Google Has Launched Penguin Update Targeting Over-optimized Websites

The websites that have been practicing white hat search engine optimization would have been rewarded more and those that still used sneaky black hat techniques after the arrival of Google Panda would have been penalized. You might have already noticed some changes in your ranking – positive or negative. The reasons for all of this is that Google has launched a Penguin update targeting over-optimized websites. The launch follows a Panda data refresh a few days prior to it and penalization of websites with not enough content above the fold in January. The Penguin update which Google termed an “anti-spam” algorithm is exactly that while the previous Panda update was an attack against shallow content.

Targets of the Anti-excess Website Optimization Update

The new algorithm impacts around 3.1 percent of the English queries to an extent that a normal user might notice. It impacts about 3 percent of queries in Arabic, Chinese, German and some other languages. The effects are more on languages that are more heavily spammed such as Polish – impact is 5 percent and a normal user may notice the impact. Though Google has always targeted webspam, the new update is an improvement to catch more of spam. Sites such as Doc-txt.com, Similarsites.com and Cubestat have already experienced a heavy fall in traffic following the update. Websites that have gained from the update include Yellowbook.com, Spotify.com, Observer.com and MensHealth.com.

Though Google would not be revealing specific signals pertaining to the Penguin update, the following can be cited as black-hat techniques that it is targeting:

• Keyword stuffing
• Too many advertisements above the fold in websites
• Links from spun content with unconnected anchor texts and other uncommon linking patterns
• Links from poor quality guest posts – websites with such links were trying to manipulate Google by using anchor texts instead of providing worthwhile content
• Content spinning
• On page content spam – Penguin punishes sites that have this. On page comment spam is of two types. The first is use of correct match anchor text for keywords in comment signatures so as to boost traffic for those keywords. The second is creation of scammy user names with correct match text.

Reactions to the Change

There has been considerable disapproval of this update. Here are some of the views that people have expressed:

• It is an update to deliberately boost Google’s income
• It is an attempt to put an end to SEO and drive people towards Google + and PPC
• It could not have possibly affected only 3 percent of searches

How to Not Lose from the Update

If you want your site to benefit and not lose from the update, you should focus on making it high quality and on providing your website visitors with a good user experience. Ensure that all the content in there is really quality content and not spammy. If you feel that you are short on time or cannot always be up-to-date with algorithmic changes, you can consider outsourcing your requirements to a professional SEO company.