3 Ways to Stop Losing Traffic from Google's Penguin Update

If you have seen the phrase "Penguin attack" online recently, don't be concerned. No one's being invaded by an army of cute sea birds. Penguin is the nickname given to Google's most recent algorithm update.

Penguin launched late last month with the purpose of weeding out what Google considers over-optimized sites from the natural search results. That is, sites that try to game the search algorithms by incorporating excess on- & off-page SEO factors.

To decide whether your site was affected, check your Google Analytics account or other web information reporting tool to see in the event you experienced a drop in traffic on April 24, when the update launched. Only traffic drops that occurred on this exact day ought to be thought about to have occurred as the result of the Penguin update.

The update was estimated to have affected the natural search results for about three percent of search queries. The sites most influenced by the update have been those that are database driven or chiefly aggregate information, according to web information firm Searchmetrics.

If your site saw traffic drop due to the Penguin update, aware that this has occurred because some element of your net site -- whether something in your on-page content or any of your site's backlinks -- has been deemed web spam by the most recent version of Google's rating algorithm.

Related: The Largest SEO Mistake: Spamming (Video)

one. Focus on content quality over onsite optimization. You require not optimize every single on-page element on every single page of your site. Build content that visitors naturally require to consume.

To try to repair the destroy, or protect your site in the future, think about taking the following actions:

two. Eliminate overt web spam. In the event you have improperly copied or "scraped" content, keyword-stuffed content, doorway pages that redirect readers to sites the search engines cannot see or any other items Google considers to be violations of its Webmaster Guidelines, get rid of them as soon as you are able to.

three. Monitor your backlink profile. It takes time but you'll be wanting to build high-value, highly-relevant backlinks to your site & monitor your backlink profile for low-quality links that others may build pointing back at your site. Use the free Majestic SEO or Open Site Explorer tools to do this, & document your efforts to contact link spammers & have negative backlinks removed.

Related: Can Much SEO Be a Bad Thing?

There is no single set of actions that will guarantee your site's recovery from a Penguin-related traffic drop. But consistently improving the quality of both your on-page & off-page SEO can go a long way toward defending your site in the future.

Has your site been affected by Google's Penguin update? Let us know in the comments below.

This article originally posted on Entrepreneur.com