This week, some businesses found that their Google traffic had dropped sharply, without warning or notice from anyone. Some SEO providers are currently fielding many questions from their clients.
On Tuesday, Google rolled out what it called a webspam update, already nicknamed Penguin. According to Google, it affects about 3% of English searches. The figure seems modest, except for the sites that fall within it.
The affected sites appear to share one thing: links. Large numbers of them, from unrelated sites, nearly all containing the same keyword.
What does Google Penguin target?
For years, links have served as a shortcut. Google treats links to your site as votes, and more votes improve rankings. An entire industry therefore developed around manufacturing fake votes.
It is possible to buy a package of a few thousand directory submissions, to pay for posts on networks of low-quality blogs that exist only to create links, or to insert links into forum signatures, blog comments and the footers of free WordPress themes. The clickable text, moreover, matches the target keyword exactly: "Cheap dive course Bali", five hundred times, on sites about car insurance and weight loss.
This update should come as no surprise. Last month, Google removed entire blog networks from its index, and many site owners have been receiving warnings about unnatural links in Google Webmaster Tools since the start of the year. Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team, spoke publicly in March about targeting over-optimized sites. Penguin turns that warning into code: the algorithm analyzes your links, and if they appear to be bought, the site drops.
What should you do if Penguin affected your site?
First, proceed methodically and confirm that Penguin is the cause. Check your analytics. If the drop began on April 24 or 25 and your site has many keyword-stuffed links from low-quality sites, that is the likely explanation. If the drop began on another date, look elsewhere. Google also recently refreshed Panda, and a broken site or a server problem can produce a similar curve.
If Penguin is the cause, it must be acknowledged that no one outside Google yet knows the exact method for recovery. Here are the steps we recommend:
- Obtain a list of the sites linking to yours. Webmaster Tools shows a sample, which is a starting point.
- Identify the clearly low-quality links: paid directories, blog networks, automatically rewritten articles, and any link whose text is your keyword.
- Ask those sites to remove the links, one email at a time. Keep a record of the sites contacted and the dates.
- Stop the source of these links by cancelling the monthly package.
- If you believe your site was affected in error, Google has published a feedback form for this update. Use it, and be transparent.
There is no way to ask Google to ignore specific links. Such a tool would be very useful, because cleaning up links created by a third party years ago, on sites where nobody answers email, is demanding work. Also avoid deleting all your links in haste: your good links are what will help the site recover its position.
If you inherited a site without knowing what practices were applied to it, have it reviewed thoroughly. A proper SEO audit will determine whether the old links are a real problem or of no consequence.
Why should you never buy links?
The recommendation is simple: do not buy links, do not trade links with strangers, and do not pay a provider promising "500 high quality backlinks" for $49. Those links are not high quality and correspond precisely to what Google's guidelines on link schemes describe. That page is worth reading, as it is clearer than most of what is written about it.
What simple test can be used to judge a link?
This is the simplest rule: if you would be uncomfortable explaining to a Google engineer how you obtained a link, do not create it. If you can explain it without difficulty ("the tourism office lists us because we're members"), the link is legitimate.
What does legitimate link building look like for a small business?
It relies on a methodical approach without shortcuts, which is precisely its strength.
Good links for a small business come from real relationships: the businesses you actually work with and the organizations you actually belong to. For a dive operator here, that means, for example, the training agency's dive centre locator, a partner hotel, a travel writer who came diving and wrote about it, or a conservation group you support.
For a small business in Canada, the list is similar:
- Your chamber of commerce and the regional tourism office, if you are a member.
- Your suppliers and partners: the microbrewery whose beer you serve, the inn that sends you its guests.
- Local media: a new business, a new service, an event. Regional papers and community radio are always looking for stories.
- Events you sponsor or take part in: the festival, the charity run, the farmers' market.
- Associations in your industry.
Most of these links can be obtained with a single email: "Hello, we're members; could you add a link to our site on the member list?" Many businesses simply forget to ask.
A handful of links like these are worth more than a thousand with no credible source. They are relevant and local, and they come from real sites visited by real people. Some even send customers directly, which bought links never did.
How does strong content earn links?
Gradually. The other half of the approach is offering content worth linking to.
Nobody links to a page stating "We offer quality services at competitive prices". People link to what helps them: a guide to the best dive sites for beginners, with straightforward notes on current and depth; a map of snowmobile trails showing where to eat along the way; a page explaining the permit process for a septic system in plain language.
This takes time, months and sometimes longer. It is the least popular aspect, and the reason link sellers have found so many customers. Such a page, however, continues to earn links long after it is published. Bought links must be repurchased continually, and as of this week, they can work against you.
In practice, Penguin makes patience a ranking factor. Businesses that have built an authentic presence from the start are unaffected this week. Some have even gained ground, because competitors who bent the rules have just dropped below them.