Mediaboss Marketing

Another update, another dose of mayhem. This time the mayhem is called Penguin. As with all Google updates over the years, there have been winners and losers.

Before we start panicking, we should remember that for Google to survive and continue dominating in the next decade it has put in huge effort to keep its SERPs relevant, useful, and clean of spam. As a reminder, Penguin isnt the first major update Google has rolled out in the past 10 years:

We won't go into detail on each of these, as plenty has already been written about these updates on Search Engine Watch and elsewhere. Instead, lets focus on the one theme that runs through each of them: To keep spam in check. Granted, Googles definition of spam has varied, but generally they have done a good job of being vocal in the community through Matt Cutts, head of Google's web spam team, and also through Googles own Webmaster guidelines.

Some websites are out to make a quick buck (not thinking of their customers/visitors), or they have been misguided by an agency or by some black hat SEO magician that its OK to use tricks. Here are a few of the things websites should avoid as outlined in Googles Webmaster guidelines:

Youre playing Russian roulette if youre engaged (or plan to engage) in any of the above tricks. Businesses who are in for the long haul should think a lot about their customers. Specifically, how can you:

With a mindset like this, the focus shifts from employing tricks like the ones mentioned above to a mindset of how you can publish quality content on a user-friendly website that makes users want to stick around.

As an in-house SEO, thinking of how to create value for your site visitors and employing ethical white hat SEO tactics should be on top of your agenda. And only if it is on top of your agenda will it filter down to other departments in your company. This will also ensure that there is no risk of turning to the dark side of SEO.

Lets look at what in-house SEOs can do immediately when an algorithmic updates like Penguin happen, and how to plan for the future so you dont get hit hard.

It can be a big blow to your business if you get hit by these Google updates. But avoiding SEO shortcuts, having a plan of action, and creating a long-term plan is a solid start. Think of this as your own SEO crisis management plan.

See the original post here:
Hit by Google Penguin? An In-House SEO Crisis Management Plan