• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness Services
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

SEMrush

Home » Google » Is Google Penguin Recovery All About Cleaning Up Links?

Is Google Penguin Recovery All About Cleaning Up Links?

Posted on October 31, 2013 Written by Bill Hartzer

A while back I wrote about how many SEO companies and so-called SEO experts have been offering a Google Penguin Recovery Service. I mentioned that you really need to be very careful when choosing someone who offers to help you recover from Penguin, because they really can do more harm than good. They are, in fact, going to do things that will change your website’s link profile which could do serious damage to your overall website search engine reputation. You actually gain search engine reputation over the years, and your domain name has a history.

Take a look at my presentation about the latest Google Algorithm Updates, paying particular attention to the section on Google Penguin:

Google Algorithm Update 2013: Google Panda, Penguin Recovery from Bill Hartzer

Google Penguin is entirely about links to your site, right?!? Wrong! Below, I’ll detail why Google Penguin is not all about the links that are pointing to your website. In fact, if you read the original (official) blog post from Google that describes Google Penguin, they describe Google Penguin as an algorithm targeted at webpam. Google states specifically in the blog post announcing Google Penguin:

Here’s an example of a webspam tactic like keyword stuffing taken from a site that will be affected by this change (referring to Google Penguin):

keyword stuffing

Of course, most sites affected by this change aren’t so blatant. Here’s an example of a site with unusual linking patterns that is also affected by this change. Notice that if you try to read the text aloud you’ll discover that the outgoing links are completely unrelated to the actual content, and in fact the page text has been “spun” beyond recognition

link spam

Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognizable as spamming without deep analysis or expertise, but the common thread is that these sites are doing much more than white hat SEO; we believe they are engaging in webspam tactics to manipulate search engine rankings.

Reading the above, honestly it is (and was) the same old drivel that we get from Google about webspam tactics that are trying to manipulate search engine rankings. Links schemes are mentioned, but not as prominently as what it shown in the actual screen shots that I’ve posted above that Google referred to in the actual blog post.

There are a lot of SEO experts out there who are saying that they can do Google Penguin Recovery but when you start talking to them they start referring to low quality links and how all of those need to be disavowed using the Google Disavow Tool. Their focus is cleaning up the links to your website.

No doubt, cleaning up low quality links pointing to your website as well as cleaning up the anchor text of the links pointing to your website is important. And that absolutely needs to be done (well, at least your links need to be thoroughly reviewed). An SEO expert such as myself, with 10 plus years of looking at links and knowing the history of link schemes, should review the site’s link profile.

Rae did a wonderful job at explaining what’s going on with links related to Penguin, and the whole “algorithmic versus manual” link penalties. I get that, it’s an awesome post. But one thing that she totally forgot about was the fact that Google Penguin is not totally about incoming links from other websites pointing to the site that got hit by Google Penguin.

Again, I go back to the original blog post from Google that announced Google Penguin. Right there on the Google Webmaster Central blog. In the post, Matt Cutts does mention link schemes which are, I believe, a part of Google Penguin and recovery.

So what’s the bottom line here, really? Google Penguin not just about cleaning up anchor text, cleaning up the links pointing to your site, getting rid of low quality links from other websites. Those are link schemes, and need to be taken care of. But it’s about the bigger picture here, cleaning up everything that has been done to a website (even outgoing links could potentially be a problem), and just about anything else, like keyword stuffing, that is deemed to violate Google’s quality guidelines.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engines

SEMrush

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, LLC, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management.

Recent Posts

  • dotDB is Not Shutting Down February 1, 2023
  • Someone Stole My Domain Name: Here’s What You Do January 4, 2023
  • Web Hosting Services Market to Grow to $254.86 Billion by 2029 December 13, 2022
  • This SEO Blog Post Was Written by ChatGPT December 8, 2022
  • Facebook Rolling Out Facebook Articles December 7, 2022
  • Doing SEO is Better Than… December 6, 2022
  • Tucows and GoDaddy Report Q3 2022 Results November 6, 2022
  • How to Measure App Events Sourced by Organic Search and SEO September 20, 2022
  • Google Allegedly Eavesdrops and Monitors the Brain 24 hours a Day to Control Humanity September 14, 2022
  • Why You Shouldn’t Hire SEOs Based on An Email September 13, 2022
  • Global SEO Market to Reach $122.11 Billion by 2028 September 9, 2022
  • Bluehost Launches New Commerce Solutions for WordPress September 8, 2022
  • Which CMS? How to Choose the Best CMS for Your Purposes August 29, 2022
  • Accidental SEO Manager: Interview with Ash Nallawalla August 15, 2022
  • Sometimes Google Isn’t Family Friendly August 1, 2022
  • Something’s Seriously Wrong with Facebook Notifications July 12, 2022
  • Facebook Internet Tracking Settlement June 24, 2022
  • RankSense Acquired by SEOClarity June 1, 2022
  • LinkedIn Links, Digital Marketing News, and SEO Questions Answered May 9, 2022
  • GoDaddy Ending Forwarding of Existing Shortened Links May 5, 2022

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Phil Drinkwater
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (210)
  • Google (236)
  • Internet Marketing (25)
  • Internet Usage (85)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (39)
  • Marketing (180)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (3)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (48)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (164)
  • Search Engines (204)
  • Social Media (192)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·