Beat Google Penguin With Honest SEO
The Penguin update by Google has affected millions of bloggers and website owners all over the world. Basically, this is a code name for a new Google algorithm that was implemented on the 24th of April, 2012 with the purpose of decreasing the ranking of those websites that violate the Google Guidelines.
A website violates these guidelines if it uses black-hat SEO techniques and tactics, like creating duplicate content, stuffing the content with keywords or cloaking. As statistics reveal, Google Penguin Update has affected over 3% of the websites in the United States and UK. In this article you will find 5 methods to beat Google’s Penguin Updates with honest SEO in order to increase your website ranking and traffic.
1. Pay Attention To Keyword Optimization
When it comes to SEO, keyword optimization is undoubtedly the most efficient technique and it will never become old-fashioned. If Penguin Update has affected your website ranking, or if you have started a new website and you want to comply with the new rules, then you must make sure that the keyword optimization is correct.
The keyword must be placed in the article title, first and last paragraph and a couple of times in the article body. It is highly recommended to insert the keyword in the name of media files (like photos or videos), as well as in the domain name. The perfect keyword density is between 2%-3%, although it can go up to 5%. Anything above that is considered keyword stuffing and must be avoided at all costs.
2. Focus On Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking (also known as “link exchange”) plays a pivotal role when it comes to website ranking. However, you must link only to relevant, well-written, high-quality websites (and vice-versa), because linking to sites that have been reported as spam or having malicious content will seriously damage your rating. Also, you must identify all the sites that link to you (Link Detective is a tool that comes in handy!) and remove all the links that do not benefit you. Otherwise stated, low-quality link exchange has the opposite effect on your search engine ranking!
3. Fix Broken Links
If you started your website prior to the Google Penguin Update, then the chances are that there are several 404 errors and broken links that need to be addressed. These are basically dead links that do not benefit you or your website visitors in any way. You can use the well-known Google Webmaster Tools to identify them and then redirect the links to appropriate pages on your website.
4. Beware Of Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is the biggest issue, and websites that have a high number of duplicate content are heavily penalized by Google. There are numerous tools you can use to identify duplicate content and fight it, and Copyscape is perhaps the most efficient one. You do not have to completely remove duplicate content, just to rewrite it in such a way that it benefits the reader and has a unique rate of 95% or above. Remember to write for your readers, not for Google!
5. Increase Your Social Presence
Last, but not least, you must increase your social presence if you want to get a high search engine ranking. Social networking websites like Twitter or Facebook are extremely useful in this situation, as they not only help you build your ranking but they also direct a massive flow of visitors to your website – provided that you post top-notch content on a regular basis. In addition, adding social media icons on your website is also a wise choice that will increase the number of website visitors. Some of the most popular social media icons are:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Pinterest
Conclusion
To summarize, these are 5 methods to beat Google’s Penguin Updates with honest SEO. They are easy to use and their effect is almost guaranteed – besides, their most important benefit is that they help you increase search engine ranking and drive traffic to your website completely free of charge!
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