Google Algorithm Update 2013: Google Panda, Penguin Recovery
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The document summarizes an SEO presentation about Google algorithm updates from 2013. It discusses major updates like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird. For Panda, it describes how it targets low-quality pages and provides tips for recovery. For Penguin, it focuses on spamdexing and suggests auditing links. Finally, it provides advice on content strategy, social validation of new content, and combining SEO with social media.
Google Algorithm Update 2013: Google Panda, Penguin Recovery
- 1. Google Algorithm Update, 2013 Presented by: Bill Hartzer Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 2. Overview • Recent Major Google Updates – Panda, Penguin, EMD, Page Layout, Hummingbird • • • • • • • Google Knowledge Graph UnNatural Link Warnings Cleaning Up Links Link Removal Requests Google Disavow Tool Content Strategy Social Validation Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 3. What is Google Panda? • Ranking factor added to the Google algorithm • Filter designed to identify ‘low quality pages’. • Provides better rankings for high-quality sites • Panda is integrated into algorithm, after two years • Named after Google engineer Navneet Panda Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 4. How Google Panda Was Developed • Google Engineer came up with questions. • Sent questions to human quality testers who rated sites – Rated based on quality, design, trustworthiness, speed, and whether or not they would return to site – Google came up with definition of “low quality” • Launched Personal Chrome Site Blocker extension earlier. – Allowed users to specify sites they want blocked from search results • Compared data from both sources (Raters and Chrome Blocker), and had 84 percent overlap, indicating on right track • Came up with Classifier to indicate Low Quality vs. High Quality Sites, to be used mathematically in Google Panda. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 5. Google Panda History • Rolled Out to US sites around February 24, 2011 – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sitesin.html • Rolled out to Globally to all English language Users around April 11, 2011 – Also began to roll out data from sites that users block • Latest update Panda #25 — March 14, 2013 - Panda updates now on rolling update schedule (previously manually pushed out). Updates less transparent now. • Panda Dance, Panda Recovery, June and July 2013 Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 6. Google Panda Update History • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Panda #21 — November 5, 2012 Panda/Farmer — February 23, 2011 • Panda #22 — November 21, 2012 Panda 2.0 — April 11, 2011 • Panda #23 — December 21, 2012 Panda 2.1 — May 9, 2011 • Panda #24 — January 23, 2013 Panda 2.2 — June 21, 2011 • Panda #24 — March 14, 2013 Panda 2.3 — July 23, 2011 • Panda Dance — June 11, 2013 Panda Goes Global (2.4) — August 12, 2011 • Panda Recovery — July 18, 2013 Panda 2.5 — September 28, 2011 Panda "Flux" — October 5, 2011 Panda 3.1 — November 18, 2011 Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012 Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012 Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012 Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012 Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012 Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012 Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012 Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012 See the Google Algorithm Change History: Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012 http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012 Panda #20 — September 27, 2012 Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 7. Were You Hit by Panda? • • • • • Look at Web Analytics Sites affected had traffic loss starting in February, 2011. Google Analytics for your site (Web Trends, Omniture, etc.) SEM Rush for most sites (SEMRush.com) How many sites recover? http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/google-panda/ Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 8. Recovering from Panda • Make sure all content on site is “high quality” • Review Google’s List: 23 Questions to assess quality – http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-buildinghigh-quality.html • Identify and remove least-visited pages on site via your web analytics • Take out the trash, so to speak. • Prevent Pogosticking from SERPs. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 9. Panda vs. Penguin • Panda focuses on sites providing a bad user experience – Sites with low quality content • Penguin focuses on spamdexing and link bombing. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 10. What is Google Penguin? • Google: “algorithm change targeted at webspam.” – http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-rewardhigh-quality.html • Goal is to “decrease rankings for sites that violate Google’s Quality Guidelines”. – http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py? hl=en&answer=35769#3 • Examples: – – Keyword Stuffing, Over Optimization Unusual linking patterns (outgoing links) Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 11. Google Penguin History • • • • • First reported April 24, 2012 Penguin #2 — May 25, 2012 Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012 (0.3 percent of queries) Penguin 2.0 (#4) — May 22, 2013 Penguin 2.1 (#5) — October 4, 2013 Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 12. Were You Hit by Penguin? • Look at Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, review dates of Google Updates. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 13. Recovering from Penguin • Perform a full SEO Audit of web site – Identify and fix problem areas on site that violate Google guidelines (keyword stuffing, over optimization, etc.) • Review Google Webmaster Tools for messages, suggestions • Perform full link analysis of site – Download links from Majestic SEO, Moz Open Site Explorer, a hrefs, etc. – Review anchor text, clean up links to site – LinkResearchTools.com for further cleanup • Work on Authority, Trust of your site Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 14. Exact Match Domain Update • Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update — September 27, 2012 Should be called the “Commercial Phrase” Update. But for PR purposes, I realize why Google calls it the “EMD” update. • Google targeted “commercial phrases” with this update. • AdWords CPC Cost + # Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase • Example: – • • • • $5.00 CPC + 20,000 Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase Valuable Domain Names include Keywords (commercial phrases) Not all keyword rich domains affected Sites without keyword rich domains were affected Recover by cleaning up your link profile, especially anchor text • Link Profiles should have 70 percent or more “brand” anchor text, company name, URL as anchor text. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 15. Page Layout Update • • • • Page Layout #2 — October 9, 2012 Google targeted pages with too many ads “above the fold” http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ Algo proof: content above fold, minimal ads above the fold. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 16. Knowledge Graph Update • • • • • Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012 Added KG functionality to non-English queries, enhanced KG Knowledge Graph is here now, almost a year later. Get your site, business into the Knowledge Graph. TIP: get listed in Freebase.com, part of Knowledge Graph. Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 17. UnNatural Link Warnings • • • • • Have an unnatural link warning in Google Webmaster Tools? Sample Unnatural Link Warning shown below Process for Recovering from Unnatural Link Warnings: Clean Up Links, Disavow, Reinclusion Request IMPORTANT: Clean Up Your Links! – Disavow, Reinclusion Request not required! Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 18. Cleaning Up Your Links • • • • • • Review all your links (Majestic SEO, a hrefs, Webmaster Tools) LinkResearchTools .com Link Detox Tool Identify Toxic and Suspicious Links. Review by hand! Notify site owners of toxic links, review suspicious links Be nice, ask, beg for removals. No C&D from your lawyer! If no answer, prepare Link Disavow list Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 19. Link Removal Requests • • • • • • Get organized. MS Excel, Google Docs spreadsheet Include URL, Status, Date Contacted, Anchor Text, Notes Find domain owner (whois data, contact info on site) Ask for link removal or anchor text change if appropriate Realize that some links won’t be removed (thus disavow tool) Remember: Disavow is not required in order to recover. • How to respond to a link removal request http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/how-to-respond-to-a-linkremoval-request/ Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 20. Google Disavow Tool • • • • What is Disavow? (Bing has Disavow tool, too) Disavow is an advanced tool – use with caution Not all sites should disavow links Should You Disavow Links? How to Know - check your backlink profile, look for toxic links - if you have a rogue former SEO firm who built bad links - if you have negative SEO done to your site • Disavow should be a “last resort” effort. It’s not a magic bullet for ranking better. • Carry on with your ‘normal’ linking, link earning activities (or do more of it) • https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 21. Google Hummingbird • • • • Did you notice when Hummingbird went live? I didn’t. Some say Hummingbird was a publicity stunt by Google. Hummingbird is the “back end” or “engine” of organic SERPs. Google’s blog post doesn’t mention Hummingbird, but mentions Knowledge Graph http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2013/09/fifteen-years-onandwere-just-getting.html Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 22. Recovering from Hummingbird • • • • • Was your site hit by Google Hummingbird? Did your site traffic go down? Probably not. Hummingbird debate is just starting… Hummingbird patents: http://bit.ly/Z6uArv • Hummingbird not about Longtail http://bit.ly/1eFD1k1 Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 23. Your Content Strategy • Content Marketing, on your own site, is key • Review Google’s 23 Questions to Assess Quality • http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-highquality.html Examples: • Would you trust the info presented in this article? • Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature? • Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations? Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 24. Combine Social Media with SEO • • • • Create content on site, promote on social sites Twitter links, mentions of URL are seen as links. Post on Google+, +1 the URL, add to Facebook page Encourage social sharing of your site’s content Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 25. Social Validation New URLs need Social Validation • • • • • • Google looks for new URLs they can trust Google “trusts” new URLs if social shares (validation) New content must be socialized within 2 hours After 2 hours, new URLs are not “fresh” Submit new URLs (blog posts, articles, even new sites/domains Share on Facebook Page, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, other social sites Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer
- 26. Thank You Bill Hartzer President, Bill Hartzer, LLC www.BillHartzer.com Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer Bill Hartzer Twitter: @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer