3 Ways Google’s “Penguin Update” Can Affect Your Website’s Rankings – And How to Stay on Top

1.  Keyword Stuffing – Keyword stuffing is the excessive use of keywords in the content of your website. If a site is keyword stuffed, the keywords are usually repeated randomly and excessively throughout the website.

REMEDY: Appropriately include your keyword phrases in the titles of your web pages and use them sparingly in the content of your website. Vary the keywords and phrases so they sound natural. It’s smart

to shoot in the range of 2-5% keyword density for most blocks of text.

2.  Ad-Heavy Page Layout – Penalized page layouts usually have to do with the overload and placement of ads on a page —particularly those “above the fold”– or those first seen when a viewer lands on the page. Google knows that a site which favors relevant content over advertisements gives users a better experience, so they reward and penalize accordingly.

REMEDY: If you have ads on your website, the best practice is to balance the ads with relevant content throughout your website… Wait, what’s that you say about content?

3.  Plagiarized or Outdated Content – As with all Google updates, Penguin will penalize websites that do not have original (not plagiarized, informational, and relevant to the keywords searched) and or fresh (recently uploaded) content.  It makes sense, since users want to find the most pertinent and most recent information on the internet about their topic.

REMEDY: If your content isn’t quite up to par, get some! Do some research, some analysis, write, and you’ll have some unique content in no time.  Get rid of any duplicate content you have on your website (you can check for unique content here), and keep it up.  Be original, relevant and fresh, and you’ll score in the search engines.

Always keep in mind that all Google updates (including Penguin) are strategically written to fish out the best, most relevant, and user-friendly sites from the search results.  When you make on-site changes, keep your readers, customers, and fans in mind. Is whatever the user is looking for easily found?  Are there too many distracting ads cluttering the space? Is the content informative, relevant, and useful?  Ask yourself these kinds of questions as you make adjustments to your site. Also, remember to keep an eye on your rankings to measure your site’s progress and how it is affected by the algorithmic changes.  Google updates such as Penguin and Panda will no doubt be made in the future as the search engine strives to provide its users with a quick, efficient, and useful search experience.  Stay ahead of the competition by using information from the updates to your advantage– beat the algorithm to the punch and see your rankings soar!