On April 24th 2012 Google launched its new algorithm “Penguin”, designed to find and punish all those spam sites that ruin the party for everyone. For most high quality websites this is really good news. Penguin should have benefited you by moving these spam “road-blocks” if you will, allowing more traffic to drive through your site. Thumbs up for Penguin! If you’re a low quality website, or perhaps inexperienced and have allowed spam elements on your page then you will start to see a dip in traffic.
Worried about it? Not sure if it has had any impact on you? Well, we’re a couple of months down the line now. Check your search-related traffic from the day it was launched (April 24, 2012) and it should become fairly apparent if Penguin has hit you or not. If it has and your search-related traffic has taken a turn for the worse, the recommended move is to filter through your website and remove any spam. If you’re not sure, or truly believe that your website is spam-free, but Penguin has still had a negative effect on your ranking, remove anything that could be interpreted as spam.
Penguin can’t be “fixed” either. Ignore any emails that offer that service to you. Instead, put all your efforts into building authority into your webpages, and only optimise those that directly drive traffic through your website. Battering Google with hundreds of news feeds and updates will not push your rankings up. Anything that is not unique, interesting or relevant to your website must go. Don’t be scared to sacrifice elements. Be more discerning as to what you want your site to say and how you are going to say it. Penguin has been introduced to promote good content by moving toward a method of penalising poor content. Selectively optimise and make Penguin work for you. But what you mustn’t do is panic and look for the quick fix. It won’t work.