Google Penguin: What About Older, Established Online Businesses?

Enjoy today’s guest post by SEO professional Deepak Gupta. The opinions, images, and details below are the that of Mr. Gupta and do not necessarily reflect those of Return On Now.


Everyone knows that a website is important for almost every business. It is now an unwritten code that a brick and mortar business has to be supported by something as impalpable as virtual world of Internet. Business owners everywhere are hiring SEO companies to increase the visibility of their website on the major search engines, but they may be unaware of the surprises that Google keeps introducing. Panda and Penguin updates are the types of surprises that leave SEO experts wondering how to best adjust their web strategy to minimize impact on their client’s website.

Google Penguin Update from Deepak Gupta
Google Penguin Update Image, Courtesy of Deepak Gupta

What is the Google Penguin Update?

To improve the ranking process, Google introduced their Penguin algorithm update. This update  is focused on reducing false positives, spam and negative SEO concerns.

  • False positives are those that are mistakenly taken as spam and hence removed from the search results.
  • Spam is about targeting the SERP items that focus only on promotion. These are typically pushed to the point where it irritates search engine users, as spam does not offer any actual or valuable information.
  • Negative SEO is the act of harming a competitor’s business by enlisting black hat SEO techniques in hopes of damaging their online ranking and reputation.

These are concerning to the search engine as well as the online businesses. Their loopholes are being exploited by the people better equipped in the technical side of web marketing.

Every time one of these updates is launched, many websites can be harmed. This can happen without them officially taking part in any questionable SEO practices.

Comments About Penguin, from Google

According to Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Web Spam Team, Penguin is a success this far, as now the results are generally better than before. However, there are side effects and unexpected results that concern both SEO experts and businesses.

For sites that have been hit severely by these updates and penalized mistakenly, they would beg to differ with Mr. Cutts. Those who have been hit by Penguin are unsure how bad this situation might get. Some of them have been present online for up to a decade, but are no longer listed in the SERPs.

Matt Cutts advises that Penguin is still under development, and that it will only get better. Even with some issues, the overall condition of the SERPs has improved.

Is There Any Way to Recover from a Penguin Penalty?

The only way to recover from the Penguin “bomb” is by removing or clearing up the spam / unnatural links. There is no other trick that will help you sidestep it.

If you follow through on the above and are still unable to improve your results, the next step is to wait for the next Penguin update. Unless that fixes the problem, it may be time to start over with a whole new domain.

Last Words

If you have been hit by Penguin, your only option is to dive in on the clean-up work. Penguin really did unearth some questionable practices, but it is still an imperfect solution for the near term.


About the Guest Author

Deepak Gupta works as a marketing consultant specializing in online marketing strategies to help his clients become visible on the Internet. He is working with a reputed SEO Company in Delhi, that provides high-quality SEO Services in India.

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As Founder and President of Return On Now, Tommy Landry provides the vision behind our SEO and SEM methodologies. With over 25 years of business experience and a deep understanding of modern internet marketing techniques, he spends his time providing hands-on consulting, insightful content, and engaging public speaking appearances to Online Marketers of all skill levels.
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