Website owners were still reeling from the devastating effects of Google Panda when the search engine giant came out with yet another update. It’s been one year since then, and if you haven’t yet reworked your website design to follow the dos and don’ts listed by Google Penguin, now is a good time to do so. With rumors abounding about an upcoming massive update to Google Penguin, you need to make sure your website is in a very good position to avoid being caught by Google’s typical first-round witch hunt of violators.
Google itself came up with a precise list of violations that your website can never be forgiven for.
• Use of hidden links or texts
• Use of sneaky (read: involuntary) redirection or cloaking
• Sending Google automated queries
• Use of irrelevant keywords
• Filling domains, sub-domains, and multiple pages with duplicate content
• Performing any malicious action on your website (e.g. virus installation, phishing)
• Use of doorway pages
• Creating affiliated pages that have low or zero-value content
Google also came up with a list of guidelines to help website owners better distinguish between whitehat and blackhat SEO techniques.
Prioritize readers over search engines.
Google Penguin is all about content that makes the readers happy. If you please your user, then you’ll eventually achieve pleasing search engine ranking results.
Avoid any strategies that are specifically designed to improve your page or SE ranking.
To paraphrase Google, if you were asked to explain your strategies to your competitor, would you come across as being effective and fair-minded with your approach? Or would it appear like you were cheating your way to first-page ranking instead?
If the strategy is something you would never even have considered implementing if there are no search engine rankings to worry over, then it is a strategy that you shouldn’t bother implementing.
Avoid getting associated with bad neighborhoods.
Yes, that really is the term Google used. Bad neighborhoods are also known as spam sites and link farms. They’re websites that perform blackhat SEO techniques to improve rankings. Even if you’re not guilty of them yourself, linking to bad neighborhoods make you guilty by association as far as Google is concerned.
An excellent way to determine whether a site is bad neighborhood material is by typing site: (insert URL here) in the query box of Google. If no results come up, then it’s definitely a site you don’t want to be associated with.
Avoid using programs unauthorized by Google.
This is basically an extension of the “thou shall not send Google automated queries” commandment. Such programs typically use methods frowned upon by Google for checking rankings and submitting pages. It may take some time for Google to catch you on this, but your website will get flagged for it sooner or later.
If you are working with a website design agency that willfully disregards all the rules stated above, then it might just be time for a change – unless you want to risk getting blacklisted by Google.
Posted from Glendale, California, United States.