The Mayan 2012 of doom might be a month away from
now but many companies have already experience the Google Penguin of
doom. After years of bad link building practices they got hit by Penguin.
Google released the Penguin Algorithm to put tighter guidelines on
website optimization and adjusted a number of web spam factors,
including keyword stuffing, cloaking, unnatural links and content
spinning. Aside from that some companies where hit by the unnatural
links messages.
Companies saw the downgrade of their page rank.
Despite the number of companies going over the line of Google's
guidelines in link building, some companies are decent enough to
follow the said guidelines. However due to bad links coming from
other domains linking to their site, they got hit by the renegade
Penguin.
Despite this ruthless move from Google, its
redemption factor is the fact that they are cleaning up the web from
dodgy contents. They want to make the web a better place and reward
people who do things right – and that is following their
guidelines.
Now, what must one do to counter or remedy the
situation?
First and foremost thoroughly scour the domains that
links to your site. Search for bad links that might have placed your
site in hot water. After identifying this search for the contact
person or the people managing that website. The easiest way to
connect to that contact person is through email. However, some sites
are tricky that only through sleuthing can a link builder find the
person's email or his/her snail mail address.
Yes, the down ranking or penalization of ones
page can be frustrating, but one must practice tolerance in
contacting the site that brought you bad links. Try to be polite and
civil in pointing out that Google had identified their site in
providing you those links. Ask them to remove those links. And since
you are asking a favor from them keep your temper at bay.
For those who received the unnatural link message
you will need to file a reconsideration request to Google. On the
other hand, those who were hit by the Penguin. It is a sit-and-wait
situation till the next algorithm update. However if you think that
you were attacked wrongly by the rapid Penguin, Google provides a
form for that. You'll just have to enter your URL and the query
keywords that shows non-ideal results.
Now after doing all these the amount of recovery is
still unknown. Since some of the traffic you get from Google was from
bad outsource link building that you have now removed. It is unlikely
that you will get back to the rank you were on. The amount of traffic
loss depends on the percentage of the link that use to drive the
ranking of your site from bad links.
Recovering from Google Penguin is not easy, it can
be painful. But it can be done. If you have built a good quality site
that for a user or an audience, then Google Penguin is the least of
your problem. Once you have recovered from this Penguin Apocalypse
your company will be in a better spot.
