Has your website been affected by Google’s recent anti-page rank manipulation algorithm, the already infamous Penguin Update?
Are you playing by the rules – the new ones of course – but your page rank was still penalized based on the links and other slightly vague criteria?
Then here is what you need to know!
The overzealousness of Google following the Penguin update has hit numerous websites hard, despite of their natural link profiles.
They even went as far as to issue public apologies to some of the legitimate website owners that have been affected by the erroneous results of the classification algorithms.
However, while some foresee this update as the end of days for the shady backlink service providers, I am confident that the professional ones will still be alive and kicking.
Even with the de-indexing procedures applied by Google on some of these companies, backlinking can be utilized within the guidelines and yield potent results.
The three main mistakes proprietary to backlinking that could lead to penalization according to Google Penguin’s current algorithms comprise of:
- Abnormally link development patterns/acquiring an excessively large number or links over a short period of time
- Having site wide links
- Presenting links with excessively optimized anchor text
To better understand how these frequently encountered errors could easily lead to the penalization of legitimate, non-spam websites and cause them lose traffic as well as lower their page rank, I will go into more details on each of them as followed.
Abnormal Link Acquisition
Even the Panda Update was unable to determine whether the links pointing towards a website were resulted from aggressive link building campaigns.
This practice has never yielded positive results in terms of SEO and if you were to discuss your approach with a backlink service provider, they would probably advise you not to act hastily.
The difference between the Penguin Update and the Panda Update is that the evaluation algorithm of the former one is quite a bit more sensitive to abnormal link acquisition patterns.
The Penguin Update is not only able to determine whether the links have occurred naturally or if they were planted there based on how fast a large number of them was acquired, in fact, it can analyze the typical link development patterns and evaluate potential discrepancies that indicate the webmaster is utilizing shady SEO methods.
However, the drawback of this approach comes from the fact that unnaturally-looking link occurrence patterns can, at times, develop without any intervention on the part of the website owner.
(Image Credits: MajesticSEO)
I suggest frequently verifying the velocity of your backlink development using either one of the paid services or the free tools available for webmasters.
In case you notice an excessive velocity that could get your website penalized, you should verify the source and notify Google about it.
Eliminate Website Wide Backlinks
Site wide backlinks are now among the primary reasons for Google Penguin to turn its wrath against you, which means that you should focus on eliminating or at least minimizing their presence.
Even site wide backlinks that occur in a natural manner will cause the algorithm to penalize you, so you should try to draw as little attention towards the potential excessive optimization indicators as you can.
Such backlinks can be detected with either webmaster software or through 3rd party services.
However, even though 3rd party services are significantly more accurate compared to software instruments, they do not utilize the same search algorithms as Google which means that you can expect some false positive and missing results.
I do advise you to use these two solutions in conjunction for maximum efficiency.
Suspicious Distribution in the Anchor Text
This process is slightly more delicate than the others, because it first implies gathering information on your anchor texts from a multitude of sources and filtering it to remove potential dead links, root domains containing backlinks to your website that have been de-indexed by Google and the no-follow backlinks.
Filtering the information based on the aforementioned criteria, you can analyze the rest of the data checking for:
- Exactly matching targeted keywords and phrases
- Broadly matching keyphrases
- Brand name keywords and keyphrases
- Combinations between the brand names and the targeted keywords and keyphrases
- Backlinks to images
The classifications of various anchor texts utilized in your backlinks simplifies the process of discovering the Achilles’ heel and remember, special attention should be paid to spikes resulted from exactly matching targeted keywords and key phrases!
About the Author
Hello, I am Chad Faith and blogging in the SEO niche is something I do in my free time. Currently, I am looking into the effectiveness of page rank backlinks which are Penguin-proof!
About Author
Hi Chad, thanks for sharing. I agree with almost all of your points, but…
Site wide links are still good, if used in proper way and mixed with other types of links. Do you have other exerience?
BR, Chris
Chris recently posted..How to Write in English – Mary’s Top 10 List of Common Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Mistakes
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your reply – I do think that right now, I am trying to be as organic as possible.
There are some blogs that have the top commenters widget which show the people who are frequently leaving comments on their posts. That can be considered as a site-wide link, but I don’t look at it as something that’s bad. It’s something that leads people to another place that could share something about what the person is associated with.
Thanks Gerald, I do agree with you and actually it’s not all bad but I am more centered on highlighting the possible implications about these site wide links
I have few friends in the industry who are still working towards getting some great back-links for their websites, They are still mixing a great deal of niche and non-niche based links.. It is really surprising and shocking to see them following this practice still.
I never really ran after useless links, and nor I want to in the future!
Jeremiah Ozment recently posted..Search Engine Optimization Basics – 6 Key Components for Law Firms
Nicely put, the problem is that even those some of us know how useless some links are – certain clients (if you are a SEO professional) might not know and thus, some links are still chased after.
OK….dumb question here….what is a site wide backlink….I got hit earlier and my site seemed to mysteriously come back. Not sure what happened but I sure don’t want that to happen again
Thanks!
Scott
Scott recently posted..FREE Online Security Tips Guide!!
Hi Scott,
This might help you understand better – http://forums.seochat.com/link-popularity-43/what-are-site-wide-links-33741.html
google web penguin is a disaster for me because I was so much to lose page rank in google search
Hi Oka,
Sorry to hear that – quite a handful of people have been hurt too by the Panda – if you need help, please do not hesitate to contact us at http://www.page-rank-backlinks.com/ where we can try to find more customized solutions for you.
Cheers!
When you mention web site wide backlinks, I got a little confused.
Are you referring to links like Blog Roll that will appear on all pages of a site?
Yeremi Akpan recently posted..How to Turn your About Page into a Reader Capturing Magnet
Take a look at this – http://forums.seochat.com/link-popularity-43/what-are-site-wide-links-33741.html
Thanks for the reply, Chad.
Does this mean Google penalizes footer links, since some of them obviously fall in this category?
I have links in my footer pointing to WordPress and Genesis.
Yeremi Akpan recently posted..How to Move your WordPress Blog to a New Domain without Losing Link Juice
From what I have read in Google Webmasters Forum, you should add the “NoFollow” tag to those links in your footer, Yeremi.
I had a bad experienced with that penguin update once and it hurts me so badly. Penguin update is such a disaster in each and everyone of us here.
In the search engine game, for everyone who loses, there is a winner. Some people have been able to figure out the algorithms and comply. Others, who were doing what Google is penalizing, will find themselves losing their valued positions.
Google is trying with bots to determine what webmasters are doing. As your chart indicates, sometimes abnormal looking activity is the result of diligence and hard work on the webmaster’s part. So, in this case, the webmaster should–or should have slowed down. Perhaps by focussing on difficult links (which take more time to accrue) the link activity will not look hyperactive.
David Sneen recently posted..Prequel to the Earn More Spend More Group
Right David, I do like the way you put it, for everyone who loses, there is always a winner
However, in our SEO landscape today, the sad thing in my opinion is that not every “loser” deserves to lose 