Google Panda and Penguin
Google Panda and Penguin.
We hear about these Google algorithm updates all the time.
Today, websites and online businesses are most likely to get hit by Google Panda and Google Penguin algorithms. However, as most businesses don’t know what triggers these algorithm updates, they can’t prepare for them.
As a result, more often than not, they end up getting penalized by Google.
That changes today.
In this blog post, we are going to list a few common factors that trigger Google Panda and Google Penguin updates.
Once you know how these two algorithm updates work and what triggers them, you will be better equipped to keep them at bay.
Let’s begin with Google Panda.
Google Panda
Google Panda is a key algorithm update by Google that specifically deals with on-page optimisation techniques.
Since almost every website has some sort of content on its website and follows on-page SEO practices (good or bad), Google Panda is the most likely algorithm to hit them.
Google Panda can be triggered by:
- Duplicate textIf your website has duplicate text, there is a chance that Google Panda will penalize your site. It is important to note that duplicate content doesn’t always mean plagiarism. Poorly rewritten content — which is just a rehash — can also be treated as duplicate content by the Google Panda algorithm.
- Low-quality contentIf the content on your website is full of grammatical errors, have poor formatting, full of broken links, or is just a huge wall of text that leads to a poor user experience, it may trigger Google Panda.
- Thin contentThin content is one of the biggest problems that modern-day content marketers face. It takes a lot of time and effort to consistently create high-quality, meaningful, and helpful content that adds genuine value to the reader’s life. If you’re just publishing content for the sake of publishing content that doesn’t really add any substantial value, it may trigger Google Panda.
- Keyword stuffingIf you are abusing keyword optimisation by stuffing important keywords all over the web pages, chances are that your site will be penalized by Google Panda. Over-optimisation of keywords — which lead to a bad user experience — is one of the biggest reasons why the Google Panda algorithm is triggered and penalize so many websites.
How to recover from a Google Panda penalty?
As mentioned earlier, Google Panda usually penalizes a website because of poor, low-quality content and bad on-page SEO practices.
If your site gets penalized by Google Panda, revisit your content creation strategy.
Make sure that you are not producing low-quality content. Also, note that your content shouldn’t be “thin”, full of grammatical errors, or poorly formatted. It is important that your content provides a lot of value to readers.
Lastly, make sure that you are following all the best on-page SEO practices — which also includes staying away from keyword stuffing.
Google Penguin
Unlike Google Panda, which primarily deals with on-page SEO practices, Google Penguin focuses more on a site’s backlink profile.
Let’s see what triggers the Google Penguin algorithm.
- Poor-quality backlinksNot all backlinks are good. For example, backlinks from spammy websites and PBNs often do more harm than good. Make sure to stay away from them. Such poor-quality backlinks trigger Google Penguin.
- Irrelevant backlinksOne of the biggest triggers for the Google Penguin algorithm is irrelevant backlinks. In simple words, you should acquire most of your backlinks from websites that belong to the same industry or niche. If you acquire too many backlinks from irrelevant websites, it may trigger Google Penguin.
- Buying backlinks for your siteBuying backlinks is against Google’s policy. If Google finds you buying links, it is extremely likely that Google Penguin will penalize your website.
- Unnatural anchor textsOne of the many reasons why sites get penalized by Google Penguin is because of unnatural anchor texts. A big off-page SEO rule is to have a natural backlink profile. If it looks artificial or forced, it may trigger a demotion in search engine rankings, and sometimes, even a penalty. Anchor texts are also a part of your backlink profile, which means that you should have a diversified anchor text profile — which is what Google recommends. On the other hand, if you are forcing backlinks with a certain set of keywords over and over, your anchor text profile will be skewed. A lack of diversity in anchor text often triggers Google Penguin.
How to recover from a Google Penguin penalty?
If your website gets hit by Google Penguin, you should revisit your backlink profile.
See if you have too many backlinks from irrelevant sites. Backlinks from questionable or spammy websites should also be taken note of.
Disavow all such links that are not helping your site.
Lastly, see that you have a natural-looking anchor text profile. Diversity in anchor text is important.
