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Google Penguin Update: This Person Has A “Huge Recovery” Story

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Google has been pushing major updates left and right in recent weeks, and plenty of webmasters are feeling the effects for better or for worse. In late September, Google announced the EMD update targeting low-quality sites with exact match domains. Later, we found out Google had also rolled out a new Panda update around the same time. Business owners who saw their referrals from Google decline had enough fun trying to dig through that and determine which update they were actually hit by (this should have been easier for those who did not have exact match domains).

Before the dust settled on those updates, Google went on to announce a new Penguin data refresh on Friday, after months of anticipation. So far, we have not seen many recovery stories, but we have seen one. We also haven’t seen a whole lot of people claiming to have been hit by the latest refresh (though there have been some). We have, however, seen plenty who have been working on trying to recover from previous Penguin launches, but have not been able to please the algorithm this time around.

Have you seen changes from the latest Penguin data refresh? Let us know in the comments.

When Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted about the Penguin refresh on Friday, he said it would “noticeably” affect 0.3% of English queries. He later tweeted that the refresh would be completed that same night. That means that the effects of the refresh should have already been felt by any webmasters affected.

There has been at least one reported recovery from this round of Penguin. Marketer Donna Fontenot claims that she has one client that saw a “huge recovery”. Here are some comments she made on Twitter:

Donna Fontenot
@DonnaFontenot

Google Penguin Update 3 Released, Impacts 0.3% Of English-Language Querieshttp://t.co/fX6n7byr (OMG! It’s about time!)

Marie Haynes
@Marie_Haynes

@DonnaFontenot Seriously! I’m surprised only 0.3% of queries are affected. Hoping we’ll hear of some recoveries.

@Marie_Haynes I can tell you that one client that I’ve been helping deal with Penguin saw a huge recovery now that Penguin finally ran again

Additionally, Fontenot has been talking about the recovery in the Cre8asite forums (via Search Engine Roundtable). There, she writes, “Long story short, they needed to get rid of excessive footer backlinks, links that looked like paid backlinks (and some were), etc. The really tough part? Getting the client to be patient and wait for another Penguin update to roll around so we could determine if the efforts were going to help or not. Six months later. SIX MONTHS. To a client, six months of waiting is forever.”

“No one got those terrible links for them,” she says later in the thread. “They accumulated the links themselves over several years. But I can attest that they didn’t go out and get new links to get out of this penalty. They strictly went through a huge process of getting rid of backlinks that looked like possible suspects for a penguin penalty.”

She admits that she was concerned (while waiting for Penguin to roll out again) that she was having her client get rid of too many backlinks, adding, “What if I had them remove links that were actually helping rather than hurting? Then, when Penguin waddled back through, even if the penalty was lifted, it was possible that they wouldn’t recover because now they would be missing links they needed to keep their rankings. Luckily, that didn’t happen.”

While in this case it may not have happened, this is still a legitimate concern for those trying to clean up their link profiles. From what we’ve seen and heard, there has likely been a great deal of overreaction when it comes to sites getting rid of backlinks. Many sites spent time and effort getting rid of links that they would have otherwise liked to have kept, but elected not to in the off chance that they could be hurting the site in Google. More on all of that madness here.

It seems fairly likely that following Fontenot’s story, people will continue down a similar path. Still, there are some out there that doubt her story. Alan, commenting on the Search Engine Roundtable post, says, “No offense but there are a lot more non-recovery stories than recovery stories…Unless I see proof I won’t believe her.”

Another reader adds, “I agree, I would like to see some proof. A ton of people got rid of links and never recovered. If it was that easy we would be seeing recoveries all over the forums. That is not the case.”

While we’re not holding our breath, perhaps Fontenot will put together a case study about the recovery for the benefit of other webmasters and SEOs. Here’s what she said about that when asked about the possibility on Twitter:

@Marie_Haynes Hmm. Maybe. If I can find some time. That ever-elusive time. :)

The fact that footer links are the main component of Fontenot’s claimed recovery case is interesting. As you may know, Google recently updated its webmaster guidelines. One of the new changes is the addition of “widely distributed links in the footers of various sites” to the “link schemes” section of the Quality Guidelines section.

Keep in mind, the Penguin update is specifically aimed at targeting sites violating the quality guidelines. This is the exact quote from Google’s original announcement about the update, which Cutts also linked to in his latest announement: “The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.”

Back in May, we reported on another Penguin update recovery story, which also apparently had a lot to do with footer links. Read that story here.

In the forum thread, one member, Dr. Marie, writes, ‘Donna, yours is the only recovery I have heard of so far. I am thinking that sites who have excessive footer links pointing at them can recover because in many cases they can get the footer links removed and therefore remove a huge percentage of links. But, for sites that have participated in widespread article spam with links pointing back at their site the task for removal is way too huge. Plus, the webmasters who host these article sites are less likely to respond to requests for link removal.”

Member Jonbey adds, “When people have these footer links etc. are they usually pointing at the homepage? I was thinking for any links pointing at internal pages you could just change the URLs of those so that the links point to 404′s instead.”

Fontenot’s response to that was, “Jon, in my client’s case, yes, the footer links generally all pointed to the home page.Some of my client’s main phrases (very competitive btw) actually ended up even better than before Penguin. Instead of being #2 or #3, for instance, some are at #1 now. And in case you were interested, Penguin had originally moved their rankings down into the 50′s, 60′s, 70′s, 100′s, and below. So it was a major fall, and now a major recovery.”

What do you think?

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/google-penguin-update-marketer-claims-client-recovered-2012-10

50 Google-Loving Content Tips to Create Traffic-Worthy Content

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Every webmaster knows Google loves content, but many don’t know exactly how to create, market and dispense content so it makes an impact and increases traffic.

To aid our Site-Reference readers, I compiled a list of 50 content tips to help you at every stage of the process.

Whether you own a large 1,000,000 page website or you are the sole owner of an online business, you will find something in this list to take your content marketing to the next level.

OK, here goes…

Topics – Where and how to find an idea for a content piece

1.  Google Trends – Hot topics always sell.

2. Alltop – Curates the top blogs by category. Use them for inspiration.

3. Bag The Web – Create “bags” to collect and organize content from the web. Search other users’ bags by keyword to find specialized content.

4. Netvibes – Content organization system. Organize hundreds of RSS feeds from your favorite blogs into categories and view the newest news from one easy-to-use interface.

5. Monitor Twitter conversations – Use a #hashtag with a specific keyword to search for what people are talking about. If you find an interesting conversation, screen capture it.

6. Use Google’s autosuggest feature to discover the phrases for which people are searching.

7. Be ready for inspiration – Ideas always come at the most inopportune times.

8. Google Alerts – Let Google send you keyword-related posts directly to your inbox as they are published.

9. Facebook News Feed – Subscribe to industry leaders and news sites, and create an Interest list.

10. Blog comments – Browse through your readers’ comments and your competitors’ blog comments. If you see a trend, you hit the jackpot!

11. Stumble Upon– Find stumblers who are interested in your topic and monitor what they “stumble.”

12. Ask your audience – If you have a large customer base, ask them what topics interest them. Take surveys or polls.

13. Personal – Don’t forget that you are always learning. Your audience may not be as skilled in your topic so what you deem as insignificant may actually be a great topic.

14. Quora.com – Ask questions or search for conversations in your industry.

15. Research your market – Glean from what has already worked.

 

Looking for ways to create and publish your content? Here are some ideas…

 

16. Myths and Misconceptions – Dispelling common industry myths is a great way to position you as a leader.

17. Infographics – Take a hot topic and create an infographic. Or use pre-researched data and create an inforgraphic about it. Credit the original source of the data. You may just score yourself a valuable link as well as increased exposure.

18. Top 10 lists, Top 50 lists, Top 37 lists – Yes, lists still work. You are reading this one, aren’t you?

19. Q & A series with industry experts – Interviews with expert sources. Find sources on HARO (Help A Reporter) for free. I love this resource and use it regularly to find experts.

20. Live Webinars – If you are brave enough.

21. Case studies – Any customers doing well? Chronicle their growth.

22. Your Mistakes –This one is hard especially for perfectionists like me, but sharing your past mistakes with your audience is a way to connect with them and also teach them valuable lessons.

23. Gratitude – Thank your audience for their support. Share with them some of the top social conversations and comments from your profiles, giving thanks to the original posters.

24. Tips and tricks series, How-to articles, tutorials

25. Local Events – for brick and mortar stores

26. Industry FAQs – Compile the important industry questions into one piece of content.

27. Staff Spotlights – Who are the people working for your business? Highlight their day-to-day lives. People love behind-the-scenes content.

28. Customer spotlights – Who are the people purchasing your products and services? Highlight some of your brand ambassadors.

29. Contests – A good way to generate buzz.

30. Industry complaints – List complaints and how you solve them

31. Article or blog Series – Link content pieces together

32. Best Practices – List the best practices for using your products.

33. Predict the future – Show yourself as an expert in your industry by making future predictions that may affect your audience.

34. Repackage your best content – Have a few winning blog posts? Create a video about them and re-purpose them in a new and interesting way. Content can be repurposed as long as it is still useful to your audience.

35. Freebies – Give away free stuff.

36. Post of the year – A clever name can make all the difference. Just make sure your content backs it up.

 

Content and Engagement Tips

 

37. Use your brand personality– Don’t be a robot. Develop your unique brand personality and stay consistent with it throughout your content.

38. Use images – Images connect with readers and establish a connection

39. Use the Senses – Content is more than just blog posts. Think videos, podcasts, webinars, slideshows, Powerpoint presentations, images, infographic, ebook, charts, etc.

40. Create an editorial calendar – Don’t leave your content marketing to “whenever you get to it.” Make yourself accountable to a schedule by setting deadlines.

41. Share information your audience can USE – Make your content USEFUL.

42. Track your results – If you don’t know what is and isn’t working you will never be able to replicate success.

43. Vary your content – Change up your method of publishing content, but ensure whatever you publish is relevant and valued by your audience (See #39 )

44. Know your Audience – If your audience is comprised of last-minute brides, don’t publish a long ebook or drawn-out webinar series. Think about their needs.

45. Create marketing personas – Know whom you are targeting intimately.

46. Don’t expect every content piece to go viral right away – It may take some time to gain popularity. Try to stay consistent and measure your results as you go to determine the sweet spot for your audience.

47. Don’t pre-judge! When brainstorming topics, get your ideas on paper and don’t judge what is coming out of your brain. You can always refine it later. When you stop judging your ideas, the creative flow happens easily and you will be surprised by what you come up with.

48. Readability – Your content must be easy to digest and not read like a novel. Think short paragraphs, bullet points, bolded headlines and underlined phrases. Use images to break up large chunks of content.

49. Ask questions – Questions engage readers and beckon people to answer.

50. Drum roll please…the last tip is to remain CONSISTENT. Repeating a content task will only make you better. Practice makes perfect.

 

Source: http://site-reference.com/articles/50-google-loving-content-tips-to-create-traffic-worthy-content/

The Top 10 Tips for Loving (Or Living With) Google’s Penguin — A SEO-News Exclusive

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Never before (except perhaps in the baneful reviews of the box office bomb Happy Feet Two), have penguins been so universally despised as in the latest iteration of Google’s algorithm modifications. If you thought Farmer had ploughed you into the ground and Panda had eaten your most successful shoots, the Penguin will ice your SEO efforts and freeze your income. To beat that Penguin into submission apply these tips:

It’s All About Quality – Even though there has been more than enough public discussion about what constitutes quality and depth in writing articles, it’s very obvious what constitutes poor quality and shallowness. Any spun or transparently rewritten articles are going to attract the full wrath of the Penguin From Hades, so make sure that your content is eternally fully unique and well-written.

Limit Your Links – Too many links within a page are a clear trigger for Penguin’s bots to kick you down to Antarctica so keep the number of links to an absolute minimum and always integrate them logically and in a reader-friendly manner within your text, never in a list of links plunked into a sidebar.

Keep Your Links High Up – Above the fold is the critical place for links to be placed as they bear the most weight as well as attract the most reader attention. Penguin appreciates high up links and is not so kind to those which are dumped into a footer or at the end of an article.

Drop the Dropped Domains – One of the old standby SEO strategies is to pick up dropped domains to benefit from istorical links or PR and Google’s little polar bird is completely up to speed on this ploy so avoid it like a Penguin plague.

Never Stop Validating – Ensuring that your site is completely free from validation errors and each page is of a strictly limited file size to ensure easy loading is critical to keeping that tuxedo-wearing little bird happy and chirping away… if Penguins chirp, that is.

Stop Worrying About Negative SEO – Only in the most extreme cases do you have to be concerned about one of your rabidly vicious competitors setting up a few thousand links pointing to your site overnight to get Penguin to target you. Not only is it a whole lot of work for very little result, but the Googleplex has very few birdbrains so they’ll see through that.

Fry Up Your on Page Spam – Hawaiians believe that fried Spam is delectable, so go ahead and fry all the spam you currently have. That equates to: hidden text, keyword stuffing, thin content, cloaking, paid links, link spam, and the rest of the naughty black hat stuff which is nothing more than rancid canned meat product that is toxic to Penguins.

Bad Link, Bad, Bad Link – Come on, you know which of your links are nasty, so just go ahead and kill them now. Keeping them alive on your pages will do nothing but cause the evil Penguin Penalty to rear its ugly head from the snow and ice.

Know When to Start Over – Perhaps your current site is so riddled with Penguin Pathogens that it just may be at the unrecoverable stage. In these fairly rare cases you might be better off to just can the entire site and start completely fresh at a new URL. If you do take this extreme step, ensure that you are not carrying over any of your old calamitous habits, as well as not a single iota of any text or image content from the dearly departed site.

File the Google Feedback Form – If you think that you have been penalized by the Penguin through no fault of your own don’t listen to the paranoid hyperbola on the various SEO forums and go ahead and file The Form. There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that filing The Form will “out” your site so file with no fear and confront that rascally Penguin.

You can live happily with Penguin. Just try not to mind the ammonia odor!

How to Use Yahoo Answers for Massive Traffic Generation

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Yahoo Answers can be an integral part of your SEO strategy – you just need to know how to use it.

Using Yahoo Answers has two guaranteed benefits: it will help you establish authority in your niche and give you highly targeted traffic – in other words, people willing to pay for your product or service. Another benefit? If you provide high-quality, authoritative answers, these answers may appear at the top of the SERPs.

How Yahoo Answers Works

The Yahoo Answers system is easy to use. People ask questions and you answer them. It’s that simple. A link to your website appears at the end of your answer. Yahoo Answers users who find your answers helpful are likely to click on your link to see what your website offers.

You must have a Yahoo account to make use of this forum. Once you have created an account, go to Yahoo Answers and search for questions that pertain to your niche. The search function uses keywords just like a search engine, so try looking for the keywords you target on your website. You can also search by category, but finding relevant questions using this method can be tedious.

Using the advanced search allows you to choose only ‘open’ questions. ‘Closed’ questions are those that have already been voted on, therefore, even if you did answer, your response could not be rated. You can also use advanced search to look for questions by date. If it’s a recent question, you can be the first to answer it.

Once you find questions in your niche, read them carefully. Put thought into your answers. Make sure your responses are well-written and professional to ensure the questioner will choose your answer as the most helpful. Good answers will also receive thumbs ups, Facebook likes and comments.

Getting To Level 2

When you first start using Yahoo Answers, you can’t leave a clickable link. You can submit your URL in text format, but don’t expect anyone to use it. If it’s not easily clickable, people will move onto something else.

To leave a clickable link, you must have progressed to Level 2. The only way to get to Level 2 is to answer at least 250 questions. Yes, it sounds like a hassle, but it’s not hard and will be worth it in the long run.

You can elevate your answer quotient by answering questions in any category – they don’t all have to be relevant to your niche and they don’t have to be voted the best to get to Level 2.

If answering random questions does not appeal to you, hire someone from Fiverr.com – a global marketplace offering tasks and services online – to answer questions for you. It is important to ensure the person you hire, doesn’t leave any obnoxious, spammy or worthless answers, however, because he or she will be using your account.

How To Level-Up Even More

What if you don’t find enough questions in your niche? What if you have answered them all? Simply create several accounts and ask questions in your niche. Then, log in as yourself and answer them. If you are not cautious, however, your account could be suspended for misuse. Outsourcing would be wise, as those you hire will have different IP addresses than yours.

You can use content from your website to come up with questions for posting. Simply look at your articles, blog posts, etc., and take any statement to turn into a question.

Tips On Using Yahoo Answers

* Once you are at Level 2, don’t go all over the map answering questions. Stick to your niche. The point is to build authority in your topic.

* If you are going to answer in multiple niches, create multiple profiles.

* Use keyword research to find or create questions. Look for low competition keywords because Yahoo Answers questions show up in the SERPs.

* Don’t stop with Yahoo Answers; check out Answer.com, AOL Answers, and Amazon’s Askville as well.

The New Google Patent to Stop Spamming? — A SEO-News Exclusive

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For quite some time, Google has been battling spammers. There is a constant quest by sites both small and large to be ranked #1 for a particular keyword or subject. As the internet keeps expanding and becoming more popular, there is even more of a need to be on the first page for sales, information or whatever it is that your site promotes. As the need to become #1 increases, so do those who use “spammy” or “black hat methods” of improving a site.

A recently discovered Google patent document identifies how web sites are reacting to current link best practices. You can find the document here. I’m assuming most of you won’t be reading the whole document, so I’ll do my best to sum it up.

Basically, the major points of the document are how Google will be making page rank changes in the future and how these changes will affect the SERPs. Those sites that do make changes whether it be linking, on-page or other, will have to wait while Google decides if the changes were for legitimate content reasons or for rankings. During this process Google will move their rankings (most likely lower) and see how the site reacts to these changes.

Here is a quote from the document that discusses this:

“When a spammer tries to positively influence a document’s rank through rank-modifying spamming, the spammer may be perplexed by the rank assigned by a rank transition function consistent with the principles of the invention, such as the ones described above. For example, the initial response to the spammer’s changes may cause the document’s rank to be negatively influenced rather than positively influenced. Unexpected results are bound to elicit a response from a spammer, particularly if their client is upset with the results. In response to negative results, the spammer may remove the changes and, thereby render the long-term impact on the document’s rank zero. Alternatively or additionally, it may take an unknown (possibly variable) amount of time to see positive (or expected) results in response
to the spammer’s changes. In response to delayed results, the spammer may perform additional changes in an attempt to positively (or more positively) influence the document’s rank. In either event, these further spammer-initiated changes may assist in identifying signs of rank-modifying spamming.”

This is apparently the new way that Google will weed out spammers, mostly link manipulators. Previously, there would be almost an “instant gratification” reaction to positive or negative moves within the rankings. For example, when penguin and panda updates hit, sites were instantly punished or rewarded. This type of behavior will no longer be typical and it may take longer to figure out exactly why a site is doing well or poorly.

Source: http://www.seo-news.com/the-new-google-patent-to-stop-spamming-a-seo-news-exclusive/

7 Reasons You Should be Participating in Internet Marketing Forums — A SEO-News Exclusive

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Here are 7 reasons you should consider being an active participant in Internet marketing forums. Each of the reasons is a valuable step in the entire process of becoming a successful Internet marketer. If you can master the entire process, you will have a distinct advantage over your competition in all your future ventures.

1. Copy Other Successful Marketers and Their Techniques

The number one reason is copying those that are already successful. This may sound unethical, but it’s simply researching what works. What better place to find what’s working than from those already succeeding? This doesn’t mean go to a website and download their pictures or copy their text! It means reverse engineer their strategies and then use that knowledge to form your own.

2. Ask for Tips, Advice, and Learn from Other Marketing Forum Participants

Always ask questions! You will get bad advice, advice that borders on good, and then that one hidden gem which will make you understand what your goals are just a little bit better. Be careful, there is often misleading advice mixed in with the sincere. Always remember that internet marketing forums are filled with your competition! Not everyone will be there to help you.

3. Make Friends and Form Partnerships with Marketing Forum Participants

Making friends is an ideal way to gain information on how to be a successful marketer. Through internet marketing forums you can make friendships and form partnerships. You’re many times more likely to get credible information from a friend and partner than you are a stranger or competitor. If you can’t beat them, join them!

4. Stay Current with the Latest Developments in Your Industry

Are you up-to-date with the latest trends in Internet marketing and SEO? Do you know exactly how to deal with the latest Google update? It is impossible to stay on top of trends by yourself. You need to be connected. An Internet marketing forum is an ideal venue to find out the most recent news in your industry.

5. Learn How to Start Your Own Forum

I use a web hosting company for one of my websites. I noticed that they run probably the most popular web hosting forum online. It is not obvious that they are the owners, however there are links to their service. How convenient having everybody interested in web hosting, flocking to your web hosting forum for more information. If you want to dominate your niche, it might be a good marketing strategy to start your own forum in your niche. By participating in a good marketing forum you can see how they are run and get an idea on how to run your own forum.

6. Having Fun!

Participating in online forums can be fun and even addictive! You are learning the latest news, getting questions answered, asking questions and engaging in friendly online debates. Blogs like this one are great, but they generally tend to be more one way conversations with a few comments. Forums allow you to start the conversation. You have an equal voice with the person who started the post. Forums are generally much more interactive than blogs which usually translates into more fun!

7. If for No Other Reason, Get Back Links From Your Forum Signature

The final reason and the most obvious reason is to get a few back links. Put the link to your website in your signature and make a few posts every day to keep that link out there for search engines and visitors. Building back links can be difficult, so if you can get a few for free, go for it!

Source: http://www.seo-news.com/7-reasons-you-should-be-participating-in-internet-marketing-forums-a-seo-news-exclusive/

Now It’s Even Harder To Get First-Page Google Rankings

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It seems like the chances for sites to get their content into organic Google search results is continuing to decrease. In a recent article, we looked at some of the recent changes Google has made to its algorithm, including things to make it better at natural language, give it a decreased dependence on keywords, and giving users more direct answers, and therefore not having to direct them to other sites as much.

Have Google’s results pages gotten better or worse? Let us know what you think in the comments.

This, alone, makes a lot of webmasters uneasy, and highlights the need for sites to diversify their sources of web traffic. Google only wants to get better and better at this. Google wants to deliver the best user experience possible, and users want to go on about their business as quickly as possible. This is easier to do if Google can provide the answer itself. Lost traffic, however, could be an unfortunate side effect for content providers.

Wait, didn’t there used to be more search results on this page?

Now, there’s a separate, but related topic being discussed by the webmaster community. Google appears to be showing less organic results for SERPs that contain a result with its sitelinks feature. You know, the ones that look like this:

Sitelinks

Specifically, for many SERPs that display these kinds of results, Google is now showing only a total of 7 organic search results (that’s regular results, not including any universal search results that might appear):

Seven Organic Results

There has been discussion about this in the WebmasterWorld forums over the past couple weeks. “Google wants to get people to their answer quickly, and if the query has a history of being too ambiguous, they certainly have the ability to measure that and throw a tag to change from the normal SERP. Just as there was QDF (for query deserves freshness) they might have something like “QDD” or query deserves disambiguation,” said forum admin Tedster.

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land shared a statement from Google about the matter, saying, “We’re continuing to work out the best ways to show multiple results from a single site when it’s clear users are interested in that site. Separately, we’re also experimenting with varying the number of results per page, as we do periodically. Overall our goal is to provide the most relevant results for a given query as quickly as possible, whether it’s a wide variety of sources or navigation deep into a particular source. There’s always room for improvement, so we’re going to keep working on getting the mix right.”

So this may be an experiment, but a lot of people are getting SERPs with fewer organic results, from fewer sites. It doesn’t bode well for organic SEO. It does seem to make sitellinks more important than ever.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers, President of User Effect, has put out some research at SEOmoz, finding that Google is showing way more SERPs with less than ten results than ever before, and for the most part, these results have 7 results a piece. Here are a couple of graphs he shared:

SERPs with less than ten results

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“SERPs with 7 results were an anomaly prior to 8/13, with the system tracking a maximum of one (0. 1%) on any given day. On 8/13, that number jumped to 10.7% and then, the following day, to 18.3%,” he writes. “Almost one-fifth of SERPs tracked by our data now have 7 results.”

You can read his article for more about the methodology, and his additional findings.

There has been some talk about this phenomenon being related to brand queries, but as Sullivan points out, there are plenty of examples of non-branded queries where this is happening, where the results contain one with sitelinks. It just so happens that a lot of brands do have sitelinks.

Taking Advantage Of Sitelinks

So, how do you get Google to display sitelinks for your site? Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. It’s pretty much up to Google.

“We only show sitelinks for results when we think they’ll be useful to the user,” says Google in its help center. “If the structure of your site doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don’t think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user’s query, we won’t show them.”

“At the moment, sitelinks are automated,” Google adds. “We’re always working to improve our sitelinks algorithms, and we may incorporate webmaster input in the future. There are best practices you can follow, however, to improve the quality of your sitelinks. For example, for your site’s internal links, make sure you use anchor text and alt text that’s informative, compact, and avoids repetition.”

If Google is showing sitelinks for your site, but you don’t like certain links it’s showing, you can demote those links, telling Google not to consider it for a sitelink candidate. You can do this in Webmaster Tools. Go to the “For this search result box” in “Sitelinks” under “Site Configuration”. You can demote up to 100 URLs, but Google says it may take a while to be reflected in the search results.

But that’s about as much control as you have over it right now. At least Google is hinting that it may give webmasters more control over sitelinks in the future. If sitelinks are having such an impact on SERPs these days, perhaps sooner rather later would be a good idea.

But back to the point at hand…

Search has been moving further and further away from the classic “ten blue links” format for years, but now Google is clearly giving you fewer opportunities to just rank on the first page in organic links than it used to, at least for a growing number of queries (and who’s to say that number won’t continue to grow?).

This probably means that you’ll need to put more focus on getting into Google’s other types of results more than ever, depending on what types of results Google is showing for the queries for which you want to be found. That could mean optimizing for image search, Places, YouTube, Google News, or of course paying for AdWords ads and/or Google Shopping results.

Interestingly enough, as Google wants to get users answers more quickly (and directly in many cases), the company still faces pressure from publishers who actually don’t want Google benefiting from their content without paying them. It seems pretty backwards, when you consider all of the sites who just want to show up in the results at all.

You and Me: Google-Free?

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What Would a Google-Free Website Look Like?

Seems the death-to-Google feeding frenzy is upon us. I’ve seen the hate escalate to fever pitch over the past few months, and I’m sure you’ve seen a bit of fury yourself if you’ve spent any stretch of time in webmaster forums lately. Jenna summed up the reasons for the rage in her most recent post: The Anti-Google Movement is Gaining Momentum. In it, Jenna pointed to Tadeusz Szewczyk, an SEO pro who has a newly Google-free blog called SEO 2.0.

This guy, oh man… this guy. In a nutshell, he protested Google by banning the search giant entirely from his blog. I visited the links Jenna included in her article, and I ended up killing a smooth hour on his site. I was hooked by his unabashed fearlessness and his anti-Google sentiment: articles with titles such as Giving All Your Great Content to Google For Free is Suicide and Why Peer-to-Peer SEO Beats Influencer Ass Kissing kept me reading for much longer than I’d comfortably like to admit.

I went on to visit sites run by this guy’s like-minded peers – did you know there’s a whole underground movement  dedicated to SEO sans Google? I guess I had an idea, but seeing it in action?

Wow. Powerful stuff.

If you’re a search marketer, think about all the time you’d save if you didn’t have to do so many things each day to keep the Google gods happy.  Think about how much liberty you’d have with your website! I, like all of you, have come to consider Google’s rules as the rules of the Internet at large instead of something I’m doing for Google specifically.

Google’s rules are so deeply imbedded in my brain that I now consider them standard website-building techniques.

That’s why I want to step back for a second, in light of Jenna’s post and all that I read on Szewczyk’s site and others, and dream with you about what we’d stand to gain if we completely eliminated Google from our marketing strategies.

Here’s Your Control Back

I can think of some things right off the bat that would make my life a heck of a lot easier if I cut Google from my marketing strategy. How about you?

Let’s start with my favorite: Google PageRank. The reason we’re all so preoccupied with PageRank is because it gives websites the link juice (read: lifeblood) they need to rank well in the SERPs.

Why?

Because PageRank is the measure of how much Google trusts your site. More trust, more lift in your SERP position. Imagine not having to worry about this metric ever again. Why would you care about whatever “score” Google gives your site if you’re not worried about ranking in the first place?

You wouldn’t.

That’s just the beginning. Now let’s talk on-page mandates. No more fretting over awkwardly-placed keywords in your otherwise great article titles.  No more using CTRL+F to count the number of times you mention “sky blue baseball cap” in a document. No more checking H1 tags for LSI keywords. You could just write. Imagine that.

And nofollow tags? You don’t need no stinkin’ nofollow tags!

Clearly, this wouldn’t be a license to write gibberish. You should still use language – and stick to topics – that people in your niche will know, recognize, and want to read. However, here’s another fun fact – you would never have to worry about Google possibly tagging your site as “adult” and blocking it from searches if you use curse words in your content. Of course, dropping F bombs all over the place is not in the greatest taste, but the point is that you won’t have to censor yourself to please G.

Backlinks would also be a huge weight off your shoulders. You’d worry about your backlink profile far lesswithout Google in the picture. With all the talk of negative SEO and reports of emailed threats demanding money for link removals, this may sound awfully appealing to some webmasters. Again, you should still monitor your backlinks from time to time if you indeed decide to set Google free, but there would be no more obsessive logins to your Google Webmaster Tools account or futile nervous emails to spammers in remote countries begging for removal of a wayward link.

P2P SEO: Loving This Concept

Let’s be clear: I’m not talking about banning Googlebot completely from your site like Szewczyk did. That, to me, is extreme. However, if you’re into that sort of thing, by all means, don’t let me stop you.

I’m discussing what not caring about Google would look like.

If you build your site for people, and it gains popularity – it will inevitably begin ranking in Google naturally, with no SEO help from you.

Google wouldn’t be the primary thing you’d think about when building your site, but if you rank, great. Extra traffic never hurt anybody. With all the algorithm changes that we’ve experienced in the past year and a Penguin refresh just around the corner, shifting your focus may not be a bad idea.

I’m really digging the concept of peer-to-peer (P2P) SEO that Szewczyk and others have been writing about recently. It’s not actually “SEO” at all; more like anti-SEO. It’s about ditching the search engines altogether and marketing by leveraging the traffic of your peers.

P2P SEO is very similar to what we’ve been exploring here on Site-Reference for quite a while now: building up your network and marketing through community-building in your niche. It’s starting to emerge as a much more viable long-term strategy than traditional search marketing.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, Szewczyk’s take on the technique:

SEO 2.0: P2P SEO

Bottom line: I feel a shift in the tide coming soon. Seriously. The feeling here and elsewhere toward Google is just… changing. For the SEO world, on a macro level, I’m really interested in seeing where this goes. On a micro level, I’m applying these techniques and focusing on Google much less with my own websites going forward.

We’ll see how it goes.

9 Penguin Safe Ways to Dominate Search for Your Keywords A SEO-News Exclusive

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It may take some time and work to rank your new website for your desired keywords. However, by leveraging OPPR (Other People’s PR) you can actually have your website represented in multiple positions throughout the first several pages of search relatively quickly. The recent Penguin update has penalized sites which were “over-optimized.” For example, did you hire somebody to get you 4000 forum profile links which all have the exact same keywords? Then your site might have been affected negatively by Penguin. Google is looking for natural link building from quality original content. Every suggestion here involves creating original high quality content on highly ranked platforms which Google just loves.

1. Write Guest Blog Posts for Quality Blogs With Real Readers

Having a high quality, unique, article published on a first-rate relevant blog that has real readers with your links is about the best SEO there is. When you get wind of the next Google update no matter what cute animal they name it your heart will not skip a beat. You will know that your content and links are the best quality there is. Actually you should be overjoyed when Google performs its next update. It will probably eliminate the spammy competition and rank your high quality articles even better than before! You can look Google in the eye and say “make my day!” Here is a list of 9 high traffic blogs that accept guest blog posts.

2. Create Short Quality Videos With Your Keywords in the Titles and Description and Upload to the Top Video Hosting Sites

I am amazed at how well YouTube and Dailymotion videos get ranked on Google. I am not sure how much they will help the actual ranking of your main site because of all this ‘”no follow” business but people still can find your website by clicking the link in the description below the video. I suggest uploading your videos to most of the major video hosting sites. Here is a list of 35 video hosting sites with their PR ranking that I actually use. Also, make sure you have a reasonably keyword rich description and definitely put your keywords in the title. I also suggest putting a call to action in the video itself giving viewers an excellent reason to click the link in the description below. You should definitely take advantage of YouTube’s PR 9 ranking and start filling up search results for your keywords with YOUR videos.

3. Create a Facebook Fanpage With Your Keywords in the Title

I found this out by accident. I had created a Facebook fanpage for my classified ad posting serviceand when I searched my keywords it was outranking my own website. It was not really fair since my main website actually had the most relevant information for the searcher, but it seems that the domain Facebook.com has more pull than classifiedsubmissions.com. Facebook fanpages really seem to jump to the top of search results. They generally pick up the keywords in the title. So make your Facebook fanpage with your desired keywords in the title. Then put a description of your website with a link in the about section of your page. Put some good relevant content, videos and pictures on the page as well.

4. Create a WordPress.com Blog and Fill It With Unique Keyword Rich Relevant Content

I am not talking about downloading the famous WordPress software and starting your own blog on your own domain (this is good too.) I am talking about going to WordPress.com and creating a blog based on your keywords to be hosted on the domain WordPress.com. WordPress.com has a whopping PR9 ranking. It is almost impossible to create a PR9 domain with your own domain name. So from a PR standpoint it is probably better to run a blog on WordPress.com than even on your own domain.

There is a reason WordPress.com is such a highly ranked platform. They do not accept junk content. Your content should be unique, relevant, informative and not just a sales pitch. Do not do what I did at first and hire somebody from Fiverr.com to create 20 WordPress.com blogs and populate them with different versions of a spun article. Most of the blogs were deleted so it was a complete waste of time. I picked one that stuck and started developing real, well-written, original content about my subject with my keywords. Just manually set up one WordPress.com blog and add unique quality content bit by bit.

The result for me has been that my WordPress.com blog posts bounce around between the first and third pages of Google for variations of my keywords. Up until very recently they have been outranking my main site. Hint: make sure you include your well researched keywords in the name of your blog and in the title of your blog posts.

5. Create a Blogger.com Blog and Fill It With Unique Compelling Content

Blogger.com also has a PR9 ranking with Google. Try doing the same exercise you did with WordPress.com. But remember, do not just copy and paste content from your WordPress.com blog onto your Blogger.com blog. You need original content on both platforms. You can, however, have both blogs linking to each other and of course to your main website. One advantage of Blogger.com is that you can embed your autoresponder subscription forms in Blogger.com posts. WordPress.com does not allow you to do this. In addition Blogger.com accepts adult content with some caveats.

6. Create A Squidoo Lens

Squidoo is a place where you can create content rich websites called lenses. Unlike Blogger.com and WordPress.com these are not blogs. You create your content pages using modules. They have text modules, video modules, Amazon modules and more. Squidoo lenses can take a little more time to create than a blog post, but they get highly ranked in search and they also receive traffic by other members searching Squidoo itself. Squidoo has a ranking of PR7. Again you must use quality original content or your lens will not even get published. Because of these high standards Squidoo lenses generally rank very well in search. It is free to create a Squidoo page and you should use your keywords in the title and throughout the body of your lens. Do not keyword stuff just use your keywords naturally and relevantly throughout your lens.

7. Create a Hubpage

Hubpages are a similar concept to Squidoo. Hubpages have a PR ranking of 6. I have had a harder time creating Hubpages. Despite some of my best efforts to create quality content I have had some of my Hubpages deleted and even one of my URLs banned. Hubpages thought my site was too commercial. However, if you succeed in publishing your Hubpages, they can serve as yet another way searchers can find your website through searching your targeted keywords.

8. Upload Your Content to Content Sharing Sites

Sites such as Scribd and Mediafire are some of the highest traffic sites in the world. You can upload your PDF documents to document sharing sites and benefit from having your documents with your keywords and links on ultra high traffic sites. Not only do you get traffic from people directly searching these sites, but these sites actually get highly ranked in Google search since they have very high PR. Here is a list of 25 content sharing sites ranked by Alexa and Page Rank.

9. Answer Questions on Yahoo Answers

Yahoo Answers may not give you do follow links, but real people look for real answers to questions on this site. Search for questions related to your industry and give thoughtful relevant answers. Leave links back to your website incorporated in the responses. When people are searching for answers related to your industry they will find your answers and links to your website. The goal is that every time somebody uses search for your keywords, that all roads will lead to your website.

My next step would be to promote all these properties which feature your original articles and links. Of course submit them all to your various social media outlets. In addition you can cross promote. Take your videos and put them on your WordPress.com and Blogger.com blogs. Put links to your Blogger.com and WordPress.com articles in the descriptions of your videos. Put links to all articles and upload all videos to your keyword targeted Facebook page. Of course, all properties should have relevant links back to your main website. You get the idea. The results will be that you should have multiple listings on the first several pages of search for your keywords on various high PR properties. Nobody can guarantee you a first place permanent listing but, if you have multiple, unique high PR quality properties all leading to your website, you are multiplying your chances of success.

The rankings change everyday. However, if you have a number of high PR, high quality properties all competing for your keywords you could have your Squidoo page in first place one day, then your WordPress.com blog, then your YouTube video on top the next day. Having multiple links coming from relevant high PR sites going to your main website can only help increase the rankings for your main website as well.

Here is a case study applying these techniques to my website classifiedsubmissions.com. The keywords I am going for are “classified ad submission service.” Here is a screenshot from the first page of Google. Keep in mind these rankings change every day but I still see the same sites bouncing back and forth in the top positions.