google algorithm chaos: panda, penguin, and other google updates

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Pubcon NOLA 2014 Algo Chaos

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Page 1: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Pubcon NOLA 2014Algo Chaos

Page 2: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos - Overview

About Me

• Senior SEO Strategist, Globe Runner• Brand Ambassador, Majestic SEO• Personal Blog: www.BillHartzer.com• Based in Dallas, Texas area

Page 3: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos - Overview

Overview

• Recent Major Google Updates- Panda, Penguin, EMD, Page Layout, EMD, Authorship

• Google Knowledge Graph• Manual Actions• Sample Manual Actions - Revoked• Future Google Algo Updates

Page 4: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Panda

What is Google Panda?

• Ranking factor added to the Google algorithm

• Filter designed to identify ‘low quality pages’.

• Provides better rankings for high-quality sites

• Panda is integrated into algorithm, after two years

• Named after Google engineer Navneet Panda

Page 5: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Panda

How Google Panda Was Developed

• Google Engineer came up with questions, sent questions to human quality testers

• Testers rated based on quality, design, trustworthiness, speed, whether they would return to site

• Google came up with definition of “low quality”• Launched Personal Chrome Site Blocker extension earlier.• Allowed us to specify sites we want blocked from SERPs• Compared data from both sources (Raters and Chrome

Blocker), and had 84 percent overlap, indicating on right track• Came up with Classifier to indicate Low Quality vs. High Quality

Sites, to be used mathematically in Google Panda.

Page 6: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Panda

Google Panda History• Rolled Out to US sites on February 24, 2011

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html

• Rolled out Globally to English language users on April 11, 2011

• Also began to roll out data from sites that users block

• Latest update Panda #25 — March 14, 2013

- Panda updates now on rolling update schedule

• Panda Dance, Panda Recovery, June and July 2013

Page 7: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Panda

Google Panda Update History• Panda/Farmer — February 23, 2011

• Panda 2.0 — April 11, 2011

• Panda 2.1 — May 9, 2011

• Panda 2.2 — June 21, 2011

• Panda 2.3 — July 23, 2011

• Panda Goes Global (2.4) — August 12, 2011

• Panda 2.5 — September 28, 2011

• Panda "Flux" — October 5, 2011

• Panda 3.1 — November 18, 2011

• Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012

• Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012

• Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012

• Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012

• Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012

• Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012

• Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012

• Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012

• Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012

• Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012

• Panda #20 — September 27, 2012

• Panda #21 — November 5, 2012

• Panda #22 — November 21, 2012

• Panda #23 — December 21, 2012

• Panda #24 — January 23, 2013

• Panda #24 — March 14, 2013

• Panda Dance — June 11, 2013

• Panda Recovery — July 18, 2013

See the Google Algorithm Change History:

http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

Page 8: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Panda

Were You Hit by Panda?• Look at your web analytics• Sites affected had traffic loss starting in February, 2011.• Google Analytics for your site (Web Trends, Omniture, etc.)• SEM Rush for most sites (SEMRush.com)• How many sites recover?

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/google-panda/

Page 9: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos– Google Panda

Recovering from Google Panda• Make sure all content on site is “high quality”

• Review Google’s List:

23 Questions to assess quality

http://bit.ly/1gHZzQb

• Identify and remove least-visited pages

• Take out the trash, so to speak.

• Prevent Pogosticking from SERPs.

• Wait until next Panda update to see recovery (about a month)

Page 10: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Panda vs. Penguin

Panda vs. Penguin

• Panda focuses on sites providing a bad user experience - Sites with low quality content

• Penguin focuses on spamdexing and link bombing.

Page 11: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Penguin

What is Google Penguin?Google: “algorithm change targeted at webspam.”http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html

Goal is to “decrease rankings for sites that violate Google’s Quality Guidelines”.http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#3

Examples:• Keyword Stuffing, Over Optimization• Unusual linking patterns (outgoing links)

Page 12: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Penguin

Google Penguin Update History• First reported April 24, 2012

• Penguin #2 — May 25, 2012

• Penguin #3 — October 5, 2012 (0.3 percent of queries)

• Penguin 2.0 (#4) — May 22, 2013

• Penguin 2.1 (#5) — October 4, 2013

Page 13: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Penguin

Were You Hit by Google Penguin?• Look at Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, review dates

of Google Updates.

Page 14: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Penguin

Recovering from Google Penguin

• Perform a full SEO Audit of web site

- Identify and fix problem areas on site that violate Google

guidelines (keyword stuffing, over optimization, etc.)

• Review Google Webmaster Tools for messages, suggestions

• Perform full link analysis of site

- Download links from Majestic SEO, Moz Open Site Explorer, a

hrefs, etc.

- Review anchor text, clean up links to site

- LinkResearchTools.com for further cleanup

• Disavow Links to Site, Ping, force crawls of disavowed links

• Link Research Tools’ Link Detox Boost claims quick recovery

• Work on Authority, trust of site

• Wait until next Penguin update to see recovery

Page 15: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Google Algo Chaos – Exact Match Domain Update

EMD Update• Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update — September 27, 2012

Should be called the “Commercial Phrase” Update. But for PR purposes, I realize why

Google calls it the “EMD” update.

• Google targeted “commercial phrases” with this update.

• AdWords CPC Cost + # Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase

Example:$5.00 CPC + 20,000 Searches Per Month = Commercial Phrase

• Valuable Domain Names include Keywords (commercial phrases)

• Not all keyword rich domains affected

• Sites without keyword rich domains were affected

• Recover by cleaning up your link profile, especially anchor text

• Link Profiles should have 70 percent or more “brand” anchor text, company name, URL as anchor text.

Page 16: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Page Layout Update

Google Page Layout Update• Page Layout #2 — October 9, 2012

• Targets pages with too many ads “above the fold”• Algo proof: content above fold, minimal ads above fold.

• Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014

http://selnd.com/1qNV6DE

Page 17: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Knowledge Graph Update

Knowledge Graph Update• Knowledge Graph Expansion — December 4, 2012

• Added KG functionality to non-English queries

• Get your site, business into the Knowledge Graph.

• TIP: get listed in Freebase.com, part of KG.

Page 18: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Manual Actions

Manual Actions in Webmaster Tools• Partial Match – affects certain pages

• Full Match – affects whole site

• Unnatural links – both require link cleanup, review

Page 19: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Manual Actions

Manual Actions – Unrelated to Penguin• Unnatural link warnings are not related to Google Penguin• Sites affected by Penguin should clean up links• Manual actions more severe, require reconsideration request

Page 20: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Manual Actions

Getting Manual Actions RevokedUnnatural Links? Clean up links, document everything.

• Identify all links to site• Combine GWT, Majestic SEO, Ahrefs, OSE links• Manually review links (Link Research Tools can help)• Identify links to remove• Contact site owners, document emails, contact dates, etc.• 3 attempts to contact site owners• Disavow links not removed

Request Review: include letter, spreadsheet with data proof

Page 21: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Manual Actions

Sample Manual Action Revoked• 52,252 Total Links to Site• 217 referring root domains• 693 Healthy Links• 709 Inorganic Links• 569 “live” inorganic links to get removed (including nofollow links).

After three attempts over 3 weeks to contact site owners via email:• 296 site owners responded• 12 sites refused to remove the links• 257 links were successfully removed based on our email requests• 27 links – site owners requested payment to remove the links• 2 links – we were unable to contact site owners• 274 links – site owners were completely unresponsive after 3 contacts• 256 links were removed as a result of our link removal efforts

Page 22: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Manual Actions

Sample Manual Action Revoked• Kept track of all URLs, Status of URL, Dates, and emails• Added all data into spreadsheet• Uploaded spreadsheet to Google Docs• Wrote letter explaining process, linked to Google Docs spreadsheet

Page 23: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Authorship Update

Google Authorship Shakeup• Technically, not a Google algorithm update, but verified by G.• Authorship Shake-up — December 19, 2013• Authorship results in search are being intentionally reduced

Authorshippocalypsehttp://bit.ly/1fUQ2Jk

Authorship Photos in SERPs Reducedhttp://bit.ly/1d8TfGe

Page 24: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Google Future Updates

Google Future Updates• Google Panda Update coming – softer on small businesses• Panda Updates are monthly• Penguin Updates are 6 months between roll-outs

• Manual Actions - Severity of infraction can affect length of time a site will be penalized

• Manual Actions – Average site is looking at 6-12 months to recover from a penalty even after cleaning it up

• If you get hit by Panda or Penguin you HAVE to wait to for data refresh of that filter

Page 25: Google Algorithm Chaos: Panda, Penguin, and Other Google Updates

Algo Chaos – Thank You

THANK YOU

Contact Me

Bill Hartzer

Senior SEO Strategist

Globe Runner SEO

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: (214) 236-4378

Office: (972) 538-0260 Ext. 7076

Direct: (469) 645-1231

Web: http://www.globerunner.com

Blog: http://www.billhartzer.com

Twitter: @bhartzer