Some Thoughts
If you have been producing quality content online and continuously follow SEO best practices, you are already in better shape heading towards the new Google update than others. However, as many of you have discovered with past updates that even though you feel you are ‘following the rules,’ sometimes updates can alter your standing.
Lots of marketers and business owners alike see Google as this big enigmatic creature, when essentially all Google wants is for people to create great, interactive sites with usable content that users can share, and hopefully return to multiple times. You work hard to show Google that your site has value, and in turn Google works hard to show users that value.
All the updates Google has had in place and will continue to put into place come from this idea to make it better for users— an idea that is not so scary after all. So with that being said, let’s get into the good stuff; THE NEW GOOGLE PENGUIN 2.0 UPDATE.
Penguin 2.0
While we haven’t learned quite yet what will happen with the change, online marketers and webmasters can make some assumptions from a recent blog post from Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam department.
There are some things that have been cooking in the Google kitchen, and with an early summer rollout, here are some of the things we can expect.
1. Penguin 2.0 is a more directed webspam update, dedicated to thwarting a lot of black hat efforts online, with more impact than the original Penguin.
2. Advertorials that pay for coverage should not flow PageRank, as in they should not be able to violate quality link guidelines and pass link juice through payment. Also these advertorials should be clear to users that the content is being paid for. Harsher penalties may come for these advertorials with the update.
3. Cleaner queries, with less spam ridden results. Users might be able to expect better results in areas that are more spam-ridden than others (good for those of you searching for porn!).
4. A better link analysis system that will be able to deny any link value to link spammers. (An exciting idea for any prospective link builder like me.)
5. Better hacked site detection, with a better communication channel for webmasters who have been hacked. This update can possibly make it easier for webmasters to have a place to go for help if they’ve been hacked and be able to get clean up diagnostics. In general it provides more ways for webmasters to be able to receive concrete help.
6. A different kind of authority will now bring you more recognition. The new update may have the possibility to realize if a certain site is an authority on specific subject matter and be able to rank them better because of it. This can make the search more applicable and appropriate for users.
7. Possible Panda help may be on the way! Sites that have maybe been affected negatively by the Panda update can find some solace in the idea that Penguin 2.0 can be able to locate quality items within sites in order to help restore any value lost from Panda.
8. Host clustering will be more refined so users won’t repeatedly see results from the same domain. The update will make it so once users see a cluster of results from the same domain, the chance of seeing more results from that domain later in the search results will be significantly decreased.
Not all of these changes will occur the way they have been reported, and more changes can be included within the update. So we won’t know until the update actually comes. Stay on your toes, folks! Are you ready for the update?