Matt Cutts is at it again! If you don’t know him, you should! He’s the head of Google’s web spam team. He is one of the most HATED and RESPECTED men on the internet for one simple reason. When he posts an update like this one, webmasters and SEOs heads spin. Last week, Matt announced the release of Google Penguin 2.0. We all held our breath until we could check our ranking positions… then a big exhale as the changes weren’t too bad!
In today’s posts I’ll share with you a few things I’ve picked up from my rankings and my thoughts about this update recently released from Google. While the update is fairly new and it will take a while for us to understand these changes, I figured I would share my experience.
Penguin 2.0 Drops Rankings for DMB
So as you can see, my site was ranking pretty well and then I saw a little bit of a drop after Penguin 2.0. Bummer right? Well, the good news is that the rankings drop are only slightly. My blog is down about 2 places for all the keywords we’re monitoring for our site. Not a big deal, but there are a couple of things I’m picking up here.
1. Our domain is VERY NEW – Only 4 months old! There is a good chance that Google devalued domains that are new and reduced the weight of a domain name in the rankings. Looking at my SEO clients’ rankings, I’m seeing a good bump in overall traffic or traffic remaining the same. Thus my thoughts are that we might have seen a reduction in some rankings because of our domain name and age.
2. Devaluation of 301 Redirect Links – My second thought is that we do have some 301 redirect links coming to my blog from two older blogs. These older blogs had a bit of purchased links and thus that might be hurting us a little. Nothing crazy, but a few articles posts that should have been removed.
3. Social Media – While we’ve been pretty active on Social Media, I wouldn’t consider us an authority on it. We don’t generate a lot of traffic from social media, and this also could be part of the update that Google is devaluing social media links if they are NOT from social media users with higher authority.
The silver lining is these are all things that are being improved upon over time! Bad links will fall off and we’re improving our social media daily! Our domain is gaining more traffic every day and our domain is getting older. These are all good statistics.
Penguin 2.0 Ranking Changes for Clients
I’m happy to say that our clients held steady through this update. A few of them even saw some improvements. Most of our clients are working heavily on new unique content, social media, and making their sites more engaging. I’m very pleased that this new update wasn’t a surprise and Google didn’t drop an atomic bomb on us!
On Matt’s blog, there are several comments from those hit by the changes Google implemented, and obviously they were engaged in some sort of link building scheme to gain rankings. One comment said that he dropped 30 places in all keywords. That is an immediate red flag for over building links.
As a reminder to all of the business owners who are hiring SEO companies to build thousands of links to your website… FIRE THEM TODAY! The SEO process that worked in 2010 doesn’t work ANYMORE! Here is what to do as of today!
1. Build killer sites that keep the visitor on your site longer – Google can see the time they spend on the site in Chrome.
2. Create New Content – New content is CRITICAL to your success with long tail keywords. Google loves sites that provide new content regularly and continues to rank them higher.
3. Use Social Media – Social media traffic and sharing of your website content will continue to play more of a substantial role. If you’re not using social media on your websites, start today!
The Penguin 2.0 Change that I’m Excited About
Yes, I’ve got a few personal reasons to be excited. Our corporate website just jumped to NUMBER 4 in Google for Orlando Marketing Agency! Nice huh? I believe that the big jump is because of the domain name devaluation changes that I believe Google made. For instance, companies with “Orlando Marketing” in their domain probably took a hit and our site, which really rocks, got bumped up.
Additionally, some of the other marketing agencies could have been manipulating Google with some bad link building practices. Either way, I’m happy to report that our company is now ranked pretty high for this keyword phrase.
What to expect with Google in 2013 for Penguin
I wish I could say that we should continue to expect similar changes, but I can honestly say we should expect the unexpected. Google likes to keep things mixed up! But the good news is that Matt Cutts shares with everyone exactly what Google’s up to and what changes they are making.
Remember, 96% of Google’s revenues come from Google AdWords. They have no intention of allowing the search results to be poor or irrelevant. They want the search results to be RAZOR sharp because if people jump ship to Bing or Yahoo, then their revenues will dip dramatically.
As many of you know, I’m not a big fan of some of Google’s practices especially relating to AdWords. But it is important to remember that Matt Cutts and Google’s web spam team is all about protecting Google’s beloved AdWords program. We can expect to see continual changes in SEO and how SEO companies work until the end of time because Google is protecting their baby!
Question: What changes have you seen in SEO since Penguin 2.0?