What niches were affected the most by this update?”
Gambling,Hosting,weight loss, insurance, make money online, pharma, Loan --> Guys those are the most competitive niche of the web and the 2 websites I managed which dropped are categorized in the 2 first niches I mentioned.
Why were these niches affected my by the penguin update?
1) More back links (broader, and more in quantity)
2) More Keywords oriented content
3) More Black hat Methods
4) Well at the end more spam, they were the models of a working BH SEO strategy (I believe those websites has served to build a spam selection models based on their signals, the crappy results we see at the moment on those peculiar niches and others tough ones tends to concur on that matter. It is as they have reset those niches)
Here are my questions based of the thousands of posts I’ve been reading the last couple of days, I've barely sleep the last couple of days in order to be able to work efficiently with this update in spite of most of the websites went fine here.
Are Link Pyramids still efficient?
What tends to prove my spun content theory above is that crappy spun Web 2.0 is ranking in the search engines. (That’s a straight WTF for me there)
Web 2.0 are usually heavily back linked and served a buffer websites purpose and they increased in ranking (hum interesting) So spunned spammed web 2.0 are still rankings.
That led me to conclude to 4 possibilities:
1) The link juice is now not passing for more than 1 tiers going from the lower.
2) Backlink have lost a ton of value (going to prove otherwise below) and the SEO juice of those web 2.0 properties come from the main domain of those web 2.0
3) If the OBL of the web 2.0 are targeting one or a very limited numbers of websites then no value (which is quite relevant a spam signals)
4) A combination of the above factors.
Is Blog Commenting and Xrumer Campaign Dead ?
This is a tough question here, and my answer will be so far a no.
I know someone who has been playing with SB massively for a month or 2 now (30k links indexed in that amount of time) and Keywords oriented content, and he has been through the update easily. It is a very disturbing example!
He used a load of anchors though and increased his link diversity with many kind of links, but most of them were targeted to his website.
I've also used SB and Xrumer straightly on my websites but only on highly selected list (edu / gov / high PR / AA / and very few high OBL ones) and they remain un-hit !
Did EMD gain in value ?
Yes, I believe they did! The URL gained in a value that's for sure. "python-hosting", "make-money-online.co.uk" are bluffing examples and so are the web 2.0 properties which has the keywords in URL.
The domain authority may have also gained in value as can show error 404 pages from yahoo.answer for exemple.
However, I always thought they will loose in relevancy as they tend to attract more spam websites, so i find this a little confusing to be honest.
What is left from all these to be responsible of our drops ?
1) Massive Link Pinging
2) Irrelevant Contextual backlinks
3) Link Pyramid Juice Lost
4) On site SEO
6) Anchors Diversity.
7) Recurring OBL on some Web 2.0 properties, or Bookmarking Accounts
Don't forget that for this update, not only spammed website got hit, and also white hat ones. So what kind of signals can be shared across the 2 methods beyond the spam ? (I’m actually asking the question to you guys !)
What can i do to fix my website ?
1) Add fresh and quality content (this will never hurt you and may rank for new keywords as fresh content may have been valued)
2) On site Optimization such as net linking, page speed, rich content, sitemap, content relevancy. However, pay attention to your inner links titles so far. Go as descriptive as you can and forget the keyword stuffing on this. I'm still reviewing the effect of such netlinking on my website which has been hurt and it is a possibility that it was targeted as i had this keyword which was ranking exclusively thanks to netlinking and it had dropped. I'll come with results.
3) Manual Backlinking, Manual web 2.0 properties, High PR site as usual as long as they are no return on the efficiency of SEO tools. This is what i would do actually, until I’m 100% positive that we can use them again and we will the question remains on the how.
4) For Penalized sites you can redirect your page to a new one with the same content and no backlinks. The penalty would more likely doesn't go through the 301. I'm testing that method on a dropped page and on a penalized one.
Additional Comment
"2) Backlinks have lost a ton of value (going to proove otherwise below) and the SEO juice of those web 2.0 propoties come from the main domain of those web 2.0"
after 3 days of analyzing my webs - i could not agree more on this point.
i have 1 web still ranking at first spot, and all that web had is 100-200 web 2.0 linking at it. No blast to those web20 were done at all. Just pure web 2.0 link, that's all
and i have bunch of webs totally dropped by 50-100 position, those webs had web 2.0 but and all those were blast with thousands shitty links.
So what happened?
web 2.0 stopped serving as a buffer
web 2.0 stopped passing though link juice to my money site and they have dropped
surely, i had some other Backlinking sources, unfortunately can't see any logical pattern on BMD, AMR,NHS or similar stuff
My sites have been hit pretty hard, but I have a couple of interesting observations at this point:
pages with keywords I had targeted in backlink anchor texts have dropped 50-70 places pages which were not the target of those keywords are frequently ranking higher than pages which were targeted (so site is still ranking for interesting keywords, but on un-related pages) some pages are ranking for keywords related to my niche, but which I never targeted (so if I targeted "coffee mugs" I am now ranking for "cups of java" - ok, terrible example, but you get the idea)
I've been spending a painful amount of time analyzing Penguin's effects, and talking with other bulldog SEO</acronym>'s to discover what factors were implemented in the latest algorithm update. One thing that we all instantly agreed on, was that the Penguin update has been unlike anything we've ever seen before. We expect to see a major revamp and tweaks to the algo soon.
Examples of Low Quality Garbage Rising to the Top:
Credit Card Refinance
5th result on Page 1
The site that's ranked has 7 pages indexed, of which are all default pages for a stock CMS. The total content on this site is all on the homepage, which is a short blurb that was clearly written in a matter of minutes.
Website Stats:
Exact Match Domain
Backlinks: Zero Backlinks
Age of domain: 2 yrs old
PageRank: 0
Paid Surveys
5th result on Page 1
The site has 140 pages indexed, but most are duplicate, tag, or thin pages in general. Overall the site is very thin, with unmasked affiliate links! Overall, not a site you'd expect to be prominently displayed on the first page of Google for the keyword 'paid surveys'.
Not an exact match domain, but includes the keyword 'survey' in domain
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 354 (ahrefs)
Notes about backlinks: A great majority of the backlinks to this domain are from BuildMyRank and other networks that have been deindexed entirely. Some directory links, but overall a very thin link profile that is blatantly artificial with little anchor text diversity
Age of domain: 4 yrs old
PageRank: 1
Other Crappy Rankings:
mexico pharmacy
5th result is a movie review for a Christian Movie on a popular movie review website
Zero links pointed to this page with any keywords related to "mexico pharmacy"
It's very unlikely that this was a hacked, redirect, Google mask, or anything more than a ranking mistake.
credit card review
10th result on Page 1 is a Wikipedia link to Amazon's page!
Similarities Among Sites Crushed by Penguin:
Sitewide Above the Fold Call to Actions/Forms
I've been spending a god awful amount of time on Google's Webmaster Forum, which is a great resource to find sites that were negatively affected by the recent algorithm update. Frustrated webmasters provide their full URL in hopes that someone will point out the horrible mistake(s) they've made so that they can correct it. Don't waste time reading the responses, you'd get better advice from an Eskimo. Regardless, its a good resource for finding actual URL's of sites affected, and in niches that you may never hear about or think about.
One commonality I'm seeing is that sites with large sitewide Call To Actions/forms above the fold were hit, and hit hard. Think insurance related websites, investigative websites, and most lead gen type sites.
Case-Studies of Above-the-Fold Penalty Theory
Site #1
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 9,000
Age of domain: 16 yrs old (well branded)
PageRank: 5
Notice the huge orange button? The large form to enter information in?
Each and every page on this website has this same exact lead gen form on the top of the page. It's clear that a team of people have poured their hearts and souls into this site. Painstakingly optimizing each page on the site with unique, well written content. But, there's a lot of overlap in terms of design of each page, and that big form takes up most of the real estate ABOVE the fold. Viewing the site in 800x600 resolutions, there's NO content above the fold.
All other optimization factors could qualify as amazing, great backlinks, good anchor text and incoming link diversity. A very well branded domain with an ancient old domain (16 yrs old!)! The SEOMoz team would get their rocks off if they had something to do with this domain, its that good. It's astonishing, if anything, this domain's optimization is too good (another Penguin theory of mine).
Site #2
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 37,000
An unbelievable backlink profile, with no signs of artificial linkbuilding. Links from .edu's, .gov's, .mil, and just about every authority type of TLD that you can imagine. This is nearly the pinnacle of a backlink profile that SEOMoz would give as an example of what to do for a white-hat, well branded domain.
Age of domain: 12 yrs old
PageRank: 7
Again, notice the white fields at the top of the page? That's how it is on EVERY page of the domain. The top header section is simply a lead gen form that's sitewide. According to this guy in the Webmaster forum he had sustained amazing rankings until the recent Penguin update. This was a leader in this niche, and had been for many years.
Site #3
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 257
All backlinks appear to be natural, with no sign of manually built links.
Age of domain: 8 yrs old
PageRank: 4
This is a UK based site that was also hit very hard according to theowner on GWT forums. According to the owner the site has plummeted in the rankings after Penguin was rolled out. Notice the huge header image? When viewing on the pinnacle 800x600 resolution there is NO visible content on the site. For the content itself, and title tags, it could be considered over-optimized with the primary keyword showing up on just about every page, with slight modification.
Major Take Aways:
While it's still early to determine the actual changes in the algorithm, when can begin to paint a picture and make some hypothesis about potential changes. My gut feeling is that Penguin largely affected on-site factors rather than off-site factors. Sites that would be considered perfectly optimized, are some of the best examples of sites that got crushed in the latest Penguin update.
Above the fold penalty
It's very likely that Google has implemented this into Penguin. Sites with forms, advertisements or large images that fill up area above the fold sitewide appear to have been hit hardest. If you think this was your problem try viewing your site in a 800x600 screen resolution, how much unique content is visible in this area? You can use Google's own tool.
"Bad Backlinks" AREN'T Reason for Ranking Drops
Like many BH SEO</acronym>'s, I've got a ton of domains that I've done testing with. Manytest domains with nothing but massive Xrumer and Scrapebox spam skyrocketed in the SERPs after the recent algorithm update.
A couple examples I provided above that increased in rankings have links from BMR, ALN, and other networks that have been deindexed! The rest are lower quality article directory links, low quality social bookmarks, and nothing to really write home about.
If anything, link "penalties", because of over-optimization, were distributed a few weeks ago, but not as a direct result of Penguin.
Gambling,Hosting,weight loss, insurance, make money online, pharma, Loan --> Guys those are the most competitive niche of the web and the 2 websites I managed which dropped are categorized in the 2 first niches I mentioned.
Why were these niches affected my by the penguin update?
1) More back links (broader, and more in quantity)
2) More Keywords oriented content
3) More Black hat Methods
4) Well at the end more spam, they were the models of a working BH SEO strategy (I believe those websites has served to build a spam selection models based on their signals, the crappy results we see at the moment on those peculiar niches and others tough ones tends to concur on that matter. It is as they have reset those niches)
Here are my questions based of the thousands of posts I’ve been reading the last couple of days, I've barely sleep the last couple of days in order to be able to work efficiently with this update in spite of most of the websites went fine here.
Are Link Pyramids still efficient?
What tends to prove my spun content theory above is that crappy spun Web 2.0 is ranking in the search engines. (That’s a straight WTF for me there)
Web 2.0 are usually heavily back linked and served a buffer websites purpose and they increased in ranking (hum interesting) So spunned spammed web 2.0 are still rankings.
That led me to conclude to 4 possibilities:
1) The link juice is now not passing for more than 1 tiers going from the lower.
2) Backlink have lost a ton of value (going to prove otherwise below) and the SEO juice of those web 2.0 properties come from the main domain of those web 2.0
3) If the OBL of the web 2.0 are targeting one or a very limited numbers of websites then no value (which is quite relevant a spam signals)
4) A combination of the above factors.
Is Blog Commenting and Xrumer Campaign Dead ?
This is a tough question here, and my answer will be so far a no.
I know someone who has been playing with SB massively for a month or 2 now (30k links indexed in that amount of time) and Keywords oriented content, and he has been through the update easily. It is a very disturbing example!
He used a load of anchors though and increased his link diversity with many kind of links, but most of them were targeted to his website.
I've also used SB and Xrumer straightly on my websites but only on highly selected list (edu / gov / high PR / AA / and very few high OBL ones) and they remain un-hit !
Did EMD gain in value ?
Yes, I believe they did! The URL gained in a value that's for sure. "python-hosting", "make-money-online.co.uk" are bluffing examples and so are the web 2.0 properties which has the keywords in URL.
The domain authority may have also gained in value as can show error 404 pages from yahoo.answer for exemple.
However, I always thought they will loose in relevancy as they tend to attract more spam websites, so i find this a little confusing to be honest.
What is left from all these to be responsible of our drops ?
1) Massive Link Pinging
2) Irrelevant Contextual backlinks
3) Link Pyramid Juice Lost
4) On site SEO
6) Anchors Diversity.
7) Recurring OBL on some Web 2.0 properties, or Bookmarking Accounts
Don't forget that for this update, not only spammed website got hit, and also white hat ones. So what kind of signals can be shared across the 2 methods beyond the spam ? (I’m actually asking the question to you guys !)
What can i do to fix my website ?
1) Add fresh and quality content (this will never hurt you and may rank for new keywords as fresh content may have been valued)
2) On site Optimization such as net linking, page speed, rich content, sitemap, content relevancy. However, pay attention to your inner links titles so far. Go as descriptive as you can and forget the keyword stuffing on this. I'm still reviewing the effect of such netlinking on my website which has been hurt and it is a possibility that it was targeted as i had this keyword which was ranking exclusively thanks to netlinking and it had dropped. I'll come with results.
3) Manual Backlinking, Manual web 2.0 properties, High PR site as usual as long as they are no return on the efficiency of SEO tools. This is what i would do actually, until I’m 100% positive that we can use them again and we will the question remains on the how.
4) For Penalized sites you can redirect your page to a new one with the same content and no backlinks. The penalty would more likely doesn't go through the 301. I'm testing that method on a dropped page and on a penalized one.
Additional Comment
"2) Backlinks have lost a ton of value (going to proove otherwise below) and the SEO juice of those web 2.0 propoties come from the main domain of those web 2.0"
after 3 days of analyzing my webs - i could not agree more on this point.
i have 1 web still ranking at first spot, and all that web had is 100-200 web 2.0 linking at it. No blast to those web20 were done at all. Just pure web 2.0 link, that's all
and i have bunch of webs totally dropped by 50-100 position, those webs had web 2.0 but and all those were blast with thousands shitty links.
So what happened?
web 2.0 stopped serving as a buffer
web 2.0 stopped passing though link juice to my money site and they have dropped
surely, i had some other Backlinking sources, unfortunately can't see any logical pattern on BMD, AMR,NHS or similar stuff
My sites have been hit pretty hard, but I have a couple of interesting observations at this point:
pages with keywords I had targeted in backlink anchor texts have dropped 50-70 places pages which were not the target of those keywords are frequently ranking higher than pages which were targeted (so site is still ranking for interesting keywords, but on un-related pages) some pages are ranking for keywords related to my niche, but which I never targeted (so if I targeted "coffee mugs" I am now ranking for "cups of java" - ok, terrible example, but you get the idea)
I've been spending a painful amount of time analyzing Penguin's effects, and talking with other bulldog SEO</acronym>'s to discover what factors were implemented in the latest algorithm update. One thing that we all instantly agreed on, was that the Penguin update has been unlike anything we've ever seen before. We expect to see a major revamp and tweaks to the algo soon.
Examples of Low Quality Garbage Rising to the Top:
Credit Card Refinance
5th result on Page 1
The site that's ranked has 7 pages indexed, of which are all default pages for a stock CMS. The total content on this site is all on the homepage, which is a short blurb that was clearly written in a matter of minutes.
Website Stats:
Exact Match Domain
Backlinks: Zero Backlinks
Age of domain: 2 yrs old
PageRank: 0
Paid Surveys
5th result on Page 1
The site has 140 pages indexed, but most are duplicate, tag, or thin pages in general. Overall the site is very thin, with unmasked affiliate links! Overall, not a site you'd expect to be prominently displayed on the first page of Google for the keyword 'paid surveys'.
Not an exact match domain, but includes the keyword 'survey' in domain
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 354 (ahrefs)
Notes about backlinks: A great majority of the backlinks to this domain are from BuildMyRank and other networks that have been deindexed entirely. Some directory links, but overall a very thin link profile that is blatantly artificial with little anchor text diversity
Age of domain: 4 yrs old
PageRank: 1
Other Crappy Rankings:
mexico pharmacy
5th result is a movie review for a Christian Movie on a popular movie review website
Zero links pointed to this page with any keywords related to "mexico pharmacy"
It's very unlikely that this was a hacked, redirect, Google mask, or anything more than a ranking mistake.
credit card review
10th result on Page 1 is a Wikipedia link to Amazon's page!
Similarities Among Sites Crushed by Penguin:
Sitewide Above the Fold Call to Actions/Forms
I've been spending a god awful amount of time on Google's Webmaster Forum, which is a great resource to find sites that were negatively affected by the recent algorithm update. Frustrated webmasters provide their full URL in hopes that someone will point out the horrible mistake(s) they've made so that they can correct it. Don't waste time reading the responses, you'd get better advice from an Eskimo. Regardless, its a good resource for finding actual URL's of sites affected, and in niches that you may never hear about or think about.
One commonality I'm seeing is that sites with large sitewide Call To Actions/forms above the fold were hit, and hit hard. Think insurance related websites, investigative websites, and most lead gen type sites.
Case-Studies of Above-the-Fold Penalty Theory
Site #1
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 9,000
Age of domain: 16 yrs old (well branded)
PageRank: 5
Notice the huge orange button? The large form to enter information in?
Each and every page on this website has this same exact lead gen form on the top of the page. It's clear that a team of people have poured their hearts and souls into this site. Painstakingly optimizing each page on the site with unique, well written content. But, there's a lot of overlap in terms of design of each page, and that big form takes up most of the real estate ABOVE the fold. Viewing the site in 800x600 resolutions, there's NO content above the fold.
All other optimization factors could qualify as amazing, great backlinks, good anchor text and incoming link diversity. A very well branded domain with an ancient old domain (16 yrs old!)! The SEOMoz team would get their rocks off if they had something to do with this domain, its that good. It's astonishing, if anything, this domain's optimization is too good (another Penguin theory of mine).
Site #2
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 37,000
An unbelievable backlink profile, with no signs of artificial linkbuilding. Links from .edu's, .gov's, .mil, and just about every authority type of TLD that you can imagine. This is nearly the pinnacle of a backlink profile that SEOMoz would give as an example of what to do for a white-hat, well branded domain.
Age of domain: 12 yrs old
PageRank: 7
Again, notice the white fields at the top of the page? That's how it is on EVERY page of the domain. The top header section is simply a lead gen form that's sitewide. According to this guy in the Webmaster forum he had sustained amazing rankings until the recent Penguin update. This was a leader in this niche, and had been for many years.
Site #3
Website Stats:
Backlinks: 257
All backlinks appear to be natural, with no sign of manually built links.
Age of domain: 8 yrs old
PageRank: 4
This is a UK based site that was also hit very hard according to theowner on GWT forums. According to the owner the site has plummeted in the rankings after Penguin was rolled out. Notice the huge header image? When viewing on the pinnacle 800x600 resolution there is NO visible content on the site. For the content itself, and title tags, it could be considered over-optimized with the primary keyword showing up on just about every page, with slight modification.
Major Take Aways:
While it's still early to determine the actual changes in the algorithm, when can begin to paint a picture and make some hypothesis about potential changes. My gut feeling is that Penguin largely affected on-site factors rather than off-site factors. Sites that would be considered perfectly optimized, are some of the best examples of sites that got crushed in the latest Penguin update.
Above the fold penalty
It's very likely that Google has implemented this into Penguin. Sites with forms, advertisements or large images that fill up area above the fold sitewide appear to have been hit hardest. If you think this was your problem try viewing your site in a 800x600 screen resolution, how much unique content is visible in this area? You can use Google's own tool.
"Bad Backlinks" AREN'T Reason for Ranking Drops
Like many BH SEO</acronym>'s, I've got a ton of domains that I've done testing with. Manytest domains with nothing but massive Xrumer and Scrapebox spam skyrocketed in the SERPs after the recent algorithm update.
A couple examples I provided above that increased in rankings have links from BMR, ALN, and other networks that have been deindexed! The rest are lower quality article directory links, low quality social bookmarks, and nothing to really write home about.
If anything, link "penalties", because of over-optimization, were distributed a few weeks ago, but not as a direct result of Penguin.
