What you need to know about Google Penguin and Panda updates

1. Building
Links
in
a
Penguin-­‐Ridden
World
How to recover, survive and prosper after
Google's latest link Armageddon

2. Nice
to
meet
you
MaTeo
Monari
●
7
years
in
SEO
&
Link
Building
(4
in
iGaming)
●
Former
Head
of
SEO
for
Populis
(Excite,
Blogosfere,
Mokono)
COO
of
BizUp:
●
Search,
Social
and
Mobile
MarkeMng
●
5
Languages
in-­‐house
(IT,
FR,
ES,
DE,
EN)
● Experience
in
compeMMve
segments
(Gambling,
Finance...)
for & .2

3. What
we’ll
see
1) Why
links?
2) The
“Perfect
Link”
3) TradiMonal
link-­‐building
methods
4) Google
Penguin
5) The
“Perfect
Link”
–
Revised
6) Penguin-­‐proof
“natural”
link-­‐building
for & .3

4. Why
links?
Content
is
king?
No,
content
is
the
pilot
•
On-­‐site
SEO
(code,
structure)
is
the
base,
you
car.
•
Content
is
necessary
to
drive
it,
it’s
the
pilot.
•
Links
are
your
gasoline
(1
link
=
1
vote,
but
not
all
votes
have
the
same
value...)
→
The
harder
the
race,
the
more/beTer
gasoline
you
need
for & .4

5. The
Perfect
Link
(?)
l
Towards
your
“money
pages”
l
With
your
“money
keyword”
in
the
anchor
text
l
From
a
site
about
your
“money keyword”
l
On
a
page
about
your
“money keyword”
l
As
many
as
possible
for & .5

6. TradiMonal
link-­‐building
methods
Link exchanges
Link pyramids & networks
Content syndication
Directories
Mass link-buys
for & .6

7. But
Google
knows
many
things...
l
IP
address
of
each
site
l
Whois
informaHon
of
each
site
l
Email
addresses
in
each
site
l
Template
&
CMS
of
each
site
l
Links
(in
+
out)
of
each
site
l
Adsense
codes
of
each
site
l
AnalyMcs
codes
of
each
site
l
WMT
account
of
each
site
...
+
Historical
data
for & .7

8. ...so
what
if
things
went
wrong?
If
Google
idenHfied
“dodgy”
links,
it
could:
• Ignore
them
(=
not
count
them)
• Temporarily
penalize
a
site
or
secMon
(once
a
certain
limit
was
reached)
à Clean-­‐up
of
most
risky
links
à AutomaHc
de-­‐penalizaHon
à Manual
re-­‐inclusion
requests
.8
for &

9. We
all
hate
Pandas
since
2011...
for & .9

10. ...from
April
24th
we
hate
penguins
too
Full
updates’
history:
http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change
for & .10

11. Official
definiMon
”
[...]
an
important
algorithm
change
targeted
at
webspam.
The
change
will
decrease
rankings
for
sites
that
we
believe
are
violaHng
Google’s
exisHng
quality
guidelines.
[...]
Sites
affected
by
this
change
might
not
be
easily
recognizable
as
spamming"
( http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html )
for & .11

12. What
it
meant
Google started to give NEGATIVE VALUE to some links matching a
general on/off-site “over-optimization”: a site or section can be
gradually, permanently devalued. Penguin is NOT a penalization.
1 vote
or
1
1 link = no vote
or
a negative vote
for & .12

13. So...
à Increased risks associated with old methods:
• No to link exchanges
• No to link pyramids and weels
• No to aggressive content syndication
• No to aggressive directory submission
• No to mass link-buys
for & .13

14. ...and
what
if
you
have
been
“hit”?
à NO quick recovery: Google will have to
gradually re-evaluate your profile while you...
• Remove links from link networks
• Remove links with aggressive anchor texts
• Remove links from dodgy placements
• Remove links from obviously unrelated sites
• Gradually acquire “perfect” links...
for &
.14

15. The
Perfect
Link
(?)
l
Just
someMmes
towards
your
“money
pages”
l
Just
someMmes
with
your
“money
keyword”
in
the
anchor
text
l
Just sometimes from
a
site
about
your
“money keyword”
l
Just sometimes on
a
page
about
your
“money keyword”
“NATURAL”
for & .15

16. What
does
“natural”
mean?
for & .16

17. Natural
=
Similar
to
others
1) Who is your real competitor?
Black / White hat SEO?
Target?
Budget?
2) In-depth analysis:
Links’ distribution across pages
Anchor text distribution
Link development over time
Site-wide links vs. links to specific pages
IPs / networks
Link-building methods used
for & .17

18. Examples
of
“natural”
link
distribuMon:
Across
pages
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263
for & .18

19. Examples
of
“natural”
link
distribuMon:
In
the
anchor
text
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
5 13 21 29 37 45 53 61 69 77 85 93 101 109 117 125 133 141 149 157 165 173 181 189 197 205 213 221 229 237 245 253 261 269 277 285 293 301 309 317 325 333 341 349 357 365 373 381 389 397 405 413
1 9 17 25 33 41 49 57 65 73 81 89 97 105 113 121 129 137 145 153 161 169 177 185 193 201 209 217 225 233 241 249 257 265 273 281 289 297 305 313 321 329 337 345 353 361 369 377 385 393 401 409 417
for & .19

20. Examples
of
“natural”
link
distribuMon:
In
Mme:
for & .20

21. But
how
should
one
get
links
now?
1)
“Natural”
link
building
campaign
2)
“Natural”
anchor
texts
for & .21

22. “Natural”
link-­‐building
campaign
1
:
Guest
PosMng
/
Bloggers’
outreach
Use
just
as
many
links
as
in
other
posts.
l
l
Do
not
link
only
your
site.
l
Spread
links
in
the
text.
l
Link
from
on-­‐topic
posts.
l
Use
REAL
blogs,
of
REAL
people
l
NO
“site
reviews”
full
of
links
l
NO
“blog
networks”
of
“support
sites”
links
l
NO
link-­‐stuffing
at
end
of
arHcles
l
NO
off-­‐topic
sites/arHcles
for & .22

23. “Natural”
link-­‐building
campaign
2
:
Careful,
big-­‐scale
arMcles’
exchanges
Strictly NOT Connected sites
for & .23

24. “Natural”
link-­‐building
campaign
3
:
On-­‐topic
embeddable
widgets
Slots mini-game
Poker questions
Odds calculator
Embed code = you decide link attributes
for & (Source: http://www.widgetbox.com ) .24

25. “Natural”
link-­‐building
campaign
4
:
Engaging
content
creaMon
+
PR
a.k.a. “Link baits”: design, production, distribution/PR
Tools In-depth
industry research
Infographics
for & .25

26. “Natural”
anchor
text
• Aggressive anchor text: [...] online casino, [...] casino
• Anchor text variations: [...] on-line casinos, [...] on line casino
site
• Longer anchor texts: [...] this new site about online casinos
• Natural anchor texts:
• [...] this page of bizupmedia.com about online casinos
• [...] these blackjack games on bizupmedia.com
• [...] some online casinos like this or that
for & .26

27. To
recap
1) Links
are
sHll
a
key
SEO
element
2) The
concept
of
“Perfect
Link”
has
evolved
3) Google
Penguin
made
links
potenMally
“negaMve”
4) Old
link-­‐building
methods
are
now
more
risky
5) Penguin-­‐proof
link-­‐building
is
sMll
possible
for & .27

28. Thank
You!
MaTeo
Monari
COO
of
BizUp
srl
hTp://www.bizupmedia.com/en/
m.monari@bizupmedia.com matteomonari
twitter.com/matteo_monari ujigeng
for & .28