This document summarizes a presentation on algorithm updates from Google, specifically the Penguin algorithm. It discusses how sites can be impacted by losing 16,000 visits per day due to algorithm changes, costing $4 million annually. It provides tips on avoiding Penguin penalties such as not using automatically generated content or cloaking. The presentation also examines how Google uses large data sets to identify spam tactics and discusses tools like disavowing links to manage link profiles in response to algorithm updates.

1. 2013 ALGO HANDLING
Brian McDowell – Director of Search Intelligence

3. THE CONDUCTOR TEAM
WHO WE ARE
• Founded in 2006
• Located in New York, San Francisco and Charlotte
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• 150+ pieces of SEO thought leadership in 2012
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• Supporting SEO success for over 2000 leading
brands
• $4.5B in SEO revenue under management
• 18TB of SEO data collected weekly
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4. AGENDA SLIDE
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN ALGO HITS HARD?
WHAT SHOULD YOU BE FOCUSING ON
HOW DOES GOOGLE BUILD USE CASES
WHAT IS THE PENGUIN ALGORITHM
HOST CROWDING IMPACT

6. 16,000 VISITS LOST PER DAY
2.75% CONVERSION RATE
$25.00 REVENUE PER CONVERSION
$11,000.00 DAILY CONTRIBUTION LOSS
$4,015,000.00 ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION LOSS
-15% SITEWIDE CONTRIBUTION LOSS

7. 16,000 VISITS LOST PER DAY
2.75% CONVERSION RATE
$25.00 REVENUE PER CONVERSION
$11,000.00 DAILY CONTRIBUTION LOSS
$4,015,000.00 ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION LOSS
-15% SITEWIDE CONTRIBUTION LOSS

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Latest Updates to Note
•Panda
•Penguin
•Exact Match Domain
•Above the Fold

9. PENGUIN ATTACK ON WEBSPAM
Avoid the following techniques:
• Automatically generated content
• Participating in link schemes
• Cloaking
• Sneaky redirects
• Hidden text or links
• Doorway pages
• Scraped content
• Participating in affiliate programs without adding sufficient value
• Loading pages with irrelevant keywords
• Creating pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other
badware
• Abusing rich snippets markup
• Sending automated queries to Google
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https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en

10. GOOGLE SNIFFERS

11. Large data sets
are needed to
build automated
processes.

12. EVERYONE WANTS TO BE #1
• There are multiple spam reports
available to help Google identify
tactics / networks.
• Paid Links
• Objectionable Content
• Malware
• Copyright Issues
• Personal / Private Information
• Phishing
• Rich Snippets
• Abusing Google Products
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https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en

13. Google Reconsideration
Requests provide a
wealth of data.

14. GOOGLE DISAVOW TOOL
• Provides a proactive approach to
cleaning up a bad link profile
• Is a portal for Google to build a
smarter engine for link spam
offenders
• Last resort when unable to remove
a link manually
• Matt Cutts describes the history and
reasoning behind managing links
using the Disavow Links Tool (see
link below)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=393nmCYFRtA

15. PENALTY <> FILTER
• Penalty the result of manual action
taken against your domain/page
• A penalty most often is associated
with a warning or description in
Google Webmastertools
• Penalties often carry with them an
expiration date
• Reinclusion requests have a chance
of getting you back in good graces
• Usually correlated with a drastic
drop in rankings or indexed pages
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• Filters are determined by a
mathematical weighting operation
• Filters are constantly being adjusted
• Thresholds can be tripped
somewhat arbitrarily with little notice
• Filters can tend to have a higher
success rate of recovery then
penalties
• Major algorithm changes impact
filters on a larger scale and often
require deeper strategic changes

16. “The problem in defense is
how far you can go without
destroying from within
what you are trying to
defend from without”
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Look at your backlink profile now. Ask
yourself if the link or linking page is…
•Relevant
•Indexed
•Overly Advertorial
•Cloaking or Redirecting
•A Niche Authority
•Sitewide
•Sidebar or Footer
•In content blog post, press release,
directory, forum signature
•Does the linking page have an
established backlink profile?
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NOW IS THE TIME FOR DEFENSE

17. CHECK YOUR LINK DISTRIBUTIONS
• Penguin 1.0 focused on the
homepage or root domain
• Penguin 2.0 can focus on individual
pages
• Check on a sitewide basis and also
at the page level
• Make sure deep pages are also
getting some link equity
• Diversify your link portfolio as much
as possible
• Build advocacy instead of links
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http://visual.ly/google-penguin-20-algorithm-update-may-2013-infographic
http://moz.com/ugc/google-penguin-antispam-algorithm-testing-and-analyzing

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HOST CROWDING
http://www.conductor.com/blog/2013/06/how-penguin-2-0-levels-the-playing-field-data/
The host crowding update completely changes the
way we manage content syndication.
Preferred URL tracking is a necessity!
This release also opened the doors for affiliates and
partner sites to compete for branded terms. No
longer can we accuse Google of being biased
towards big brands.

19. CONTACT US
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BRIAN MCDOWELL
Director of Search Intelligence
@Conductor
facebook.com/Conductor
info@conductor.com
www.conductor.com
@Brian_McDowell
linkedin.com/in/mcdowell