After Google’s Penguin Update, What are Your after Penguin?

Question: After the infamous Penguin update from Google, is SEO dead? What are your recommendations for SEO after penguin?

Answer: SEO tips after Penguin, that sounds kinda scary. Both the Google Penguin update for 2012 and the Panda update were really targeting ‘low quality’ websites – either low quality content (duplicate content) and/or bad inbound links. Penguin was particularly strong against low quality link schemes. So really it’s back to the basics – post-Penguin and post-Panda, the main SEO tips are really a) build good, original content, and b) create strong, ‘natural’ backlinks to your content.

Our classes avoid the phrase ‘post-Penguin and post-Panda,’ but instead give you practical SEO tips for small businesses. Here are some of the ‘post-Penguin and Post-Panda SEO tips’ for 2012 that I might recommend, post-Penguin and post-Panda –

• Rapid drop in Website traffic – is that the Penguin update? – That could be the fault of the Penguin update. Penguin slammed websites that had lots of low quality inbound links, so if that was your situation, then you may have been affected. if you did not change anything else, AND you have low quality inbound links, look there.
• Does Google Penguin Update mean the end of SEO link building? – Yes and no. The Penguin update targeted low quality inbound links, and in that sense you are right – high quantity of low quality links are now BAD. This change has bred fear and uncertainty and doubt (FUD) among the SEO community, many of whom have been taking the easy way out for years, building these low quality link schemes (primarily via blog networks). So they got slammed by Penguin.
• In terms of the Penguin update (negative SEO), how do your remove unsolicited links? – Penguin is tough this way. There is no free lunch for Google, so there is a lot of buzz about negative SEO. Negative SEO means that others paid, set up these bad links to your site. The only known current solution is to remove them ONE BY ONE and then re-alert Google that you are better.