Google Penguin update 1.1

[enlytend]

Check your site stats - the first Penguin update was done last night - confirmed by Matt Cutts.

If you made any changes to a penguinized site between 4/24 and yesterday, time to see if they had any affect. Reports on strategies that worked (and ones that didn't) should be popping up soon.

 

[Sabre]

Removed spam links for a client and added some quality backlinks = 22% improvement in rankings. Looking forward to Penguin 1.2 :D

 

[enlytend]

Sweet :tu:!

Question is: Was it the bad link removal or overall link profile change that did the trick? Hoping to see a lot of good data coming out of this!

Hopefully it's the link profile change, because sometimes you CAN'T get rid of the bad links.

Related Side note: Google also just updated their WMT help section on "Can my competitors harm my ranking?" - the phrase "There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index" has been removed.

 

[redfeilds18]

we all know that Penguin update 1.1 is now live and its very early to predict what we achieved or lost. keep your fingers crossed :D

 

[topgrade]

Isn't it too early to check the effects due to the weekend (well may be not for everyone). May need a week more to analyze the sites accurately.

 

[Sabre]

Sweet :tu:!

Question is: Was it the bad link removal or overall link profile change that did the trick? Hoping to see a lot of good data coming out of this!

Hopefully it's the link profile change, because sometimes you CAN'T get rid of the bad links.

Related Side note: Google also just updated their WMT help section on "Can my competitors harm my ranking?" - the phrase "There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index" has been removed.

I have been using slightly differing strategies with clients and then bringing them all into line when I see something in particular is working.

It only appears to be a major issue with 'bad linking' if you have a large number of links - which they did so I had to work to remove some of them. Other clients I have worked with from their site launches and they've just seen progressive improvements - indicating that it's a mixture of not having too many 'spam' links and having a good number of quality links in place.

I've been seeing SEO companies dropping left, right and centre lately and many of those that are left seem to be doing everything to keep their clients. Not that it's a bad thing - hopefully the updates are helping get rid of the industry cowboys who were just in it to make a quick buck.

I've also noticed a spike in enquiries from 'SEO' firms from India/Pakistan/surrounding areas who want to 'link up' and help my company with directory submissions and what not. Clearly they are losing their SEO clients and are getting a little worried about the future too.

 

[briguy]

Related Side note: Google also just updated their WMT help section on "Can my competitors harm my ranking?" - the phrase "There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index" has been removed.

Okay by removing that phrase, are they discretely saying that there are things that a competitor can do...?

 

[Sabre]

Okay by removing that phrase, are they discretely saying that there are things that a competitor can do...?

Yes, there are a number of things a competitor can do to damage your rankings now e.g. directory submission spamming.

 

[enlytend]

hopefully the updates are helping get rid of the industry cowboys who were just in it to make a quick buck.

The crap "seo" companies, i.e., the ones who haven't learned anything new since 2001 and still think the keyword meta tag is important (derisive snort of disgust).

Most of my work is with local businesses (SMB's) - whitehat + local is a nice place to be right now, none of my clients took a hit. (Actually G. made another change which is giving better rankings to local businesses for some searches previously dominated by the big names.)

My oldest aff. site (since 2003) was penguinized. No aggressive link building to that site (mine or otherwise), but it has a directory (curated, strictly one topic, no self-signup) on site, which may have triggered something. I pruned some obsolete links and nofollowed the rest but that was Thursday so hopefully next update. Meanwhile I'll be reviewing data published by people who launched big, controlled experiments after 1.0 .

Okay by removing that phrase, are they discretely saying that there are things that a competitor can do...?

It sure seems that way, doesn't it?

I don't want to go into specifics for fear of giving folks ideas*, but if you're a new site or small site which hasn't established a strong link profile yet, you may not want to draw attention to yourself too soon.

*not that it's so difficult learn about negative SEO, but Namepros isn't the place to teach it.

 

[iowadawg]

Google says there has not been another one.
http://www.webpronews.com/google-penguin-update-webmasters-wondering-if-another-one-came-out-2012-05

Or this:
http://searchengineland.com/google-pushes-first-penguin-algorithm-update-122518

Hard to believe who anymore when it comes to anything google!

 

[enlytend]

Matt tweeted that late Friday night (after the other article was posted).

The quote about zombie traffic is another issue altogether.

 

[briguy]

Matt tweeted that late Friday night (after the other article was posted).

The quote about zombie traffic is another issue altogether.

Here is the actual tweet..
https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/206232437427154944

 

[iowadawg]

Not an update, just a refresh.
Again, semantics but still, if it was a real update, Matt would have said so!

 

[Sabre]

Seems like it was an update to rectify issues that occurred in the first Penguin update.

Have had a weird week or so of traffic and ranking improvements so something is happening.

 

[AbsoluteKC]

Check out this blog post:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-wpmuorg-recovered-from-the-penguin-update

Shows how WPMU.org recovers from Penguin update after 1.1.

 

[audreyabbey]

Google Penguin 1.1 Update officially rolled out, to over this updates it important to avoid don spam links and start following Google's guidelines. With quality backlinks and quality content you'll surely prevent to be hit.

 

[Sabre]

Check out this blog post:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-wpmuorg-recovered-from-the-penguin-update

Shows how WPMU.org recovers from Penguin update after 1.1.

Not sure it's a fully useful or generally applicable case - as below from a comment;

"Yes, based on Cutts' reply that it's "possible" the damage occurred from the loss of credit from the bad links I'd say that Matt probably didn't even know why WPMU got hit.

If Matt was right and the drop was caused by a removal of link value, then removing the links should not have brought on a recovery. And Maltese, you could be right, it was likely a manual removal of the penalty."

 

[enlytend]

If Matt was right and the drop was caused by a removal of link value, then removing the links should not have brought on a recovery.

Exactly.

In the comments they admit that getting the right kind of attention may have caused a manual action or some kind of specific tweak to the algo. (Was that refresh the other day a tweak to fix high-profile sites that shouldn't have been hit in the first place? )The WPMU article should be looked at for what it is: a case study, not a template for fixing your site.

I can't help think Google is playing some kind of game with us all. Who would have thought a few months ago that people would be panicking and removing links to their own sites en masse?

 

[Adrian98]

I did the removal of the links from blogrolls and tried to rename the anchor texts by anchor texts and by that way I got to know about this change! Thanks!

 

[esprintguy]

A lot has been affected by the update. But it's actually a good one. Many marketers used link building schemes just to stay on top. Common sense, it's unethical and unprofessional.