Can Penguins Fly?

[C0ldf1re]

Google's algorithm has had another update, code-named Penguin. Why? Google's Spamfuhrer, Matt Cutts, explains in a blog post. Ahhh! To improve quality. Needn't have bothered reading that, need we? It is what he always says.

What are the effects of Penguin on link-builders? Apparently:

1. Too much anchor-text optimisation will be discounted. If all of your inbound links have the anchor text, "real estate new york", then some of the link-juice will be discounted as unnatural.

2. Out-of-context links will be discounted. If you post on an SEO forum, but your sig-link says, "limo services chicago", then much of the link-juice will be discounted as unnatural.

Will this signal the demise of spam on this forum? Perhaps, in time.

Has anybody noticed their websites moving down in serps? (Mine have all stayed in place, or improved. )

[morestar]

Thanks Cold, I feel the same way; mine stayed the same too and so have my clients and frankly, I believe this is a joke - this "penguin update" and even a little shot in the arm of the SEOs.

1. Too much anchor-text optimisation will be discounted. If all of your inbound links have the anchor text, "real estate new york", then some of the link-juice will be discounted as unnatural.

And isn't this old news? Diversify your link profile?

[cw1865]

Volusion had an update terminating version 4 compelling users to switch to version 11. My v4-->v11 stores all crapped out. Nothing else did.

But seriously, guys, let's face it, our business model sucks, we're beholden to a third party provider of advertising that (at least organically) produces free advertising.

What we really need are like, say, 10 legitimate search engine players so that our portfolio of websites is diversified twice, by itself and then by the fact that there are ten players.

Of course, in reality we don't even have 3, yahoo and bing/msn, forget it....we should be at least promoting them a little bit.

For me at least, adwords doesn't work because I'm producing one-off sales, the cost to acquire exceeds profit on most every item except the absolute highest end items.

Doesn't matter what you do, eventually google will see people getting to the top of the tree, they're going to shake the tree. I don't blame them, why should they give you free advertising?

[chrisJumbo]

Why should they give you free advertising?

They don't owe anybody free advertising on the other hand it is the webmasters of the world that helped make them what they are. Because when they first started they were a couple of college kids not worrying about $. Once they realized they could make a chunk of change and other people realized they could help them make a chunk of change, it has been a battle ever since.

With 100s of millions of websites wanting to be the best who can really say they are or not. Web authority can be gamed so even the winners aren't necessarily the best. And even though Google is pretending to combat it, they can not. And for that reason, it is silly to spend so much time and energy trying to please them.

[cw1865]

They don't owe anybody free advertising on the other hand it is the webmasters of the world that helped make them what they are. Because when they first started they were a couple of college kids not worrying about $. Once they realized they could make a chunk of change and other people realized they could help them make a chunk of change, it has been a battle ever since.

I don't see why it just shouldn't be a pay for play model all around. Frankly, at least in my opinion, organic search results combined with adwords. I don't see how that's not a form of price discrimination prohibited by the anti-trust acts.

[sonu rey]

yes, i found many article sites, although not banned, but present articles are not indexed, however hard you try.

[createdevelop]

Ok, I am being completely honest, yes some of our sites got pretty savaged. One got smashed and we had carried out no external optimisation. I don't think it is just to do with the link profile. Based on my experience it has to do with a few other things as well;
Where the links are coming from
If the domain is an exact match
If the pages themselves have a lot of internal links (are over optimised?)
What the inbound link profile is like (to just some pages or lots of pages?)
If the pages consistently use EXACTLY the same phrases in meta tags
.... I think that is about it for now.

Personally I am hoping this update gets tweaked back to where it started.

[PhilipDunn]

at least at the present time, most of my sites have improved. I just suspected other sites being penalized...

[chrisJumbo]

For many, it isn't a joke. Our biggest hit came sometime in October. However, we have never depended on the site for the majority of our income. We have maintained some of our rankings, but lost the majority of them. I did notice that some of the sites that are now in the lead are much younger than ours which is of course frustrating. One is a twitter account, what the heck?!? But, I have just decided to focus on looking for alternative traffic sources. I am not in panic mode, but I know many that are.

Still as has been noted elsewhere to just depend on Google is not good business. I read lots of other people noting even worse content in many niches no making the top two pages. And it seems when those sites are noted, they are outed. Could Google be manually targeting things?!? Who knows.

I just can't spend too much energy on it though. At this point, I write what I write. I put some unique content here and some there. If Google happens to like it cool, if not, cool as well. If I find someone to host a guest post, great, if not, great as well.

Anyway, I don't think it is a joke for everyone.
cd :O)

[ronchalice]

Sincere apology up front... every time I try to stop my fingers from reaching the keyboard, they slap me and try again... of course Penguins can fly but they have to buy a ticket like the rest of us...

in anticipation of a big groan... ttfn.