Google Webspam Update a.k.a. Penguin Update

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Get a coffee. This is a long post at Search Engine Land.

It’s been about two weeks since Google launched its Penguin Update. Google’s happy the new spam-fighting algorithm is improving things as intended. But some hurt by it are still wondering how to recover, and there remain concerns about “negative SEO” as a threat. I caught up with Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team, on these and some related questions.

Two Weeks In, Google Talks Penguin Update, Ways To Recover & Negative SEO

[G10]

Originally Posted by Donnie

I used to believe the same thing. However, I was proven wrong by @Deepsand. A bounce rate seems too be way too challenging to be a ranking factor: http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/...ml#post1874976

I see your point Donnie, though remember that bounce rate is not just how long someone spends on your site, but it also encompases page speed and if it is taking a fraction too long to fully load up then a user hits the back arrow, this is bounce rate also and they don't like this.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by G10

I see your point Donnie, though remember that bounce rate is not just how long someone spends on your site, but it also encompases page speed and if it is taking a fraction too long to fully load up then a user hits the back arrow, this is bounce rate also and they don't like this.

Right I understand it now ; ) trust me.. Deepsand had to take out a drill and drill it into my hard head.

I know how a bounce rate works.. We also got into a user returning to a SERP for another result. However, there are soo many other variables that contradict a bounce rate..

If bounce rate really mattered, there would be bots built to manipulate the bounce. I dont think Google can risk this too much. If you compare your server bounce vs Googles bounce you get completely different numbers.

[G10]

They will never admit to it if they used solid on-site bounce rate because like you say, it would be too risky for them due to corporations trying to fiddle the figures. Though even if a page hasn't fully loaded up, you begin to read it and hit back before finished, this will work against a site.

A site wiith high br usually means one of two things, either that it is returning irrelavent content to users for that specific search, or it is loading slow and weather Google use this info or not is not something they wouldn't admit to, do they do have this info to hand on their systems.

Btw, you live in Boca Raton do you?

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by G10

They will never admit to it if they used solid on-site bounce rate because like you say, it would be too risky for them due to corporations trying to fiddle the figures. Though even if a page hasn't fully loaded up, you begin to read it and hit back before finished, this will work against a site.

A site wiith high br usually means one of two things, either that it is returning irrelavent content to users for that specific search, or it is loading slow and weather Google use this info or not is not something they would admit to, do they do have this info to hand on their systems.

Right, but then what about a landing page? or if the user found what they were looking for exceptionally fast?

[G10]

Originally Posted by Donnie

Right, but then what about a landing page? or if the user found what they were looking for exceptionally fast?

A landing page usually bounces one further into the site or has a call-to-action on it where one will be on it for more than 1 second.

I would imagine that if 1000's of people found what they were looking for exceptionally fast (under a few seconds) and the page was a quick loader also then this would be taken into consideration (I mean positive not negative).. They wouldn't find it fast if it was a slow-loader (also taken into consideration)

Their complete formula is unknown and nobody fully understands it (otherwise they would find ways to manipulate it, like everyone seems to keep trying to do) though I would bet that this is also considered within it, weather they tell us or not is another thing.

I'd be surprised if it wasn't as it is information worth knowing for them for many reasons.

[jeffsmith]

Google penguin is nothing but the punishment for the spammers if you have been following the google webmaster guidelines you no need to worry.

[jjmcd82]

Originally Posted by jeffsmith

Google penguin is nothing but the punishment for the spammers if you have been following the google webmaster guidelines you no need to worry.

Oh, how I wish that were true

I've been doing a lot of research in Opensiteexplorer and Webmaster Tools to figure out exactly why my affected site got punished, and I found that someone is using forum auto-posting software to build thousands of links to their comments and bookmarks on my domain. Of course, their comments & bookmarks are spam too, so I never approved them, but Google is still apparently counting all of the links to the non-existent URLs.

That is basically the only difference between my site that got destroyed by Penguin, and the other sites that are exactly where they were or even higher up. I'm not even sure there is a way to save it anymore...

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Originally Posted by jjmcd82

Oh, how I wish that were true

I've been doing a lot of research in Opensiteexplorer and Webmaster Tools to figure out exactly why my affected site got punished, and I found that someone is using forum auto-posting software to build thousands of links to their comments and bookmarks on my domain. Of course, their comments & bookmarks are spam too, so I never approved them, but Google is still apparently counting all of the links to the non-existent URLs.

That is basically the only difference between my site that got destroyed by Penguin, and the other sites that are exactly where they were or even higher up. I'm not even sure there is a way to save it anymore...

If I read that correctly, if you didn't approve the comment on your site, how do you figure Google found the comment and link(s)? Are you deleting them after the fact or moderating them?

[jjmcd82]

Originally Posted by HTMLBasicTutor

If I read that correctly, if you didn't approve the comment on your site, how do you figure Google found the comment and link(s)? Are you deleting them after the fact or moderating them?

For example: a pill spammer left a comment on my Wordpress blog @ domain/postname/. Akismet caught it and it never went live.

However, the spammer then sets up their bot to auto-post links to domain/postname/#comments. In a few hours, 1,400 backlinks URLs are built from 600 different domains to domain/storyname/#comments - and each url with that link is stuffed with hundreds of links of pill and porn anchor text.


That was the worst offender, but the same thing happened with a bookmarking and forum installation I also had on domain.com. Those outbound bad links would occasionally go live before they were deleted, and then I'd notice webmaster tools was still trying to find the deleted story because it had ~50 backlinks from 5 spammy domains.

I've completely deleted those installations now and 301'd the entirety of the directories to the home page. No idea if it will work... but there's no way I can hunt down and delete 1000s of bad links to my site posted to websites written in Chinese and Russian. Ask for link removals my ass - thanks a lot Mr. Cutts.

[snakeair]

FYI, i have never had Akismet installed on my blog from day 1 when i created the blog 4 years ago. I get around 5 to 10 spam comments per week and that's it. Non even are live so Google won't hit me up for spammers in blog comments.

2 ways i protect the blog from most spammers.

http://www.joeswebtools.com/wordpress-plugins/no-disposable-email/ - FYI, if i noticed a spammer using same email address extension 2 or 3 times in a row, I'll add the email to this list.

http://bestwebsoft.com/plugin/captcha-plugin/ (I use this on the comment system. Most bots and spammers use automated software to submit mass comments.

Google is slow in removing URLs that you reported via. webmaster tools in my own opinion.

[stephengfm]

Originally Posted by snakeair

Google is slow in removing URLs that you reported via. webmaster tools in my own opinion.

Google removes the URLs I report rather promptly < 2 weeks.

But their terms or policies regarding removal are tight.

Moreover, they may just re-index the website.

[dowjoetod]

Here are 2 more articles about recovering from the penguin:

http://www.micrositemasters.com/blog...ways-to-do-so/ - this one is based on tests on hundreds of hit and not hit sites. I think the writer really knows what he is talking about and give some nice points...

Another one: http://www.audiencebloom.com/2012/04...ete-or-dilute/

[williamsam]

This update affect all those blogs who got backlinks through Black het seo techniques and use auto backlinks generator software to do so and Google considers their blogs as a spammy and remove it from SERPs. One of my frnd blog affected from recently update of Panda and he is lost it completely very sad

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Originally Posted by dowjoetod

http://www.micrositemasters.com/blog...ways-to-do-so/ - this one is based on tests on hundreds of hit and not hit sites. I think the writer really knows what he is talking about and give some nice points...

That article is discussed here:

The best bit of evidence about inbound links is inconclusive but highly informative, once you understand who the data was collected from, and how. Those who spam aggressively off site are likely spamming aggressively on site – correlation is not causation – tails do not wag dogs.


That doesn’t mean the data from Micro Site Masters is useless – far from it, it’s a strong hint that we should look at more cases like case #3 – and it gives us better ideas on hypotheses to test.

Penguin Cases of Interest: Twin Studies

Plus on Twitter I saw two respected SEOs say they couldn't believe that creating microsites was proposed as a solution. Note that the site that wrote that article are in the business of creating microsites.

[Turkey Property]

My understanding of the Penguin update is that it isn't something that is run continuously, i.e. it doesn't form part of Google basic algorithm, but has been applied once and won't be applied again until whenever they decide to refresh it.
If I'm wrong in that someone please correct me.
If I am right, does that not mean that anyone who was hit and has been making amendments is not going to know if they have been successful until after a refresh has occurred?

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Originally Posted by Turkey Property

My understanding of the Penguin update is that it isn't something that is run continuously, i.e. it doesn't form part of Google basic algorithm, but has been applied once and won't be applied again until whenever they decide to refresh it.
If I'm wrong in that someone please correct me.
If I am right, does that not mean that anyone who was hit and has been making amendments is not going to know if they have been successful until after a refresh has occurred?

What you are referring to/asking about is discussed here on WebProNews:

Sullivan confirmed what many of us had assumed was the case: Penguin will continue into the future, much like the Panda update. Cutts is even quoted in the article: &ldquo;It is possible to clean things up&hellip;the bottom line is, try to resolve what you can.&rdquo;

Penguin Update Will Come Back (Like Panda), According To Report

[Turkey Property]

Originally Posted by HTMLBasicTutor

What you are referring to/asking about is discussed here on WebProNews

Thank you, I couldn't remember where I'd seen it.

[HTMLBasicTutor]

There is evidence today that Google may have updated Penguin.

While there is no official word on the matter, there have been talks of strange SERP activity, as well as claims of recovery by some folks who were hit late in april by the algo update. There is a clear indication that something's going on, due to the action that started yesterday. Whether it's 'Penguin 1.1' or not is another matter.

Strange SERPs Could Be Penguin 1.1

Note that at the end of this article there is this update:

Update: Google has released notification that no algorithm updates have taken place, Penguin or otherwise.(5/14/12 2:15pm)

Which Barry Schwartz also confirmed:

Update: A Google spokesperson told me there was no Penguin refresh or update yet. Google said it was not a Panda refresh either and there is no update as far as they are concerned. Interesting... continuing story below...

So that rumour is put to bed, for now.

[Webfu]

For people that were hit, I'm seeing a lot of phrase match penalties.

So to me, it seems logical to go back through the sites that link to you the most. Analyze them through your Google webmaster tools, and replace keyword targeted anchor text that comes to you in high quantity with more branded and long tail phrases instead of "exact match" terms linking in bound to your site. Start with the lowest quality inbound links first and don't go overboard. You shouldn't change too many links at once because that could really disrupt the matrix!

If you want to mix it up even more, get creative and use images with short ALT tags instead of anchor text. That way you're still receiving the inbound link credit, without having to risk the penalty of the anchor text spamming that's being penalized in this newest Google algorithm update.