I’m not happy. Not happy at all. I think I have taken a hit from Penguin. The traffic to my detox blog has dropped off again in spite of the SEO back links I have been building since Google’s Panda.
Google launched Penguin, their latest algorithm change, on April 24th and I have noticed that my search engine traffic has been going down and down since then.
Some of it may be the time of the year of course as the majority of people are searching for information about detox in the earlier part of the year. Still it makes me wonder.
Penguin, according to Google, is an algorithm change that’s aimed at webspam and, more specifically, “sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines”. To the best of my knowledge I am not violating their guidelines.
I was on one of James Francis’s coaching webinars the other night and he mentioned that when it comes to free traffic Google does not like sites with popups.
One of the things Google looks for is a site’s visitor usability. Google thinks that popups annoy people so give these sites a black mark, as it were.
I aked him about the PopUp Domination plugin that I and a lot of other Internet Maketers use and was surprised that he said he doesn’t like it and has never used it. He thinks that any type of popup or exit script really annoys people.
So, as an experiment, I have turned it off for the time being while I work on trying to get my traffic back. I am going to continue to build more good quality backlinks.
The best way to build seo back links following the Google Panda & Penguin algorithm changes seems to have become a major concern for many website owners.
A Few Of The Most Common Ways Of Building SEO Back Links That No Longer Work
Some of the most common methods taught in the online marketing industry, especially for affiliate marketing, are now being seen by Google as an indication that you are trying to manipulate your search engine rankings.
And as a result of this unnatural link building behavior, Google’s algorithm is now configured to penalize sites that have been detected using these methods.
Using link networks
This was often done to get a lot of high page rank back links for a new site in a very short time period. Another example would be taking a site from having a few backlinks one day to all of a sudden having hundreds of backlinks the next day with no continued supporting back link growth.
Google has apparently identified a certain pattern or characteristic that link networks use, which their algorithm is now capable of detecting.
Getting all of your backlinks from one source
An example of this would be submitting hundreds of articles to an article directory for the majority of your back links. Or getting all of your back links from hundreds of forum post. Now instead of each of your links counting individually, you are most likely only getting credit once for each link source.
Over optimizing your anchor text
Always using the exact keyword phrase to link back to your content is apparently also being seen as a signal that you are constructing your own back links and not getting them naturally. This also may be causing you to only get a reduced credit for the duplicate anchor text links.
Now lets take a look at some of the things that you can do to help improve your sites search engine rankings.
Here Are Some Of The Best Ways Of Building SEO Back Links That Do Work
This is not an all inclusive list mainly because Google will not reveal what all of its ranking factors are and they will most likely change them in the future as new technology and new user trends develop and change.
But, at this point I think it is safe to say that these are factors that Google is currently viewing as good indications of a good website for their search engine rankings.
1. Number of backlinks and link growth rate
If your site is consistently getting more and more different back links over time ( and not a static amount like 10 new backlinks a month, every month) those are the sites that are getting more credit for their links.
2. On page inter-linking and on site navigation
How good is your on site navigation ? Do you have good on page inter-linking so that users can easily navigate all of the related pages throughout your site ?
A good example of how this is done would be the Wikipedia website where each page has in content links to other related pages. A good example of how poor content interlinking is being done would be most article directories where in content interlinking is often not allowed at all.
3. Anchor Text Usage
Having your exact keyword for your anchor text appears to be viewed as a way of detecting unnatural link building. To avoid this problem you should vary your anchor text so that you may only have a slightly larger amount of your anchor text being the exact keyword phrase that you want to rank for.
The other times when you do not want to use the exact anchor text you should try and use a natural variation of your keyword phrase. In some cases you may also want to use a completely neutral anchor text link like “click here” however this should definitely be done sparingly.
4. Quality of links
The biggest factor here is the site that the link is coming from. Higher page rank authority sites are considered the highest quality sites to get links from. The location of the link is also a big factor. For example, an in context link coming from within an article or blog post is going to be considered of higher value than a link in the footer or sidebar.
5. Back Link Relevance
Is the site that the link is coming from in the same or related market or niche ? This may also play more of an important role in scoring or ranking your webpage or your website.
6. Link Juice from the linking page
If a page is well interlinked on a website, like Wikipedia for example and then there is a link coming from that well interlinked page going to your website, this will be considered to be giving your site some of its link juice.
Additional Ways To Increase Your SEO Back Links
Develop a strategy to integrate as many of the following different types of content as possible :
Link bait
This is content that quickly catches the attention of other viewers. Things like a top ten list for your market or something that your audience would be interested in. Most popular (blank, blank, blanks) , interesting surveys or user opinion polls can also make great link bait.
Viral Content
This is usually in the form of funny or inspiring content such as a baby playing a prank on his parent or a pet doing something exciting or unusual.
Pillar Content
This is also know as evergreen content. It should be well written and interesting content written about unchanging methods, concepts or principles for your market or target audience. Tutorials often make great pillar content because once you do an excellent job of explaining exactly how to do something then that content is likely to be referenced for a long time.
By avoiding the old way of link building and moving forward with the new way that Google views its ranking factors you can confidently work to improve your sites rankings. That’s what I am going to be doing in earnest.
If you have any tips to add for improving your SEO backlinks then why not share them with my readers?
Do you want your small business web sites regularly visited? Also attract tons of new visitors, who can get converted into customers? Then its time for Search Engine Optimization.
At top most, SEO involves in finding the keywords. Your potential customers can use these keywords to find out the types of products and services you sell; adding those keywords to your sites pages; and building a network of links pointing to the pages on your site, among other things can be done.
The following free SEO tools can help draw targeted traffic to your Web site content. Ranking Checker:
This is an interesting SEO tool, which allows you to check your rankings for up to 5 keywords per day for free and it keeps an archive for you. All you need to do is just sign up for a free SEOmoz account.
Hi Azad,
A SEO Mox account is only free for the first 30 days. After that there is a monthly charge. The cheapest charge is $99.00 a month.
I have edited your comment as it was an article in itself!
Sandy
My website is new enough, Sandy, that I don’t have a pre or post-Panda update to compare my traffic. As you and many others recommend, I am using different anchor text with each link. Inter-page linking is also an excellent strategy that many bloggers don’t use, even though they have total control over that. I like your idea of Link Bait, which is something new to me. I’ll try that on my site and if it brings in traffic.
Hi Leo,
As your website is new you have a head start. You can start off on the right foot knowing what Google likes and looks for in websites. They will inevitably make changes to their algorithm again but if you follow the basic rules you should not go far wrong.
Good luck with your site.
Sandy
Your potential customers can use these keywords to find out the types of products and services you sell; adding those keywords to your sites pages; and building a network of links pointing to the pages on your site, among other things can be done. Low Carb diet plan for women
Thanks sandy for this wonderful information! This will serves us a big help for me to know this one!
can any one tell me about this(Over optimizing your anchor text)????
Hi Yasir,
I thought I had explained it in my post so I am not clear about your question.
What exactly do you want to know and I will see if I can help.
Sandy
ohh thanks sandy but now all clear i learned your post with great care and now there is no place for any kind of question again thanks SANDY….:)
Hey Sandy,
Great article on SEO and backlinks and I’m really sorry to hear that you might have been hit by the dreadful Penguin.
My own marketing blog (MWS) has been decaying each day, it went from an Alexa rank of 80K down to 150K and I don’t see a single day it hasn’t lowered.
It really angers me since I built every single link myself and never used any kind of third party services for that but oh well.
There is still more ways to get free traffic not using Google but it is certainly something that is not going to be easy.
Hope you can get your detox blog ranking back soon, take care Sandy!
Sergio
Hi Sergio,
A lot of marketers have been mystified by their loss of traffic although they thought they were doing all the right things to stay in Google’s good books. It certainly makes you get more creative.
Good luck with getting your blog Alexa rank back.
Sandy
I think the best advice is stop thinking about search engines and strat promoting the site for people, just for them to know. And after that you link profile will be natural and it will be loved by Google.
Hi Marty,
I think you are partly right. I have always promoted my blogs for people but you can also incorporate some careful SEO.
Sandy
Sorry to hear you may have got hit, Sandy! You definitely aren’t alone. Luckily it seems like a lot of people have been able to recover by following the advice Google has put out so not all hope is lost.
Thanks for sharing the information you found about back link building post-penguin. This is definitely the area that I have been focusing on since the changes have been made. Clearly what has worked in the past isn’t working any longer.
Hi Sandy,
Sorry to hear about your penguin troubles, I’m fast approaching the conclusion that in order to get the number 1 spot and stay up there I need to build back links everyday . . . forever 🙂
Thanks for the info about linking methods to avoid, has your traffic begun to return yet?
Hi Richard,
Maybe you are right. Everyone has different ideas. It certainly makes you get a bit creative.
It’s too early to see any real changes in my traffic although it has increased a little. It always drops in the summer. Just the nature of the blog.
Sandy
Great blog. I’ve noticed my traffic drop heavily as well and have searched everywhere for definitive help on solving the problem. I’m cleaning up my site and erasing all of the ‘spammy’ keywords and tags. Seems to be helping so far but these tips will also come in handy. Thanks Sandy.
Hi Gareth,
A lot of marketers seem to have been hit by this latest algorithm change but can’t figure out exactly why. The big SEO guys are coming up with tried & tested ideas all the time. There have been a few WSO’s recently that are probably worth a look.
Thanks for your tips.
Sandy
Sandy,
Indeed, I have been back and forth to the Warrior Forum ever since it first kicked in. Slowly getting there….I hope! : )
Hi Sandy,
I was also hit by penguin updates. I have a site which has a steady of 800+ visitors per day. Now I barely got 100+ visitors per day. I keep on searching on how to do seo after this penguin and found out this post. One thing I found out of my site is that almost all the anchor text for backlinks for it has the same anchor text. I’m happy that you share this valuable information. This would really help not only me but those who are also hit by penguin updates..
Hi Devon,
Keep your eye on the Warrior Forum. A lot of marketers are sharing their ideas that are working now. Some are revealing their methods in WSO’s too. I’ve just bought one so I’ll see how it goes.
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
How are you? I hope all is well. Nice to be here. I’m also scratching my head saying to myself I don’t think I’ve done anything to have Google make my search engine traffic go down?
It’s down though, I just don’t think it’s fair. As good marketers the best thing to do is get back up when things go bad.
So it’s nice to read your post. It’s like a breath of fresh air knowing what we can do to get back up.
The main thing I’m taking away from all thins is to keep things natural. Don’t make things look like you are trying to get some SEO juice.
Thanks for sharing Sandy,
Terry Conti
I beg to differ. I have been building links through my own private network pre-and-post Penguin and my rankings never went down. Link networks work, as long as you do it properly and privately. The internet is a whole bunch of link network so saying that link networks doesn’t work anymore is a fallacy
Hey Annie, I am very pleased to hear that your rankings have not dropped. It is a fact though that many link networks were hit by Penguin. You only have to read some of the complaints and comments on the Warrior and other forums.
Sandy
I guess almost everybody has been hit by the Penguin. But knowing this list, it makes me want to know more and be more challenged with this great change that’s been happening. Thanks Sandy and I’ll be looking forward for more great list and tips. This will help a lot. 🙂
Hi Leah,
Many internet marketers are getting very inventive now and finding new ways of getting ranked. Some of them reveal their methods in WSO’s. I’ve just bought a couple and will let you know how they work out in a post sometime.
Sandy
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
Excuse my belated contribution and sorry to hear you were hit by the recent algo changes. You cover all of the things I’ve heard others talking about that you need to beware of.
I think it was SEOmoz that published a very useful study analyzing the sites that got hit. The sites that took the biggest hit were those with unnatural link profiles (irrelevant niche links & unnatural anchor text). Apparently, you should only use the terms you are trying to rank for in less than 10% of of anchor text links.
You also need a ton of links that use your site name and variations of it.
Hopefully you get through this update…
Hi Sandip,
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to add your thoughts. I hope I will be able to build up my traffic again too. It won’t be for lack of trying that’s for sure!
It certainly pays to be very careful about which backlinking services you choose unless you are doing it yourself. I have heard that there a some sellers on fiverr that use blackhat methods although they don’t of course say so.
Sandy
I’m actually not using my blog for business purposes but I want it to become more visible in the web as well. And to do so, i really have to learn how to drive more traffic to my site effectively. This is actually my first time to encounter this Panda and Penguin algorithm. it sounds new to me indeed. actually, i find find this SEO thing quite complicated or maybe I have to look down into details to learn the process more effectively. Is there any online course or even just a short tutorial sessions that tackles more about SEO?
Anyway, It is so nice to be here and thank you for giving me an idea I think I should be here more often to check more of your tips hehe. Have a great day ^_^
Hi Louis,
I am just about to release an ebook about SEO and backlinking. I just have a few more finishing touches to put to it. I will let you know when it is completed.
Sandy
My website is new enough, Sandy, that I don’t have a pre or post-Panda update to compare my traffic. As you and many others recommend, I am using different anchor text with each link. Inter-page linking is also an excellent strategy that many bloggers don’t use, even though they have total control over that. I like your idea of Link Bait, which is something new to me. I’ll try that on my site and if it brings in traffic.
Hi Sandy,
My main blog was hit by Google Penguin update. I get negligible traffic from Google post the update and most of my traffic has been from bing/yahoo and other smaller search engines. I think it was a result of optimizing anchor text. Instead of worrying about my main blog traffic, I have started a new blog since last month. I will try to incorporate good link building techniques with quality content. I hope I see some quality traffic in the coming months.
~ Arun
Hi Arun,
A lot of people have been puzzled by their fall from grace with Google. Good luck with the new blog. I guess it depends on how old your blog was but maybe that is the most sensible thing to do.
Let us know how it goes.
Sandy
It was really tough for people like me whose sites were hit by penguin. However, all we can do about it is to conform to what Google tells us to do. I know that it may tak time, but I believe that I can still regain those lost ranking.
Hi Hugh
Yes, I’m sure we can get our rankings back if we do all the right stuff, but it won’t happen overnight.
Good luck
Sandy
great list sandy, you can add website like pinterst, which might create massive traffic
Yes, Roy, by all accounts you can drive a lot of traffic from Pinterest if you do it right. I haven’t tried it myself yet but I am just about to.
Sandy
Hi, my website is only around a month old and I’m still trying to get my site onto page1 for my keywords, I have now placed some internal links like your post stated I have used my keywords but I may re-write some of the text and place a ‘click here’ I’ve just started to build back links but finding it very hard to find links to blogs in my industry. I’ve joined a few forums and started posting on these. Does it matter where you get you back links from
Hi Richard,
Yea it does matter where you get them from. It’s much better to get your backlinks from sites that are in or related to your niche. Alternatively you can get them from high PR
social media sites. Weebly is popular with a PR of 8. Others are Blogsome, Jimdo, Livejournal and Tumblr.
Sandy
Hi Sandy, thanks for the above information, I’ve joined a few car valeting forums and left a few threads etc these are all nofollow links Google Webmaster tools has picked these up as links though but i guess they don’t the same authority as dofollow links
I understand that it is better to get links from websites that are related to your niche. The problem I find is that I really struggle to find sites that are related, or at least ones that will allow a link as they are usually my competition!
Any tips?
Hi Roofer,
You are right. It is better to get links from websites that are related to your niche but if there aren’t any suitable then you will have to concentrate on others. Have you searched for blogs in your niche that you can leave a comment on or write a guest post for? What about forums?
Ways to do this are do a Google blog search: http://www.google.com/blogsearch
or search: “powered by wordpress” + ” your niche”
Try this with other blogging platforms like drupal and joomla
Search for blogs on directories such as Technorati, Best of the web blogs http://blogs.botw.org/
Look for do follow blogs to comment on: Your Keyword + “CommentLuv is Enabled”
And Keyword +”KeywordLuv is Enabled”
For blogs that accept guest posts try “your niche keyword” +”write for us”
For Forums try http://www.forumssearch.com and http://www.theforumfinder.org/
Search google for lists of dofollow forums.
Hope that helps.
Good luck
Sandy
I have heard that building social backlinks with Facebook or Twitter for example is becoming more and more important. I am right now trying to find ways to have more followers on Twitter. Do you have any advise for social Backlinks?
Anyway, thanks for the information
Hi Auberges,
You are right. Google takes notice of social signals from Twitter, Facebook and Google +1. You would get a backlink from Twitter if your tweet gets re-tweeted a lot but I don’t think it provides a permanent link.
You can get tweets re-tweeted with various services such as Retweet.it .
Try http://twitterbacklinks.com/ for backlinks.
Make sure you have a link your site from your Facebook profile and fan page. You can get a backlink to your site from a Facebook Note too.
Sandy
It use to be things would go out-of-wack for a week or two, the dust would clear and ranks would go back to what they were. This last one looks to be sticking. Something seems to have happened a month or so a go.
One thing I think is now for sure “bad”, is forum profile links, least those in bulk. Course never good links, but easy to automate, or have automated. Fiverr also doesn’t seem like a good place to have the work done for you, even smaller packages. I think G can see the patterns.
For me, this is just another important reminder that for a stable business and income, you need to generate your own traffic such as have a mailing list. More important than even.
i think the best way to get traffic is by making your website such as people want to come at your website again and again. you get lots of traffic through social referrals.
I agree James but you still have to entice your readers to make the social referrals. It doesn’t always happen on it’s own.
People are in a hurry and don’t always take the time to share posts however good they are.
Sandy
Huh.. this Penguin is very irritating and Many sites Lost it’s charm and rankings just because it.Every time google announces penguin we start working on our sites and at that time your tips can help well.