May 3, 2012

Link Issues on Websites Affected by Google Penguin

If you want your website to rank high in Google’s search results, remember that Google analyzes the type of websites linked to your source, the anchor text used by the linking websites, and the speed at which the sites linked to your site. Google’s algorithms will inevitably flag websites that have imbalanced anchor text or many fresh links. These websites suffered the most from Google’s Penguin, which limits web spam in Google searches coming from low-quality websites.

The chief reason for landing in Penguin’s list was an extreme lack of natural links. The sites lack natural links because they were using paid text links using exact match anchor text and have guest posts on questionable sites, comment spam, article marketing sites, and links from dangerous sites.

One way to rank high in Google’s search results for a certain term is to purchase links from other sites with an exactly matching anchor text. Google however prohibits using a paid link that manipulates PageRank and does not provide any value to consumers. Penguin will flag websites using paid text links with exact match anchor text.

The websites attempting to alter rankings for specific keywords usually use signatures in comments containing exact match anchor text and users using a user names identified as spam as exact match text. Penguin will target these websites.

SEOs are aware that one way to earn links to a website is through guest posts. Penguin however had flagged questionable sites with links leading to their website from sites of low-quality articles that do not focus on the content but on the anchor text.

Sites filled featuring links with exact match anchor text in their content or article marketing sites are also targeted by Penguin.

The last issue is websites having inbound links from sites flagged as dangerous because of malware, spam-related issues, and numerous pop-ups will fall in Google’s search rankings.

Google launched Penguin to check websites knowingly manipulating their Google search rankings and force websites ignorant of fair SEO practices to perform a thorough evaluation to check if they comply with Google’s guidelines. Many websites have fallen to Penguin because of unnatural links when attracting natural links takes only filling a site with unique content so others will link to it naturally.