevant to the topic and one of your keyword.
Overall after seeing lots of updates we have come to know that there are many stick to hit you if you do any illegal activities in order to increase your ranking or traffic. So just be original and show what you have.
Panda Update has been introduced in February 2011 by Google. It works as a search Filter which prevents those website which have poor quality content. From its first update Now Google update this time-to-time.
The purpose of the Panda
Google make some changes in its algorithm in regard to Content Quality. With the help of this update Google wants to eliminate low Quality or Spam Content from ranking. Google never affects those websites which have good Quality Content. Google always try to bury those results which have not useful and relevant content.
Whom Affects Mostly
Here need to understand which types of website might be affected from Panda Update:-
A website with low quality (Thin content)
A website that works as content farm
A website with useless pages indexed in Google (Same as content farm)
A website with improper SEO structure
Duplicate content (On-site and off-site)
Too many advertisements
Poor grammar
Slow site loading time
SEO over-optimization (Black hat SEO)
Panda Never Touch You
If you want that Panda never touch you always create high-quality content, unique content and relevant content. This is the only way which can escape you from panda update. There is no any short-cut or any trick besides this. Always try to keep yourself clean, unique and have to-the-point content which are useful for users.
How Do You Recover From a Google Panda Algorithm
Here is one important thing need to know before proceed to next level. The thing is Google Panda is a domain level penalty. It means if you have low quality content on your any page of your website, it will not hit only that page but it will hit whole domain and you whole website will be penalized. By replacing those low quality content by New and Quality content you can escape from Panda Update.
According to Wikipedia:- A program that searches for and identifies items in a database that correspond to keywords or characters specified by the user, used especially for finding particular sites on the World Wide Web.
Search Engines have been designed to provide the information about any things to the users. There are many search Engines which are trying to give the best, accurate and most relevant result to the users.
At A Glance : Search Engines
Search Engine
Founder, Year
Present CEO
Google
Larry Page & Sergey Brin, 1998
Sundar Pichai
Yahoo
Jerry Yang & Devid Filo, 1994
Thomas J. McInerney
Bing
Microsoft, 2009
Managed By Microsoft
AOL
Marc Seriff, Steve Case, Jim Kimsey, 1983
Tim Armstrong
The result provided by Search Engines, search performed by users is called Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
The word used by user to search the things is called Keywords. We can choose result what we want to see like News, Images, Videos, Maps, Books and Flights. There are Search Engines show the Organic Results, Local Result and Paid/Advertising results on SERP.
Want to Improve Traffic and Ranking of your website in Search Engine follow this checklist
There are basically on page optimization depends on your business. Which types it is – Local Business or Global Business ? What is its priority – Ranking or Traffic ? We will provide on page checklist for Local Business in our next article. Till then enjoy this one:—
It’s a simple checklist where I have tried to focus on each and every point which are responsible for SEO friendly Website.
Title
Title Tag is the most important part of your website.
Always put your important keywords in start of title.
Never use keywords in mass amount (when it need not), instead of it use synonyms of that keywords. Keep it under 55-65 characters.
Describe your page content in the best possible way
Use words like HOW, WHY, WHAT, and WHERE
Use words like BEST, REVIEW, and ULTIMATE
One Title is for Only one page
<title>Here is Your Page Title</title>
Description
After Title Tag Description is the most important and result-oriented parts.
Keep it in short sentences
Try to use Keywords in every sentence; not exact match, use synonyms
Keep it under 140-160 characters
Avoid duplicate meta descriptions
Make them meaningful and descriptive, matching your content
<description>Here is Your Page Description</Description>
URL Structure
URLs have to make perfect sense and be descriptive and should produce meaning.
Use H1 tag very smartly. Always put your important keyword in H1 tag. In other Headings (H2, H3, H4,H5,H6) use keywords in variances and synonyms
<h1>Example Title</h1>
<h2>Example Subtitle</h2>
<h3>Example Subtitle</h3>
Image
There is very important role of images in content. Content with images has more influence rather that the content without images. Write the name of images according to your keyword. Try to use your keywords. As alt tag play a vital role in images. Google does not read the images. It read the alt tags.
Here are points which you must keep in mind while optimizing an image –
Image Name
Alt Text
Image Title
Image Compression
Content
Content was/is/will be the king. This the part of your website which attracts the visitors on you website, retain them and make them to run away too.
Check Content Duplicacy within website or outside website.
Check Grammatical Error
Re-check Spellings
Use of Heading, Sub-headings
Use of Bullets points after a paragraph
Page Speed
Before April, 2015 Pagespeed was not a ranking factor. In April, 2015 Google has announced this. Now it has been a dominant factor for ranking and traffic. There are many tools are available to check page speed and they also provide recommendations and suggestions to improve your page speed.
Sitemap
It makes easier to find your pages either by Google or User.
There are mainly 2 types of sitemap. XML Sitemap and HTML Sitemap.
Google takes help from XML Sitemap while Users from HTML Sitemap. There no any downside of using XML Sitemap but there might be if you are not using it. So, you must create Sitemaps for your website/blog. Google has added new formats other than web pages so that user can create separate Sitemap for different contents.
Mobile
News
Video
Geo
Images
How To Check it ?
Put sitemap.xml and sitemap.html at the end of your domain respectively for XML and HTML sitemap.
http://www.abc.com/sitemap.xml
http://www.abc.com/sitemap.html
Robots.txt
With the help of Robots.txt, Website owners instruct the search engine robots about which pages have not to be followed.
Robots.txt is a text (not html) file you put on your site to tell search robots which pages you would like them not to visit.
When a web page is accessed by Search Engine from several different pages is called Canonical issue. In the resultant you will have a duplicate page and duplicate content.
Example:- If the website http://searchenginelibro.com/ is opening from following both URLs too
The most effective way is to resolve the canonical issue is permanent 301 redirection. The another way to deal with this issue is using canonical Tag .
Canonical Tag basically tells the Search Engine which version of URL you want to appear in SERP.
<rel=”canonical” href=”www.abc.com”/>
Favicon
It does not seem so important but you know everything has its own importance and speciality. And Yes Favicon has too.
A favicon (short for favorite icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons, associated with a particular website or web page.
—Wikipedia
Why You Should Have Favicon ?
Build Trust
Differentiate your website from other websites
It makes professional
Recognised Easily
Social Connectivity
Social pages play a hidden role in Ranking and Traffic for any website. You can spread your content through strong social connections. Give Social Buttons a prominent place on your website and never forget to use them whenever you update new content or product on your website. There is not directly impact of it but there is a secret relation between Social Media and SEO which may affect your Ranking and Traffic.
Tools- To measure the performance of your website, web pages, visitors, Top performing pages and more, the tools must be installed in your website:-
On Page Optimization (aka On-page SEO) refers to make change into the website in order to Optimize the website. In this section, we optimize the content on site, meta description, title tags and more. If you are going through the On Page Optimization of your site or Blog do not forget to check this amazing on-page Checklist.
Top 5 On Page Optimization Techniques
Below we are giving the most effective and necessary on page optimization techniques which are being used by SEOs.
Site Speed
Google has included Site Speed in its ranking factor. Now this has been a major part of SEO and by improving this, we will be able to maintain those traffic on the website. According to a research that 47% of your target audience expects your website to load in under two seconds.
In this speedy life who wants to spend more time. So it is clear that you are loosing your traffic just because of traffic. Improve you Site Speed and gain more traffic and conversions.
Meta Tags Optimization
It is a good practice to have metas and optimize them according to your keywords. Lets have look on them :-
We will read these Meta Tags in separate articles in depth but here we just have a sharp look over them…
Types of Meta Tags
How Do We Know
Code
Meta Keywords
This Defines the Title of your Topic or Webpages.
<head>
<title>Your Title Is Here</title>
</head>
Meta Description
This displays below the Title of your webpages in SERP.
<head>
<description>Your Description Is Here</description>
</head>
Meta Google Verification
You Get this tag when you have to verify your ownership of the website in the Search Console.
This is the most important part of any website as well as most toughest work. Content is the backbone of SEO as we have been listening the phrase from long time “Content Is King” .
Why ? Why content is the king why not backlinks or any other things ?
According to aHubSpot content marketing report from 2014, nearly three-fourths of consumers prefer to research companies and businesses through articles, instead of annoying advertisements.
Content that drives traffic …
Is practical, useful and valuable
Is interesting to read
Is in-depth and well-written
Is written with the user in mind
Solves a problem
Is easy to share
Is optimized for a high-volume keyword
Content that are Optimized too…
Create Correct Content (No Spelling & Grammatical Errors)
Use Appropriate Keywords
Have Strong Title and Headings
Use Keywords on Right Place
Make Natural Anchor Text
Jot down your content for people, for user not only for Search Engines. Your content writer must know who is your customer and what does he want. It will be good if you do a Customer Persona and then write the content. This types of content will drive more traffic to your website. In Digital Marketing Content has a bright and evergreen future.
Mobile Friendly
This is the time of Mobile not Desktop. Google has officially announced that there is more searches on Mobile than on Desktop. So it has been important to optimize your site in regard to Mobile.
You can check out your blog/websites whether or not your blog/websites are responsive through Mobile Responsive Test Tools.
If you are using WordPress, it is not hard to make your website Mobile Friendly.
Heading Optimization
Do you use Keywords in headings ?
No.
Why ?
You are missing a chance to come to nearer to 1st page.
How to Use ?
Heading 1
Use your main Keywords in H1 tag. The H1 Tag must contain you most import keywords.
<h1>Main Keywords</h1>
Headings H2, H3, H4, H5 & H6
Include your keywords in Subheading and make this subheading H2 tag. If there are more subheadings include them in other heading (h3,….h6).
Here I want to have a look over all the things once again.
Site Speed
Meta tag Optimization
Content Optimization
Mobile Friendly Website
Headings Optimization
Follow these top 5 steps while optimizing your website and get more traffic and better ranking.
To Make Results More Useful. More Search Oriented. And Keep Away Unproductive Things.
Google always tries to provide accurate and most relevant result to the users. After many steps Google provide these results. How Google Provides Ranking Results has been always an exciting question for everyone.
Every year, Google changes its search algorithm around 1000+ times. Few of these changes are minor and few are majors like Panda and Penguin (They affect Traffic & Ranking mostly).
Follow Quality Guidelines strictly. This is the way which makes you perfect and there would be no chance to be hit by any update.
By understanding the Guidelines you can create quality content and Quality Backlinks which satisfy the users and as well as search engine.
Don’t You Read?
Really!!!
No one can prevent you from updates. One day you will be hit by Google. I’m sure.
Really this is shocking for me. Please follow any blog like Moz, Search Engine Land or you can read Google Webmaster guidelines. But be updated. It’s important to keep yourself educated and find out those points actually What’s Google is looking for?
