In this transcribed interview, Ian Gerada of Connectica Inc.talks about how his company was able to effectively recover his client's website www.infosniper.net from a Google Penguin penalty. Ian tells about the steps they took to clean up the site as well as a sneaky way to build up powerful and 100% white hat backlinks to overcome penguin and regain rankings. Ian also talks about some of the tools that he used to assess his client's website and to recommend changes to help reverse the Penguin penalty and recover rankings in the search engine results pages. Check out this case study and get Ian's Penguin-busting tactics working for you and your clients today. You can watch or just listen to the video version of this case study by clicking over to: http://www.inspyder.com/blog/recover-from-google-penguin-penalty/

1. How To Recover from
Google Penguin
A Google Penguin Recovery Case Study
with Ian Gerada of Connectica Inc.
www.inspyder.com

2. How To Recover from Google Penguin
Introduction:
Hi, it’s Mike from Inspyder Software and today I want to share with you
a Penguin Recovery Case Study by Ian Gerada from ConnecticaInc.com.
In this conversation with Ian, he reveals what he did to recover his
client’s website from a Penguin penalty and shares a lot of great
information...so check it out!
www.inspyder.com

3. How To Recover from Google Penguin
My name is Ian Gerada, I'm an seo specialist at
Connetica Inc.
We specialize in naturalized SEO for all of our
customers. We've taken an old fashioned approach with
all of our SEO clients in everything that we do in
that everything is done manually. We kind of get back
to basics; make sure that our customers are producing
interesting/fantastic authoritative type results/type
content that Google is going to enjoy sending its
readers to.
Connectica opened it’s doors in 2003 and without a
doubt there's only been one way that I've seen over
the years that has been constant in terms of getting
good results for our customers.
And that's to keep it simple, keep it clean and
there’s no short cut to getting those rankings that
customers so, so justly want.
Obviously, being a search engine optimization
specialist there's quite a few different products
www.inspyder.com

4. How To Recover from Google Penguin
Obviously, being a search engine optimization
specialist there's quite a few different products
that I use. To understand the digital footprint of my
customers, I found Inspyder software purely by
accident doing searches…
Backlink Monitor was something that I really...I
didn't quite understand what you were trying to do
there.
Then I saw...hold on, there's a way I can use it and maybe I don't use Backlink Monitor the way it was
designed to be used but I certainly use it and find
it extremely power in terms of understanding the
digital footprint of my customers and being able to
take advantage of some things.
In this case study we're going to get into Info
Sniper.net and how we've managed to recover. In fact,
we're still recovering if we look at the Alexa
rankings right now...it's still getting better and
www.inspyder.com

5. How To Recover from Google Penguin
better. We're getting more and more traffic to that
website on a daily basis and I attribute that mainly
to Backlink Monitor and the way in which it was used.
It is a hidden gem - let me explain to you how we use
it. And this is where I think Backlink Monitor really
comes into it.
First of all, in the SEO world, understanding your
customer footprint is where it's at. Google is making
it clearer by the day that you know, bad footprint
data is going to lead to bad SERP results - that's
pretty clear.
I looked at Backlink Monitor and said to myself,
"hold on - I can use this to a) understand my
competition's backlinks. b) I can understand my
customer's backlinks".
One of your hidden gems in my mind is the link
hierarchy tab which, once you run - you run your
backlink system through it. Being able to understand
www.inspyder.com

6. How To Recover from Google Penguin
how many links you're getting from particular tiers in my mind is supercritical. It tells you exactly
where those links are so you can go to them.
So what did I do? I did it kind of reversed. The main
thing that I used - instead of putting one link at a
time - I signed up for Ahrefs and Moz for their APIs
- it cost a couple of bucks, it wasn't even much...
And let's assume I want to look at my competition's
backlinks. I go and import from web, so I click on
the "add" on the url add button and I'll say "import
from web".
Backlink Monitor gives me the option of pulling in
backlinks from Ahrefs.com and Moz.com. So I pull them
in.
It then gives me all the backlinks. I then run your
reports - I actually let it run. This gives me a lot
of information.
One, it tells me - I like to go after dead backlinks.
www.inspyder.com

7. How To Recover from Google Penguin
So let's assume for example I go into my
competition's website - I pull out the report and I
see, "Okay - he's got 50 dead backlinks."
A way of building backlinks for my customer in the
same niche is really easy. I get those dead
backlinks, we then contact the webmaster or person in
charge of that site and we offer them an alternative.
We say, "Look, you have a dead backlink on your
website - here's an alternative”. And I'll be honest
with you - our success rate is huge!
We build backlinks just based on dead backlinks that
Backlink Monitor is giving to me all the time. And
your documentation...you even have a big trash can
that says "delete dead links".
That's the, I put a cross across that, that's the
last thing I want to touch, because those dead links
are very important to me. They're a way that I can
build up my customer’s link and citation equity and
that to me is important.
www.inspyder.com

8. How To Recover from Google Penguin
Obviously it also helps understanding where we've got
bad backlinks. And seeing as how we're looking at
Infosniper.net as a case study - we can get into that
and show to you how we actually turned this thing
around.
So Infosniper.net was bubbling along with a lot of
'acquired backlinks' let's put it that way. And life
was good until we came along. Obviously, you know
Google has gone ahead and releases a whole lot of
things...the SEO world changed the way things work
back in April of 2012 with the release of Penguin 1.
I think a lot of SEO people, who all they did was
create backlinks and pay for backlinks everyday kind
of realized that backlinking is not what SEO is all
about.
Is it a factor? Absolutely. But it's certainly only
one of the factors that major search engines look
for. And it hasn't stopped I mean we've had five
Penguin updates - Penguin five also known as Penguin
www.inspyder.com

9. How To Recover from Google Penguin
2.1 which came out in October certainly has been
hitting a lot of sites.
So what we did was Infosniper.net had acquired a
whole lot of backlinks - and life was great. Then
what happened is we ended up being hit, I would say sort of late 2012, with the first Penguin update.
Traffic started dying. We came in late in 2012 and
started looking at the digital footprint.
We were doing it manually until Backlink Monitor
came along and we started using that to ensure, to
look at the strategy which I spoke to you about finding the dead backlinks; trying to get new
backlinks and also, looking at links that we've
deemed to be harming this particular site.
We then went on to Google's disavow tool and we
literally had to disavow a lot of links.
It took some time. It wasn't sort of an overnight
success. It's global rank - and I use the Alexa
www.inspyder.com

10. How To Recover from Google Penguin
number purely because everyone can go over to Alexa.
com and look it up and see the global number.
Our global rank at Alexa in early 2012 was around the
40,000th most visited site in the world. It got
better - it went up to 20,000 - 25,000 and then it
just dropped, it started dropping, 40 - 50,000th in
the world.
We're now enjoying...as of this morning I think when
I sent you the first email we were sitting at 18,210.
I looked at Alexa this morning - we're at 18,000 so
we're trying to crack down to the 17,000th most
visited site.
Which I think is a testament to your product. Simply
keeping the digital footprint clean, ensuring that
backlinks are genuine, they're given to us correctly
- is important.
I always take the stance of, "is it reasonable for me
to link to this site?" when I'm discussing a certain
issue. If it's reasonable to expect to link to a site
www.inspyder.com

11. How To Recover from Google Penguin
- then you know, go for it! And I don't think any
search engine company is going to penalize you for
doing that.
When I look at backlink monitor - what does it give
me that other software doesn't? It gives me access to
the digital footprint that my customers have.
I have the entire footprint at my fingertips. And I
can sit there and talk almost as though I know what
I'm talking about, with the customer and say, "You
know you have a link - this Russian toy store is
talking about your drug rehab facility here in
Florida" for example. Does that look reasonable to
you? Does that look like a bought backlink?" "Uh, yes
it does", Okay - let's get rid of it!
That's the gold behind your product. The money's a
steal - you know it's a once-off purchase and off you
go.
The amount of value I got from the software and I'm
www.inspyder.com

12. How To Recover from Google Penguin
continuing to get from the software is in my mind is
phenomenal.
To me, that's really what it comes down to. It helps
me get that digital footprint, that image of my
customer and of my customer's competition which is
also very important.
Look, I have to be absolutely honest with you and
tell you that sometimes...the situation is so dire
that my consultation to the customer has been, "Drop
your URL. Get a new one." It's happened once over the
last six months, where the customer had been
involved...they had answered one of these emails that
came in: "for $99 we'll do your..." you know those
emails right? Everybody knows them. They come in, for
$99 dollars we'll do all your SEO.
They had answered one of these and had this
interesting company do their idea of SEO which is
400,000 spam backlinks on forums and directory
listings.
www.inspyder.com

13. How To Recover from Google Penguin
Where I used Backlink Monitor in this particular
instance and realized very quickly, you know -put up
the white flag let’s just change and switch right
now, was twofold.
One - Backlink Monitor gave me the ability to
understand what kind of listings they were - and that
is also very important. Under your categories column,
you can actually see where they're being listed. So
is it a ‘Web 2.0’, is it ‘Other’, is it a ‘Directory
Listing’ is it a ‘Press Listing’? Whatever it is, you
can actually get a type of backlinking.
This particular customer, everything was a directory
listing. Now, I don't know about you - but I'm not a
fan of directory listings, simply because my logic
tells me that a directory listing is real easy to get
- okay?
You go in there, you drop in your text, you drop in
your anchor text and off you go. And obviously a lot
of companies have taken advantage of that.
www.inspyder.com

14. How To Recover from Google Penguin
They've got these automated robots that give you
these links...
In my mind, it doesn't matter if any of the search
engines see that as a negative or a positive
attribute. Personally, I see it as a negative
attribute when I see way too many directory listings,
so I kind of stay clear of that.
So as I said earlier, citation linking to me is
really important. I try and make sure that we do that
properly for our customers. So we got to this
customer and they just had, I mean I'm talking
hundreds of thousands of, I mean for $99/month - you
must understand that you're going to get a lot of
directory links! It was ridiculous.
We've now built the site back up and it's doing
tremendously well considering that six months ago it
was naught for naught.
www.inspyder.com

15. How To Recover from Google Penguin
But let me tell you once again, Backlink Monitor without that information, without us looking at it.
I'm not saying we wouldn't have got to the same
conclusion eventually - it would have taken a lot
longer though.
We were able to look at the categories...quite
clearly that's what the customer was doing and they
had 'fessed up - this was the company we were using.
After that it was a clean run. Have they grown by
leaps and bounds? No, but are they steadily growing?
Yes - there's no short cuts here. They are growing on
a daily/weekly basis.
Our website is http://www.connecticainc.com - we're
a small outfit there's a 11 of us in the company - we
do everything manually. Visit our website, ask for
information. At the end of the day, we're not a huge
agency, but we certainly try hard - that's all I can
tell you.
www.inspyder.com

16. Monitor Your Digital Footprint with
Backlink Monitor
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