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

Panda and Penguin Playing Mayhem? Learn How To Be Google's Best Buddy

With Google Panda and now Penguin, whatever next?! Google's algorithm changes seem to cause a huge amount of mayhem amongst Internet marketers every time it happens. And lately, the updates appear to be happening more frequently.
A lot of Internet marketers are complaining about their legitimate sites disappearing off the face of Google overnight, and many others are reporting that everything is fine, or even better with regards to ranking! So what's been happening?. Well, from the emerging thoughts, after the update, there is growing evidence that for the majority things are 'A' ok, but if it's not for you then you can take some action to try and remedy the situation. All of Google's updates occur to wash out the crud from their search results as they need to continue to deliver quality and relevant search results to their users.
This is excellent news for those who build links and know what is needed of them. As the dust start to settle, it is becoming obvious that you still need to have good quality, unique content on your website. And, building links and SEO are not a waste of time as some people seem to believe. If you just work with Google then they can be your best asset. Here's 3 of the emerging thoughts about the Penguin saga:
1) Vary your anchor text.
Do not have your main keyword in every anchor text that you setup, this is a no-no and is likely to raise Google's suspicions. The thoughts of some leading marketers (who have been doing extensive split testing), is that you should probably use your main keyword about 25%-30% of the time in the anchor text, the rest being made up of LSI type keywords and call to action words.
For example, if your keyword is "dog training" you would use that in the anchor text about 25%-30% of the time, the rest of the time rotate the anchor texts, examples of variety may include:
"puppy dog training"
"dog training ideas"
"how to train your dog"
"click here"
"http://www.yourdomain.com"
"visit the site"
So you can see the variations, some of the examples don't even have keywords in them like the call to action word "click here". This is a more natural way for linking to occur to a site and is how people general link to other sites.
2) Link variety
It's becoming more and more important to have variety in your link building profile. So just using high PR profile links only will not do. Just using article submissions will not do. You need to use all types of link source out there to vary your link profile. So a little from here and there is the order of the day. Again this is a more natural way links occur in the eyes of Google and it makes sense.
3) Relevant Links
Finally, you need to be getting your links on related topic sites. For example a dog training site, you could get links from a dog animal lovers forum, veterinary site or comment on a blog about animals and pets etc.
It would be very unnatural for say a finance site to link to a dog training website. It wouldn't happen in the real world and this is an important aspect of building links.
So, there you are, Google are just cleaning up their search results and those who play by their rules should be fine and do well. Those link spamming, then they will suffer the wrath of the Big G. Follow these simple steps, keep it natural, keep it safe!

To learn about a proven and powerful, white hat link building software that works with the Google Panda and Penguin updates, click the link now:   Penguin update.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cedrick_Moodie