Tactics for Dealing with the Latest Google Algorithm Updates - Pubcon New Orleans 2013
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Bill Hartzer presents strategies for navigating recent Google algorithm updates such as Panda and Penguin, emphasizing the importance of high-quality content and addressing spam tactics. Key updates are discussed, including their impacts on site ranking and recovery methods from issues like unnatural link warnings. The talk also covers the use of tools for link management and optimizing title tags for better SERP visibility.
Tactics for Dealing with the Latest Google Algorithm Updates - Pubcon New Orleans 2013
- 1. Tactics for Dealing with the Latest Google Algorithm Updates Presented by: Bill Hartzer
- 2. Overview • Recent Major Google Updates – Panda, Penguin, EMD, Page Layout Updates • Google Knowledge Graph • UnNatural Link Warnings • Cleaning Up Your Links • Link Removal Requests • Google Disavow Tool Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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 • Doesn't run continuously due to analysis processing • Updates every 4 to 7 weeks • Named after Google engineer Navneet Panda Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 5. Google Panda History • Rolled Out to US sites around February 24, 2011 – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites- in.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. Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 6. Google Panda Update History • Panda/Farmer — February 23, 2011 • Panda 2.0 — April 11, 2011 • Panda 2.1 — May 9, 2011 • Panda 2.2 — June 21, 2011 • Panda 2.3 — July 23, 2011 • Panda Goes Global (2.4) — August 12, 2011 • 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 • Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012 • Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012 • Panda #20 — September 27, 2012 See the Google Algorithm Change History: http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog • Panda #21 — November 5, 2012 • Panda #22 — November 21, 2012 • Panda #23 — December 21, 2012 • Panda #24 — January 23, 2013 • Panda #24 — March 14, 2013
- 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.) • Google Trends for any site (http://trends.google.com) Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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-building- high-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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 10. What is Google Penguin? • Google: “algorithm change targeted at webspam.” – http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-reward- high-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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 11. Google Penguin History • First reported April 24, 2012 • Penguin #2 — May 25, 2012 • Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012 - impacted 0.3 percent of queries • Penguin #4 — Coming Soon… but was announced in “Search Police” session at SMX West March 20th . Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 12. Were You Hit by Penguin? • Panda 4/19/2012, Penguin 4/24, Panda refresh 4/27, then Panda 10/5 – Search Engine Journal: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/penguin-or-panda-how-to- determine-which-google-algorithm-update-impacted-your-website/43751/ Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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, SEOMoz 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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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 Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 15. Page Layout Update • Page Layout #2 — October 9, 2012 • Google targeted pages with too many ads “above the fold” • http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 16. Knowledge Graph Update • Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012 • Added KG functionality to non-English queries, enhanced KG • Get your site, business ready for Knowledge Graph. • TIP: get listed in Freebase.com, part of Knowledge Graph. Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 17. UnNatural Link Warnings • Got 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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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-link- removal-request/ Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 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, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 21. And Finally… • How many characters can you fit in a Title Tag in the Google SERPs? Most say 70 characters or less… Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 22. 110+ Characters in the Title • Measure title tag length in pixels, not characters • Google doesn't truncate title tags in SERPs based on the number of characters in your title tag. • Blog post and tool to measure title tag pixel length: http://bit.ly/titletaglength Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog
- 23. Thank You Bill Hartzer Director of Search Engine Optimization Standing Dog www.StandingDog.com Twitter: @StandingDog Facebook: Facebook.com/standingdog Personal Blog: www.BillHartzer.com Twitter: @Bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/bhartzer Bill Hartzer, Director of SEO Twitter: @standingdog and @bhartzer Facebook: Facebook.com/StandingDog