Penguin Update - What Happened?

Google's Penguin update 

- A new algorithm on-page sifting filter. 

• What happened with the Penguin update?
  
• When did the Penguin update happen?
  
• What sites were affected and how can I know if my site was impacted?
  
• How can I recover from Google's Penguin update?
  
• Can I get help from Google?
  
• What is the Panda 3.5 update? (off-page)
  
• Can I sabotage my competitors with the Penguin update?
  
• What impact will the Penguin update have on my firm or business?

Watch this video to get a better understanding of Google's Penguin update.

Google rewards high quality websites

What is a high quality website is a question that lots of people pose to developers. 

 Google has made it very clear that a quality website will make a site more crawlable and make individual pages more accessible and easier to find. Below is 12 point checklist that will make your site effective with search engine optimization, or SEO :

1. Make your site crawable
2. Develop GREAT or quality content that is informative and interesting to site visitors
3. A hook - What sets you apart from the competition? Why should people return to your site and bookmark it?
4. Keyword research to ensure that the right words are on your pages
5. Link and website architecture is critical
6. Sitemap
7. Correct Title and Meta description tags
8. Page layout
9. Minimizing keyword stuffing
10. Relevant or Natural backlinks for search engine optimization or SEO
11. Easy navigation 
12. Fast page downloads

Watch this brief video clip from Matt Cutts on  Qualities of a good site



Click HERE to read the article on Google's Blogspot on why "High Quality Websites" are rewarded by their search engine.   

Click HERE to read about Google's Quality Standards for website design.

What is a landing page and how do I create one?

How do I develop a quality landing page?

Developing a quality landing page is critical to the success of your website. Google looks at various items to determine if your landing page will give visitors a great experience. The three main factors for a landing page are:

1. Original content (no duplicate) and Relevancy. Is your content informative, clear and useful?
2. Transparency. Can visitors easily find your products, services and contact information?
3. Ease of navigation. Is your site layout simple or do you have lots of links or information all over the page that makes it confusing for visitors?   

For additional information from Google, on how to build a quality landing page, click on the link...http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2404197

Google's Panda Update Impacts Rankings For Low Quality Sites

What does Google's Panda Update Target?

The objectives of the Panda algorithm updates are designed to:

• Penalize sites that try to manipulate the search engine through:
• keyword stuffing 
• hidden text
• Reward quality websites and decrease rankings for low quality sites 
• Filter sites with duplicate content 
• Penalize sites such as ‘content farms’ - click HERE to read more on Google's Blog
• Minimize weaknesses in its algorithm by reducing webspam
• Click HERE to see a "Chronological Overview of Google's  Panda Updates"