How to Recover from Google’s Panda, Penguin, Unnatural Link Penalties

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How to Recover from Google’s Panda, Penguin, Unnatural Link Penalties

Every year, Google, the leading search engine, makes significant modification in its patterns of Search Algorithm to an increasing extent for about 500 times. These updates are being regulated quite often where most changes are minor, every few months Google rolls out “major” updates in its algorithm that affect search results in considerable ways. Comprehending of these updates in advance is essential for webmasters and search marketers as it helps understanding and planning for their strategies for their website’s ranking and organic traffic.

These Google updates are less important from the view point of users as they hardly can notice about the impact of algorithm change, it is definitely taken in to consideration for better UX (user experience) of the search results though being acquainted with these updates focus on some issues that fetch data of their queries and how search engine works in real time.

What is Google Panda Update :

Several versions of Google Panda rolled out until now that are designed to reduce the rankings of lower quality websites. This includes websites with lower quality, duplicate content from other websites and also those websites which are less or not informative for users perspective. This Panda update does not have only negative impact on websites but also providing better rankings to those websites which already have high quality content, rich, original and informative content such as research, analysis, in-depth reports, reviews and more alike.

Basically, Google Panda is a site wide penalty which intended to target webpage regardless possible spam but low in quality as this was the first ever update which penalizes thin content, the sites that were hit with this update were content farms where users had published low quality articles with keyword stuffed and sometimes title attributes with no value to the users. In order to avail additional links, publishers had submitted same article to plenty of websites are legit to punish through this update. This update targets the website on the basis of certain factors which are :

  • Low quality content
  • Irrelevant links to attributed articles
  • Duplication of content from other sites
  • Low value sites to users

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What is Google Penguin Update :

According to the Google blog, Penguin update is an “important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.” This update was launched on April 2012 mentioning those typical black hat SEO tactics including keyword stuffing and irrelevant outgoing links could get website in trouble by possible flag to the website.In order to manipulate search engine rankings, some websites do more than white hat SEO that might not easily identified as spamming unless deep analysis. Hence, website owners are advised to check their Google Webmaster accounts for message regarding warning stating past spam activities and potential penalty. Still it is not summarized precisely what signals are picked up by Penguin update. The possible factors that contribute to violate under this update are :
  • Overuse of exact-match domains
  • Aggressive exact-match anchor text
  • Keyword stuffing in internal/outbound links
  • Low quality article marketing
  • Duplication/spamming in blog content

What is Google Unnatural Links Penalty :

Google has placed manual penalties on certain websites that determined for widely attempting to manipulate search engine results by generating dozens of links. These penalties are manual and different from Penguin which is based on Google algorithm.

No one can confirm about exact reason for hit under unnatural links, it is believed that certain niches such as casino, car insurance, payday loan, etc are likely to receive penalty whereas others believe that if someone report for spamming against your site then also are having possible chances for this penalty.

Should you file for reconsideration if you have been affected by Penguin, Unnatural Links or Panda?

Panda: No.
Panda is an algorithmic update and a reconsideration request will not help recover the website.
Penguin: No.
A reconsideration request is only meant for sites that have a manual warning. If the site is having a manual warning then you will have a message in your Google’s Webmasters tools.
Unnatural Links: Yes.
If the site is having a manual warning in Google’s Webmasters tools then it is required to clean up the site and then only it should be filed for reconsideration.

There are plenty of people confused for how to differentiate Penguin and an Unnatural Links penalty. Can’t figure out difference between Panda and Penguin. Still having dilemma whether you should be disavowing your links? Wondering whether you should file for reconsideration? Be calm, because…you’re not alone for sure!

Do Penguin, Unnatural Links and Panda affect the whole site or just part of the site?

  • Panda: This update can effectively affect an entire website while sometimes only section such as a news blog on the site. Panda does not tend to affect just single pages of a website. If you have a site that has some good content, but a lot of thin and duplicate content, then the Panda filter can cause the entire site to have trouble ranking, not just the thin and duplicate pages.

  • Penguin: This update usually affects a website on a page and its keyword level. With this penalty certain pages would stop ranking with the anchor text that have been overused and does not affect an entire site. Nevertheless, it has been observed that various keywords have built the anchor for homepage, as a result the homepage will not rank for number of terms.
  • Unnatural Links: A manual penalty can possibly affect the whole website, or just any particular page, or even a specific keyword. It might happen that the website is penalized and totally removed from Google index. While in some cases the site still can be in the Google index but does not show in the first 10 pages for certain keywords or for more keywords too.

Learn How to Recover from Google Panda Effect

Google’s update for Panda is one of the most discussed topic for SEO till now where Panda gave green signals for rich content and good quality while red one to certain poor quality and thin sites. Follow these steps to recover your website from Panda effect:

  • Write Quality Content
  • Remove Unnecessary Pages/ Posts from Google Search (Noindex/404)
  • Remove All Broken Links
  • Get Rid of Low Quality Content
  • Get Alerted for the Duplication of the Content
  • Focus on Social Media Promotion and Keyword Optimization
  • Create SEO Friendly Theme for Your Site
  • Monitor Your External Links

Ultimate Guide for How to Recover from Google Penguin Effect

  • Remove Paid Text Links Using Exact-Match Anchor Links
  • Add Images, Video, Slides, Infographics
  • Remove Guest Post On Questionable Sites
  • Remove Comment Spam
  • Make Content Shareable On Social Networks
  • Remove Articles From Syndicated Websites
  • Focus On Content – Precise, Relevant And Sensational
  • Focus On Social Media Links
  • Use Webmaster Tools To Avoid Threat Of Poor Links

Must Know: How to Recover from Google Unnatural Links Penalty

Google has sent manual penalty warning for Unnatural Links to many bloggers and webmasters who have indulged in creating backlinks in bulk. As a result, plenty of websites have lost traffic all of sudden and has became a major issue for SEO experts who have provided cheap link building strategies through black hat SEO tactics. Below are the steps to recover from the Google’s unnatural link penalty:

  • Check for Google Unnatural Links Warning
  • Try to find the Unnatural Links
  • Use Google Webmaster Guidelines
  • Make use of tools to identify links (e.g. Majestic SEO)
  • Check Your Website Traffic
  • Digging your Site with Google Webmaster Tools
  • Digging your Site with Ahrefs.com
  • Download latest unnatural spam Links through Google Webmasters tools
  • Identifying Unnatural and Spam Links
  • Creating a Spread Sheet of Unnatural Links
  • Requesting Site Owners to Remove Links
  • Keeping Track on the Link Removal Requests
  • Getting Started with Google Disavow Links Tool
  • Writing Disavow Commands Text File to Eliminate Bad Links
  • Updating Your Site Unnatural Links in Google Disavow Links Tool
  • Write a perfect Google Reconsideration Request
  • Waiting for Google Response on Reconsideration Request

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