It’s tough but it can be done. I have known many blog and website owners simply giving up after the Google Penguin attack. Panda was bearable in comparison. This post is about how you can survive and recover from this massive web-cardiac failure.
Cleaning up your act
Google Penguin is about spammy stuff – both content and inbound links. Recently, a friend of mine had to undergo the surgical operation of cutting out spammy content. Let me tell you that it’s painful. In some cases you have to rebuild the entire lot.
To begin with, it’s necessary to understand what spammy actually means. But here lies the paradox. No one really knows what’s spammy. Is putting your keyword in title spammy? If the keyword is both in web page and title, does it mean spammy? No one really knows and therefore it’s better to tread on the cautious side.
This means drumming down your SEO to a level that it’s no longer SEO – it’s pure content. Don’t ask me what happens to keyword density and stuff we have been learning till now. Simply forget the past and unlearn quickly. Read this article to find out if your site has been hit by Google web spam algorithm update.
Delink all your spammy backlinks
This is easier said than done. I have tried this and let me assure you that it’s almost impossible to get rid of backlinks. I tried writing to the website and blog owners, begging them to remove my blog from their hugely popular sites but to no avail. What do these guys gain anyway? Nothing.
Meanwhile there are rumors floating around that creating dubious backlinks for your competitors has been an SEO strategy. Simply put a few backlinks of your closest competitors and watch them sink down the search pages. Frankly what can you do if someone else adds backlinks of your blog on spammy sites?
There is nothing stopping anyone from doing it.
But there are some things you can do about bad backlinks. First of all, you must get out of directories and article submission sites. They are the most dangerous as far as Google Penguin is concerned. Even this can prove to be tough but can be done. For someone starting a new blog, it would be advisable to avoid directories totally.
In our hurry to start hitting the first page of Google search results we forget one cardinal principle – nothing happens in a jiffy. A fruit has to come from a flower and this takes time. Don’t rush things. Even if you are planting backlinks, do it at a reasonable pace. Don’t put a hundred backlinks in a month. You are putting out red flag for Google.
Got very serious? Never mind, check out this funny take on Hitler’s reaction to Google Penguin.
Conclusion
Google Penguin carries a mean bite. Once you get bitten, you are mauled. Recovering from its dreaded bite is tough and a long process. It takes time and effort to get back on your feet. But it has been done and you too can do it. Best of luck!
This is a guest post by Victor. Victor is an avid blogger and likes to talk about blogging, SEO and other related issues.
