Many SEO’s had been noticing minor fluctuations and inconsistencies when checking rankings over the past few weeks following the Penguin updates first birthday. With more and more blog posts, tweets and comments appearing across the net with similar stories of inconsistencies with Google SERPs Matt Cutts finally emerged to restore some clarity to the increased speculation before it reached fever pitch.

Last Friday, in a conversation with Jamie Dodd, Matt relayed arguably the most coherent and informative post in months relating to the updates within two extremely brief tweets confirming that;

“@mrjamiedodd nope, no new Penguin update this week”

and

“@mrjamiedodd we do expect to roll out Penguin 2.0 (next generation of Penguin) sometime in the next few weeks though.”

For some SEO’s this news may be quite reassuring to know that the fluctuations and inconsistencies were not caused by an unannounced Penguin algorithm update although Google declined to comment whether or not there had been an update of some sort such as a Panda refresh. However I think it’s safe to say the majority of SEO’s will still be speculating what the next Penguin update may entail until it is actually rolled out.

The only thing we do know for certain is that the next update is going to be fairly substantial and will make the previous Penguin updates pale in comparison. In conversations on Twitter between Matt Cutts and Danny Sullivan, Matt stated;

“@dannysullivan might want to downgrade previous Penguin 2 and 3 to Penguin 1.1 and 1.2. Upcoming release is the true 2.0.”

For more information and to view a log of the twitter conversations check out Danny Sullivan’s post on Search Engine Land.

If you don’t know about the penguin update by now try reading one of our previous blogs to get an understanding of how it has been implemented and how it has affected the world of SEO and turned link building practices upside down.

Although the attributes and implications of the next penguin update are only known by Google’s Webspam Team many SEO’s and marketing assistants have been speculating with varying levels of accuracy as to what the scope of the next penguin update could be.

Instead of chipping in my thoughts on what the next penguin update may entail I thought it may be more productive to shed some light onto what I consider sustainable marketing techniques to prevent your or your clients sites being penalised by any current or forthcoming algorithm updates.

As mentioned in a previous post, all SEOs know what acceptable forms of marketing and link building entail and how high or low risk their marketing campaigns for themselves or their clients are. If you want to make your link building safe, successful and sustainable take the following points into consideration when optimising your site.

Treat Your Target Audience With Respect – One of the main reasons the penguin update was introduced was to counteract the number of sites that had climbed to the top of the rankings featuring unnecessary and irrelevant content. In this respect if you want your site to rank organically it doesn’t make sense to force your target audience to view site content with no relevance to the browsers search. Your title tags and anchor text should reflect the content on your site and not mislead your target audience, think of your site as a tour guide; if you lead people down the wrong streets of a city or took someone to a sunglasses shop when they were trying to find knitting supplies then you’re unlikely to get return custom. This common sense principal applies to all marketing whether online, in print media or any other form.

Utilise Webmaster Tools Responsibly – Webmaster tools is a great resource to the novice or experienced SEO alike. However becoming too reliant on it may limit your full potential as an SEO. Webmaster Tools and Webmaster Help Video Series provide a valuable insight into trending SEO issues but this isn’t a one stop solution so some discretion is required. Sustainable marketing involves thinking outside the box so blindly following Webmaster Tools guidelines without creative thought isn’t going to guarantee success.

Don’t Try to be “Penguin Proof” – Many SEOs get caught up in the hype about penguin and panda updates, yes they are very relevant and make a huge difference to marketing online but similar to the point on Webmaster Tools you’re not going to do yourself or your clients any favours by swearing by them blindly. A responsible marketing campaign needs to move with the times and know how to adapt and evolve. Part of this entails keeping up with recent developments including changes to search engine algorithms however letting them dictate to you and largely influence your marketing campaign is not the idea; in essence the penguin and panda updates were introduced to encourage creative marketing that engages customers in new ways and allow creative SEOs and marketing assistants the chance for their efforts to rank well. Blindly following the changes made by the algorithm changes and allowing it to affect every decision you make is going against the principles theses algorithm updates are designed to facilitate.

The main point to take from this post is make your marketing focus not just on the here and now but think of the future for yourself and your clients; don’t focus on the next algorithm update or what may hold you back in the present. Focus on what works indefinitely and have the confidence to see your marketing campaign through to a natural conclusion.

White hat SEO focuses on providing accurate and informative content that provides benefit to a reader either by informing, educating or entertaining them. In contrast black hat SEO provides readers with the exact opposite. There is some debate about white hat SEO being the future and being progressive but most experienced SEOs recognise white hat SEO as the standard that should be upheld at all times for internet marketing.

To elaborate further, here are five reasons not to use black hat SEO.

1. It’s Unnatural – Black hat techniques are implemented unnaturally and make for unnatural and illegitimate results. There’s no point reinventing the wheel and with the improved algorithms from Google now the marketing assistants and SEOs who put the hard time and effort into content writing and link building campaigns will be rewarded for their efforts.

2. Provides No Value to the Reader – Black hat SEO forces sites with irrelevant and sometimes misleading content to the top of the SERPs for unrelated keywords leaving readers with an unsatisfactory experience and perception of the internet. This was a common problem about a decade ago and since the introduction of Google there seems to be a consistent increase in relevant results for keyword searches.

3. It Doesn’t Work – You wouldn’t drive at 140mph in the wrong lane on a motorway so why launch a rapid, aggressive attack on search engine policies? The results and the method of black hat SEO go against the creative and engaging principles of marketing in general and greatly undermines the work of legitimate SEO agencies. Black hat SEO is the antithesis of a sustainable marketing campaign, you may be able to make a site rank well for certain keywords for a short spell of time but the site is almost guaranteed to get hit by an automated penalty which could take months to recover from after several thorough reconsideration requests.

4. It’s Behind the Times Because it’s as Antiquated as a Dial Up Internet Connection – Black hat shrugs off social media and other advancements in communications technology and stubbornly refuses to go with the times. It’s old fashioned, un-evolved and on the brink of extinction.

5. It Goes Against Search Engine Guidelines – Forgive me if I’m wrong but last time I checked SEO stands for search engine optimisation: if you want to optimise a site to appear better in SERPs then why categorically and persistently break the rules?

Surprisingly enough, several entrepreneurial black hats (contradiction intended) are now advertising “guaranteed white hat SEO” packages. On closer inspection of their adverts beyond the unrealistic promises and claims being made about rankings are blatant spelling mistakes and repetitive information ad nauseum; proving the new masquerading “white hat” SEOs are just as out of touch with the times as the previous generation of black hats. Good luck chaps, you’ll need it!

At the end of the day why go against the search engine quality guidelines? The rules outlined are there to give everyone a fair chance of promoting their services or products online. To run a successful business and maintain a progressive marketing campaign you need to move with the times which is why there is never a justifiable reason to use black hat techniques.

The scope of the penguin update was all encompassing and as a side effect there are now a whole host of previously successful domains affected by the penguin update in a number of different ways available for purchase.

Sites affected by the panda update with dubious onsite content can be remedied to an extent by replacing duplicate, inaccurate or stale content with better researched content that actually provides a benefit to the intended reader. The site can then be re indexed by Google and given time the majority of sites affected in this way can begin to rank again for chosen keywords.

Sites affected by the Penguin update can be much more problematic and present a real dilemma as to whether they are worth purchasing, especially at a high price tag.

It’s common knowledge that prior to the penguin and panda updates links were openly traded as a commodity before Google stepped in and established a precedence for link building activity. Many marketing assistants and less experienced SEOs purchased these seemingly harmless links and for some time saw a good return for their initial outlay. Sites penalised by placing purchased links have some chance for redemption by contacting the firms responsible for sourcing and placing the links and asking them to remove them.

However for the multitude of domains affected by malicious links being pointed to their sites by competitors the longevity and sustainability of previously high ranking sites becomes questionable. With a counter industry of link removal now arising as a result and with their being no guarantee of often timely reconsideration requests being approved many people are asking themselves if it is worth while taking the reins of doomed domains.

Matt Cutts provides an insight into this loaded question in a video from the Google Webmaster Help Series released this week.

Apart from using alt tags to add short descriptions there are not a lot of options when optimising images on visual driven websites. A picture tells a thousand words is an often quoted phrase and in the case of many artists and photographer’s websites this is often the case. After going to the trouble of working on artistic masterpieces it seems unnatural to upload these images to pages that need lengthy bodies of text just to get your work noticed and circulated around search engines and the general public.

One way around this is to use social media to draw attention to your site but this can be a lengthy process and difficult without some IT and marketing experience. Alternatively you could use traditional onsite optimisation methods but this again requires time to learn and implement the necessary skills and many dedicated artists would naturally prefer to dedicate this time to developing their artistic skills.

In a recent video from the GoogleWebmasterHelp Series Matt Cutt’s addresses this issue with balanced responses showing that Google can still value the merits of a site without having to rely on traditionally text driven content. Matt mentions Google Web Fonts and highlights the benefits it can provide to visually orientated sites; allowing people to create visually appealing text from an extensive library of fonts which can also be processed as text and indexed by Google.

The video has sparked some debate amongst the SEO community and has a lot of worthwhile contributions in the comments section. With Google recently releasing it’s Google Nose promotional video as an April Fool’s prank maybe one day in the not too distant future we can hope to see advances in how Google can differentiate between merits of visual sites without having to rely on traditional text based content.

In the statement Google plainly announced that Google News is intended as a platform for syndication of relevant and useful information and not to be circumnavigated as a portal for sale pitches or any other information other than relevant and emerging news stories.

This announcement is hardly surprising in the wake of the Panda and Penguin updates as Google finds innovate ways to outsmart black hat SEO practioners trying to abuse resources intended for the benefit of the public. In some respects the approaches attempted by blackhats have displayed attempts to think outside the box but ultimately the time and effort could be much more lucratively invested into syndicating content that aims to satisfy and educate rather than half hearted attempts at turning a quick buck.

Google often comes under fire for its policies designed to bring balance to the internet but at the end of the day it’s difficult to fault their motives. The standards put in place now will hopefully be continually adapted through Google’s algorithms over time to protect this generation and the following ones so not only is browsing safe for all but also to protect our economies and future longevity by making sure legitimate business men and women can promote themselves without having to consider or plan against unethical marketing practices.

Coming Soon – Look out for more videos on our channel giving you a unique insight into the world of SEO and internet marketing.

Penguin and Panda updates are still a hot topic and now that the SEO industry is getting to grips with how the changes are going to be administered the collective SEO community can now turn to the bigger picture; how these changes are going to roll out and effect this year’s optimisation trends and the ever changing world of optimisation and internet marketing.

Following last week’s coherent announcement fleshing out the continual role panda updates will incorporate into Google’s algorithms many analysts may be potentially jumping the gun and planning for an eventuality which may never occur. The cold hard facts delivered from Matt Cutts are quite simple in that the panda update will not be amended and re launched on an almost monthly basis but instead will be continually evolving and changing when necessary to prevent keyword stuffing, repetitive content, irrelevant content and bland content from climbing to the top of the SERPs.

In reality this is nothing new, whether the updates are rolled out continually or on a monthly basis their effectiveness and the implications are not going to diminish. Considering the fact that the notifications about previous panda updates were not entirely easy to follow focussing so much time and effort onto matters out of our hands seems to be wasted energy.

In essence the Penguin and Panda updates seem to have a dual effect; the obvious initial impact that the changes to the algorithm make speak for themselves, levelling the playing field for competing SEO professionals. The second effect seems somewhat more suggestive and subliminal, altering our perception of internet marketing and SEO principles. But if we abide by the guidelines established by Google then surely there’s nothing to fear…?

Whether it’s rumours or actual concrete announcements about changes to Google’s algorithms the impact on the web is consistent; panic and hysteria on an unwarranted level. All professionals within the SEO industry have a grasp of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines; they are undoubtedly fair and have paved the way for SEO standards for the current generation and will inevitably end up being upheld into at least the next few decades because above all they work.

Amongst all the speculation and discussion it can be difficult to focus on what is established fact regarding the algorithm updates. As links are treated as a valuable commodity and can be manipulated into a currency of sorts the changes to the penguin update clearly take the highest priority in the minds of SEO professionals and the higher levels of Google management.

In keeping with Google’s usual divulging of information, a new penguin update has not been officially announced but following common sense dictated by Google’s previous release schedule for penguin updates it seems the next phase of penguin updates could be announced any day now.

A recent report from Portent is a breath of fresh air in terms of analysing the implications of penguin updates. Although the information provided is not direct from Google the report shows a clear, methodical approach to analysing the affect of links penalised. By analysing link profiles of some of the top 50 companies in the inc 5,000 list, Portent have shown visible resorts that we can all relate to and actually learn something from.

To some it may seem like a fairly small gesture to publish this report but to me the implications have extremely broad and relevant implications. More so the report is the definition of the values being promoted in the Panda update and proves it works; Portent have created a fresh report in what is bordering on an almost stagnant scene in relation to blogging and documenting the changing role of SEO and proves it works by increasing awareness of link building principles in an honest and open manner that becomes instinctively a knee jerk reaction to redistribute across forums and social media.

The bottom line is don’t fear what you can’t control; embrace the penguin and panda and you may find beyond their chilly exteriors a warmth that can bring unity to a somewhat fractured industry. Stay in the loop with SearchQuest and check back for more informative news from the world of SEO.

The news of a panda update is somewhat predictable as the panda algorithms targeting keyword stuffed content and other spam ridden techniques are released regularly over the course of a year. Panda updates by nature are fairly manageable as they reinforce policies for bodies of text used to optimise sites and the nature of the policies for fair text hasn’t changed much since Google started to enforce these guidelines. In essence the panda updates tweak the original algorithm to improve it’s effectiveness at discovering spam ridden text; the parameters don’t change just the methods used to identify these sites are improved with each update.

However the news of a penguin update is still anticipated yet somewhat less so by the majority of the SEO industry. This isn’t to say the penguin update has negative connotations but by nature Google isn’t as publicly forthcoming about when they are released, what the full ramifications of the updates entail and whether they have officially been released.

Following the last penguin update many legitimate SEO companies were penalised for benevolent links promoting their services often contained in a site’s footer. Due to the universal policy rolled out to target blackhat SEO operatives many legitimate companies were penalised which explains why there is some mild trepidation within the SEO community at the moment.

The panda update is scheduled to be implemented over this coming weekend and the penguin update is unconfirmed but inevitably due at some point this year. Stay locked to SearchQuest for further news and info.

In the video matt refers to Google’s Search Quality Rating Guidelines which have recently been made publicly available in a sizable 43 page pdf. Google’s guidelines have often been much debated and discussed as industry professionals have had a grasp on them but never had the chance to browse fully explicit, accurate documentation outlining Google’s procedure.

Matt describes how the manual web spam team are trained and prepared to assess sites. Mentoring seems to be a key aspect of the training to help new employees get a comprehensive view of every angle of web spamming procedures.

The issue of malicious content is raised as Matt discusses freedom of speech in relation to publishing online and mentions that sites will not be penalised for posting content that is inflammatory towards Google. Matt goes on to say that Google can take action against misleading or deliberately deceptive content and that they reserve the right to do so.

Matt discusses how the Webspam team are continually reviewing their policies which is reassuring to know and helps to keep the internet fair grounds for all to compete in.