Monday, July 16, 2012

Google Penguin Update: How to Know Whether Your Website Is Affected

How can you know whether your website is affected by the Google Penguin update? The news of the Google Penguin update was followed by widespread reports of many sites being wrongly targeted and suffering slumps in rankings. But can all of that be attributed to the Penguin update, particularly when there were two Panda updates that were released not in the same month as well as more than 50 other algorithmic changes by Google?
It has therefore become tricky to understand whether one's site has been affected by Penguin specifically or any of the other factors. If you have suddenly experienced a slump in rankings from late April, it could probably be a result of the Penguin update. If you've experienced the slump on account of a Penguin update, Google says that it means your site needs to weed out the spam and clean itself up.
Penguin and Panda Updates in April 2012
Note that Google Penguin was launched only on April 24, 2012. If, on examining the analytics of your website, you have noticed a drop in rankings and traffic even before this it could be a result of Google's Panda 3.5 update which was launched on April 19 and targets low-quality websites and not specifically spam. An SEO company can help you identify whether your website was affected by the Penguin, Panda 3.5 update or other algorithmic updates of Google.
How to Recover from a Google Penguin Penalty
There is a difference between being penalized as a result of Google Penguin and receiving a manual penalty from Google. For a manual penalty to be revoked it requires filing a reconsideration request. But Google's Matt Cutts has indicated that with a Penguin action this step cannot be followed. It requires cleaning up of the site, and its effects would be felt when Google's spiders crawl your modified website or when the next Penguin update is launched.
The key to stay clear of the shocking effects of such algorithmic changes such as these is to ensure website designers place the ultimate emphasis on user-friendliness and not search rankings alone. Some of the things you need to avoid are keyword stuffing, artificial link building, doorway pages and irrelevant content.
Google Proves It Is Serious about Spam
With the Penguin update Google has proven that it is beginning to not let spam slip through its radar. Since the reconsideration request cannot be filed when a site is penalized by Penguin, Google is making website owners work hard and go the long way to repair the damage, be serious about the Google guidelines in future and make their site visible prominently again in the search rankings.
It is therefore important not to get it wrong this time, which is why you should seek professional SEO services from a reliable SEO company. Professional SEO services contain countless effective but accepted white hat techniques to make your website attract more traffic and attain higher rankings. They can help you know whether your website is affected by the Google Penguin update.
SEO covers all aspects of optimizing your website in the top searches of search engines. Quality SEO services help improve organic rankings and natural website traffic.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Kruse

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