How could something as innocent-looking as a penguin ruin your website? No matter where your business is located in the world?
Penguin is the code name for a major Google search engine algorithm change that was first implemented in the spring of 2012, and it was designed to stop spammy practices perpetuated by the SEO bad guys.It worked. Businesses are still trying to figure out what happened today.
The effect of Penguin is plain and simple. If you paid an SEO company to get your website ranked higher in the search engines in the last few years, there is a good chance that company used what the online marketing industry calls “black hat” tactics.
In particular, they may have paid to have keyword rich links from less-than-credible sites link to your site. They may have guest-posted blogs on questionable sites. They may have comments on other blogs, with spammy links to your site. Many of those links and comments are still in linking to your site and still getting “dinged” by Google.
Rest assured that all is not lost. You can recover. There are some things you can do to clean up the mess your SEO company created. See the end of this post, where I reference a couple of great resources from Search Engine Watch.
But more importantly, you can begin to market the right way to attract traffic (and search engines) to your site. Most online marketers have had all eyes on search engines for years, and one search engine in particular in recent years. Now, you need to focus on your prospective clients, customers, followers, members and subscribers. They are people, not search engines. Do not focus on the search engines in your online marketing. This is a drastically different viewpoint for online marketers.
To focus your online marketing on people, you must do one important thing. You must add value for them, no matter what your business is. Are you selling widgets? Then tell the people what do do with the widgets on your website. Describe issues and solve problems related to the widgets. Show them how in videos. Provide them with links to other helpful resources.
Has your website been affected by changes to the search engines? We can help – contact New Incite today for more information about our consulting and outsource marketing services for attracting qualified prospects online.
Helpful resources for cleaning up the “Penguin mess” your SEO vendor created:
Hit by Google Penguin? An In-House SEO Crisis Management Plan
Google Penguin Update: Impact of Anchor Text Diversity & Link Relevancy
