Since 1999
Still unaware of Google Penguin and its effect!
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Google Penguin is referred as a code name for recent Google algorithm update that was introduced by Google on April 24, 2012. It is aimed at promoting high quality content which is more relevant and useful for the users.
Google Penguin is basically a web filter which identifies and eliminates the websites containing irrelevant or over-optimized content from the searches.
Introduction of Google Penguin is an attempt to discourage the use of black-hat SEO techniques – cloaking, keyword stuffing, creation of duplicate content, participation in link schemes – that were used by different websites to increase their search engine rankings.
Cloaking is referred as a SEO technique in which the content posted for the search engine spider is different that of content presented to the user’s browser.
Keyword stuffing is a practice to influence the ranking of a website in Google’s search results by using excess number of keywords.
Posting same content on multiple webpages in the same site to increase the probability of its visibility in Google searches is also considered as a black-hat SEO technique or web spamming.
As the quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards the rating of a website, some webmasters participate in link exchange plans leading to the creation of partner pages particularly for cross-linking. The parties involved in this practice ignore the quality and relevance of the content, which leaves a bad impact on the minds of users who go to Google for some information.
All these unfair practices or black-hat SEO techniques results in bad user experience while searching information on Google as most of times users end up finding irrelevant information.
Google Penguin is a smart algorithm which cannot be befooled with keyword stuffing or cloaking. It has an eye for the quality of the content, which ensures that only high quality content appears in search engines. This is the reason; a number of sites ruling the Google searches suddenly lost their existence while some unknown jumped the gun.
According to a blog by Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, “In the pursuit of higher rankings or traffic, a few sites use techniques that don’t benefit users, where the intent is to look for shortcuts or loopholes that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked. We see all sorts of webspam techniques every day, from keyword stuffing to link schemes that attempt to propel sites higher in rankings.”
The newly introduced algorithm – Penguin – has already changed many equations in the web marketing. There has been huge shuffling in the ranking of the websites in past two months especially after Dr. Penguin went out for a kill.
The sites that were blessed life and were awarded with higher ranking were spotify.com, yellowbook.com, observer.com, nme.com, menshealth.com, pointer.com, and slideshare.net to name a few.
The sites that saw their downfall in the search engines include similarsites.com, cubestat.com, pressabout.com, 5ty.org, and aboutus.org et al.
Though over-optimization or black-hat SEO is identified as the reason behind this massacre of websites, Google has not been able to give explanation in some genuine cases.
There may be a number of reasons to doubt the performance of Penguin but the intentions of Google definitely deserve a huge round of applause.
Though there has been huge hue and cry after the introduction of Google Penguin, Penguin is expected to be a tremendous advantage for sites that bind to the rules. As of now, Google is silent over the disappearance of even some good websites from the search engines and losing their ranks. Before you think for a solution, first let Google concluding their tweaks. If your ranking does not improve even after following the Google guidelines, contact the search engine giant for answers.
