Gary Illyes of Google indicated the next Penguin update is by end-of-year. While not acknowledged by G
ary Illes, this Penguin update is rumored to be continuous, and a
permanent part of Google’s algorithm. If the rumors are true, it will be welcome relief for many
sites that are penalized, making amends (through disavowing, etc), and waiting up to a year to see the penalty lifted.
There has actually been some confusion, spread by Google,as to whether these updates are “realtime & continuous” or not. Gone are the days where a penalty might be matched up between dates of Google updates and a sudden loss of rankings and traffic.
1. Use your keywords, in a natural way
Be relevant for your keywords, but don’t get crazy. Make sure you are not over-optimizing on your site around a limited set of keywords. Consider that the more competitive the topic, the more content you need AROUND the topic. The wrong approach is becoming repetitive and beyond what feels like natural, human readable content.
2. Disavow bad links
Links can go bad: Sites get penalized, or maybe Google changes their guidelines. Regardless, link disavowal is an important part of modern SEO. It can be hard to find all sources of links, but start with Webmaster Tools. We also subscribe to many tools for link research: Google hasn’t found all of your site’s bad links yet, and they also do not report all of the links they do find!
3. Maximize your good links
Many times pages move or removed from a site, and Google stops counting the inbound links (from other sites) to those pages. What a huge loss of authority this can be! Now is the time to maximize your existing link authority: Simply 301 redirect old links to their proper new locations.
4. Get more good links
Google weighs hundreds of factors in ranking websites, but links consistently have been shown to be a top factor. The best way to get great links is to be awesome, or produce awesome content – and then get the word out!
And Google Panda is allegedly STILL rolling out – since July! So make sure your Technical SEO house is in order.
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