(PR.co.nz) Google released its latest algorithm update, dubbed 3.0, over the weekend of the 17th October 2014. It’s been a year since the last Google Penguin update. The SEO blogs are reaching fever pitch with many Webmasters claiming their portfolio of websites have been completely removed from the Google search engine rankings positions (SERPs), and yet others claiming they are seeing an increase in rankings.
What is Google Penguin?
Google uses links between websites as a vote of confidence for a website’s content. According to Google, if website A links to another website B, then A passes a ranking credit to website B.
Unfortunately, this system has spawned an industry of search engine optimisers buying and selling links between websites to manipulate Google organic search rankings. Google Penguin is a code name for a Google algorithm update aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This is often done using SEO techniques that artificially increase the ranking of a webpage by manipulating the number of links pointing to the page.
Google Penguin 3.0 appears to have impacted websites that use artificial private networks to manipulate rankings. Private networks are groups of websites controlled by the same Webmaster that are created to pass artificial link equity between each other and to other websites. An example is if a webmaster controls websites A, B and C and links them together to transfer artificial rankings equity or, more commonly, the webmaster creates websites A and B and links them both to website C.
We strongly suggest all webmasters check their organic rankings to see if they benefitted or lost rankings over this past weekend. Read here for more. We suggest the following plan of action if rankings have dropped:
1. Confirm which search terms have lost rankings.
2. Review Google Analytics trends to see when the drop in organic search visits started.
3. Look in Google Webmasters for any manual spam actions from Google.
4. Check the backlink profile of your website and list any backlinks you don’t recognise, in particular those stemming from similar IP addresses.
If you are concerned or want us to do a free post Google 3.0 audit of your website, then contact Clickthrough.
Media Release on 21 October 2014 by Clickthrough Website Design
Media Contact
Website Design Auckland
Glen, Clickthrough Website Design
Email: glen@clickthrough.co.nz
Phone: 0508 254 258
Website: http://www.clickthroughwebdesign.co.nz