Pitfalls to Avoid in a Post Penguin & Panda World

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

"Pitfalls to Avoid in a Post Penguin & Panda World"

Presenter:Mike Huber, Vice President of

Client Services at Vertical Measures@mjhuber

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehuber

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Webmasters Tools –Unnatural Links

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Drop in Traffic

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Don’t Panic

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

vCreate Strategy Document

Analyze The Situation Prioritize Tactical Steps

Make The Changes In Priority Order

Document

Go to Tactical Step 2

Rinse and Repeat

Journey To Traffic Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

v

Analyze The Situation

Journey To Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Is it Cause or Correlation?

• Cause - ‘A’ causes ‘B’• Correlation – a concept that measures the

relationship between two things. A positive correlation means that when one thing goes up, the other goes too. Or, when one thing goes down the other goes up.

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

The Updates

Panda PenguinLow Quality Sites – The ‘blogpocylpse’ Over Optimization Update

Site-wide penalties - poor or thin content Abnormal linking

Content Farms Over optimized anchor text

High Bounce Rates Keyword Stuffing

Recent and important: EMD – Low quality ‘exact match domains’.

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

What Should I Be Looking For• On-Site

– Isolate the drop in traffic• Single Page, Directories, Site-wide

– Thin Content– Over Optimized Content– Over Optimized Internal Linking

• Off-Site– Back Link Quantity– Back Link Quality– Over Optimization of Anchor Text

• Competition– Compare and Contrast

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Evidence of Penguin

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Penguin – Over Optimization

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Analysis Tools

• Google Analytics• Google Webmaster Tools• Open Site Explorer• SEMRush• Link Detective

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Review the Competition

• Are your main competitors up or down?• Compare and contrast

– On-Page– Off-Page

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Cause For Traffic DropsOn-Site Off-Site

Limited original content Low quality back links

Low visit times on page/site Limited number of back links

High % of duplicate content (affiliate site) Site-wide back links

High bounce rates on a page/site Back links from spammy sites

Boilerplate or concatenated content Over optimized anchor text

Unnatural use of words/phrases (stuffing) Evidence of paid links

Over optimized internal linking Back links with sites ESL

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

vCreate Strategy Document

Journey To Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Strategy Document

• Definition and Clarification of the Problem• The page/pages with biggest traffic drop• Compare/contrast to pages that remain strong• Test updating pages, emulating strong pages• Create working grid to manage changes

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

v

Prioritize Tactical Steps

Journey To Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Example of Process GridPage URL Type Words Quality Duplication Traffic +/-

Blue Widgets mysite.com/bluewidgets.html Web Page 150 Low High -50%

Red Widgets mysite.com/redwidgets.html Blog Post 600 High None -10%

Green Widgets mysite.com/greenwidgets.html Web Page 150 Low High -80%

Yellow Widgets mysite.com/yellowidgets.html Web Page 450 High None +5%

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Add Your Action Items To The Grid

• Include current column headings• Date updated• New Word Count (did you add photos, video?)• Notes• Traffic update

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

v Make The Changes In Priority Order

Journey To Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Measured - Logical - Sequential

• Determine the ‘high gain’ activities– Where can you leverage the fewest resources to

get the most gain

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Penguin – Over Optimization

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

A Closer Look Reveals…

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Link Pruning DocumentationStatus URL Anchor Text Contact Name Contact Email Contacted FU Date FU Date Results Removal DateActive http://www.linkpruning1.com blue widget Adam West adamw@linkpruning1.com 10/10/2012 Removed 10/9/2012Removed http://www.linkpruning2.com red widget John Smith jsmith@linkpruning2.com 10/10/2012 No replyContactedhttp://www.linkpruning3.com blue widget Bill Waters bw@linkpruning3.com 10/11/2012 In ProgressContactedhttp://www.linkpruning4.com blue widget JJ Johnston jjj@linkpruning4.com 10/12/2012Contactedhttp://www.linkpruning5.com red widget Simon Sayers ssayers@linkpruning4.com 10/11/2012Report http://www.linkpruning6.com blue widget Oscar Nots on@linkpruning5.com 10/11/2012

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Link Building Dos and Don’tsDos Don’ts

Focus on quality not quantity Use the same anchor text

Create great content – it will get links Link to low quality sites

Vary content with text, images and video Focus on low quality directory sites

Write guest blog posts on relevant sites Use side bar and footer links

Reclaim links to pages that have moved Write low quality content for linking

Become an authority Buy a cheap ‘package’

Follow the leader (competition) Expect getting quality links to be easy

Target do-follow links Build links to resource pages or exchange

Strive for relevancy Pay for site-wide links

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

vCreate Strategy And Prioritize Document

Create Strategy And Prioritize Document

Create Strategy And Prioritize Document

Create Strategy And Prioritize Document

Document

Create Strategy And Prioritize Document

Create Strategy And Prioritize Document

Journey To Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Executing the Plan

• You’ve Created A Strategy Document• Tactical plan• Identified the high gain activities• Implemented the changes• Now – Document!

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

v

Go to Tactical Step 2

Journey To Recovery

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinarTwitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

v

Journey To Recovery

Rinse and Repeat

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Questions?

Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com

More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

FREE WEBINAR SERIES:Join us November 8th at 11am PST/2pm EST

Stop Playing the Google Yo-Yo Game & Win with Real SEO

• Presenter: Alan Bleiweiss– Alan has been working in SEO for more

than a decade– He will discuss the core concepts that go

into truly sustainable SEO based on real world data gathered from sites comprising over 250 million pages indexed at Google. 

Check out our website at www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars

for registration information.

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Resources

• A History of Panda Updates– http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

• Infographic showing Panda Updates– http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-112805

• Content Marketing Wiki– http://www.contentmarketingwiki.org/

• How To Get Back on Track After the Penguin Update– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/search-optimization/how-to-get-back-on-track-after-the-penguin-update/

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Stay Up-To-Date With Alerts

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Webmaster Content Guidelines• Would you trust the information presented in this article?• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword

variations?• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess

what might rank well in search engines?• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?• How much quality control is done on content?• Does the article describe both sides of a story? Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so

that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced? For a health related query, would you trust

information from this site?• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name? Does this article provide a complete or

comprehensive description of the topic?• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

On Site Checklist

• Does your site have…– Thin Content - 200 words or less– Duplicate or Concatenated Content– Over use of keywords (keyword density)– Content of little/no value– Link grids on every page– Misspelled words or searched words used for SEO

Twitter: @mjhuber #VMWebinar

Off Site Checklist

• Low quality of back links• Low number of back links• High ratio of anchor text• Low relevance of sites pointing to you• Links from networks or spammy sites• Links in footers, headers, side bars• Link in comparison to competition