Penguins and Pandas !

byMega-Mike

300 followers

10 years ago

Back in the old school times ! and I remember the days so well ! it was easy to do SEO and it was even easier to learn SEO. Many companies were having the time of their lives. Most were reaching the top of Google's results index ! The world was happy, companies were enjoying the dot com bubble. Questions like ' How to get to the to top of Google' or 'how to rank number one in Google' did not exist - everyone was shooting up the rankings! - The chase for success was on ! (Little did we know what was coming next!) SEO had not become evolved.

There was no need for the best SEO strategies and techniques.

It was the days of AltaVista , Lycos , Excite and of course the early days of good old Google themselves. How easy it was to get ranked in any of these search engines using very basic and simple SEO techniques ! Back linking, spam and keyword stuffing were the main ways to get the rankings up ! Even disguising text html the same colour as the page background was being permitted ! We could even buy thousands of backlinks from PR companies for a few dollars - many amateur SEO Companies still attempt these practices today which astonishes and annoys me - It is deadly stay away from purchased backlinks ! Many SEO article spinning companies went to the wall - although a few are still in the Business - In my opinion stay away from these - Google will spot duplicate content like a rat up a drain pipe and you will be penalised.

SEO is not a game. You must not get involved in bad or poor SEO practices.

You need to get it right or face the wrath and might of Google's Power. BUT THEN ALL THE GOOD TIMES CHANGED FOREVER. SEO CHANGED FOREVER THE WORLD CHANGED FOREVER WE ALL HAD TO OBEY THE NEW RULES FOR SEO IMPOSED BY: Google Pandas and Penguins Algorithm OR ELSE FACE EXTINCTION. Google quickly grew up and realised that their brilliant search technology was not delivering relevant and good quality content to its browsers. (or customers) In all due respect I could see this coming in 1999. You must remember folks Google do not sell cars or operate and airline company - Google are a Search company - their one main Business goal is to provide SUPERB and ACCURATE results for their billions of users - can you blame them for wanting this? Many companies fell to the walls of liquidation with the introduction of the two main SEO algorithm updates! - The first was the Panda algorithm and the second was their Penguin algorithm

Google decided to fight back and so they did with a panda and a ferocious penguin and all guns blazing ! Of course these were not animals but major changes to Google's search engine optimisation algorithms.

These words still strike fear in to many an internet marketer or SEO EXPERT / CONSULTANT! Google had worked out that their visitors hated going to small, AD riddled irrelevant sites - this meant poor user engagement and Google would get a bad name - they wanted the best search results and this is what they got. The rest is internet history it paid off - they blew Yahoo and then MSN to oblivion and even continue this trend today with a massive 72% share of the search market. Mobile SEO is also now very important with Google Search and any serious SEO consultant must consider the implications of creating mobile optimised search. The mobile generation is going to revolutionise the world - it is amongst us - iPhones, tablets and God knows what's next are dominating the way users engage in search We need to build great mobile SEO optimised campaigns geared towards Google search or once again face the consequences GOOGLE HAS CLOSE TO 100% OF THE MOBILE MARKET SEARCH ! - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Times are changing and we as SEO consultants need to change with the times to ensure our clients get the best possible service from us. What in essence these Panda and Penguin Algorithm changes did were: Terminate low Page Rank sites with thousands of (PR) backlinks Remove sites with too many Keywords - this is why today SEO keyword density is critical and very important for any SEO expert to consider. High bounce rate sites were sent packing Duplicate links from the same sites were penalised Poor onsite optimisation (no internal linking within a website were removed) Insufficient outbound links were harshly looked at and many removed from Google's index. There were many other factors as well, but these are a few of the biggest ones. Hundreds of software backlink giants bit the dust overnight.

The Good NEWS ! - Every story must have a good ending !

Many websites that had been built and constructed the “the right way” shot up the rankings. The way I teach, in summary, is these principles: Content is king html is king relevancy is king engagement is king simplicity is King Building out your webpages for the end user as your main objective is more important than trying to build for Google. Bare this in mind. Build for your customer is my number one rule followed closely by work with Google and provide great end user experience - If you do this success is yours for the taking. Whilst some marketers and SEO Companies were sobbing in tears, others were jumping for joy. So folks there are lessons to be learnt here and many of them could spell the end of your Business if you fail to pay attention 1) Google is a search company ! - feed them good high quality content - create great results for their users and you will rank high 2) Do not try to beat Google - forget it they are too evolved and very clever - remember they own youtube and google plus (G+) and ask.com - be careful you never know who you are dealing with ! 3) Work with Goggle not against them. Treat them with respect. The same applies to the other major players such as Yahoo and Bing ! 4) Remember the next big Algorithm change could happen tomorrow - Has your SEO campaign been done correctly ? Is your site relevant , engaging and interesting with the best content you can provide ? If not its time to get back to SEO basics!!