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"There\u2019s been a lot of talk about zoo animals recently. Ever since Google started naming its algorithm updates after furry black and white creatures, we\u2019ve been inundated with talks of pandas and penguins, and how they\u2019re taking down websites one ranking at a time. \nGoogle changes its algorithm about 500 times a year. Most changes are minor, but every couple of months, a major update happens that gets people talking because of the impact it has on ranking results. The two most recent algorithm changes are:\nPanda: Officially rolled out in February 2011, but there have been about 13 data refreshes of it since then. Now on Panda 3.7, it cracked down on sites with thin, stolen or duplicate content, as well as sites with a high ad-to-content ratio.\nPenguin: Released April 2012, this algorithm put tighter guidelines on website optimization and adjusted a number of web spam factors, including keyword stuffing, cloaking, unnatural links and content spinning.Contrary to popular belief, Google\u2019s goal isn\u2019t to run wild with algorithm updates and penalize every site until there are only 10 decent sites left. Google just wants to make the web a better place, and it does that by rewarding people who do things right. It\u2019s been saying this all along, but people only seem to take notice when their analytics look something like this:\n\n\n\n\nWhile Penguin was technically an algorithm update, it wasn\u2019t really a change in how Google factors ranking; it was just the official word that Google is taking action against people trying to game the search system. Simply put, Penguin targeted web spam. So, if you were playing by the rules, you shouldn\u2019t have been affected.\nTake a look at a snapshot from my company\u2019s analytics. The first line is Panda 2.5. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-digits worth of duplicate content. We corrected it and started heavily playing by Google\u2019s rules. The second line is Penguin. \n\n\n\nSo, how did we do it?\nKeep Your Keywords in Check\nFor a while, everyone was hailing Penguin as putting a stop to over-optimization, which while true, caused a lot of people to adjust their website so heavily that it wasn\u2019t even optimized at all. That boiled down to keywords.\nWith Penguin in place, you still need to have your keywords in your content. That\u2019s how search engines know what your site is about. But you shouldn\u2019t have your keywords as every other word, bolded in your text. That\u2019s spam. Here\u2019s how to keep your keywords in check:\n\nDon\u2019t write your content first and then put your keywords in. It will look unnatural. Have your keywords in mind and naturally incorporate them as you write.\nReread your body content. If it sounds shady, it probably is.\nTitle Tags: Still put your most important keyword first in your title tag, but make sure you have your brand name in there, too. I follow this formula: \"Main Keyword | Company Name Secondary Keyword\"\nImage optimization: Name your images your keyword names only if they related to that keyword. For ALT attributes, they should describe the picture, which hopefully will include your keyword and some other descriptive words as well.\n\nDiversify Your Link Building\nThe day it came out that having your keywords as the text in your links back to your website was both the worst and best day for online marketers. Yes, it\u2019s critical and it still plays a very important role to having high search rankings for your terms, but it\u2019s also one of the easiest things to manipulate. You want keywords in your anchor text, but more than that, you want a natural link profile. Here\u2019s how you get it:\n\nBrand name links: You should always have a higher number of brand name links than keyword links. This also includes your exact URL, too.\nMismatched keyword links: It\u2019s improbable to think that everyone will link to your site using the same anchor text.  Vary the links you get with different keywords. For instance, if your main keyword is \u201Cpurple orchids,\u201D try to get links with text, such as \u201Corchids that are purple,\u201D \u201Corchids\u201D and \u201Ca variety of color of orchids.\u201D\nNon-descriptive links: Having links like \u201CClick here,\u201D \u201Cwebsite,\u201D and \u201Cvisit us here\u201D are great ways to keep your profile looking natural.\n\nBeef Up Your Content\nGood content will never hurt you. Ever. If you have been on the receiving end of an algorithm update gone wrong, one of the best ways to get back in Google\u2019s good graces is to feed it good, relevant content. How?\n\nHave a blog and update it at least once a week.\nPut out a press release once a month. Are you hosting an event in the community? Hiring someone new? Speaking at a conference? All of that is newsworthy.\nPut out whitepapers. People love information. Tell them how you do things and share your expertise.\n\nContent-building will always be the most time-consuming thing for businesses, but it\u2019s also the most rewarding, so invest in it. \nListen To Your Webmaster Tools\nGoogle is doing us all a great service with Webmaster Tools. It\u2019s our direct connection to the search engine giant itself, and it can give us a wealth of information about how Google is reading our website. In some cases, they'll even tell you when they\u2019ve run into spam on your website.\nOutside of spam, the tools also will tell you all of the technical errors that are happening on your website, like 404 errors, server errors, blocked content and more. While Penguin doesn\u2019t address these technically problems specifically, you want to make it as easy as possible for search engines to crawl your site, so clean up any of the dead ends.\nBy All Means, Avoid These Things\nRemember: Penguin is Google\u2019s way of cleaning up web spam and rewarding sites that play by the rules. There has never been a stronger case to do things right than there is now. While keywords, links and content will have the biggest weight when it comes to cleaning up your site, you should by all means avoid these tactics if you want to bypass Penguin:\n\nCloaking: Serving up a different version of your website to search engines and users in order to improve rankings.\nContent spinning: Taking an article, editing it slightly to change some words and then publishing. This isn\u2019t rewriting. Rewriting takes time; spinning takes 15 minutes.\nHow did Penguin affect your business? Tell us in the comments.\nImages courtesy of iStockphoto, -Oxford-, Bill Slawski\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/07/03/penguin-google-seo/>