Surely you all have seen all sorts of reactions after Google Penguin Update. In my opinion this is a hot mess. On the first look, it would seem that this change in algorithm was designed to create chaos among webmasters and to start dropping websites in a random manner.
If you’ve been around the online environment for some time, you have realized by now that nothing that Google does is random. So there is more to it than it meets the eye when it comes to the Penguin update.
Various sources including SEOmoz, say that Penguin was not designed to improve the quality of search results (as Panda). It’s purpose is to hit sites that perform strange link building techniques and got their page rank in an unfair and shady manner.
So, even if the site itself would contain nice and valuable information for the niche it was figuring in, their rankings will drop considerably IF their link building was spammy.
What Penguin did, is decrease the value of certain links, which led to de-valuating the position of A LOT of websites.
Now the question is, what kind of links were considered less good according to Google? The answers were vague and it was all based upon assumption.
What you can be certain of is that if your site participates in link building schemes, interlinked link wheels, link farms, reciprocal link building, then for sure you will go down. And you may go SO FAR at the bottom, that you will be no where to be found.
In theory you would say “Well that is good, right? No more sites that perform bad SEO will be on top. Time for the good guys to get a piece of the pie!” In practice, things are quite different.
Many analysis and observations were made, and it turns out, that Penguin not only hit SOME (i say some, because there were websites that bought links and still managed to rank well) sites that performed shady link building techniques, but also sites that are so called “innocent”, with great content that didn’t even do backlinks let alone, buy them.
Clearly the Penguin Update doesn’t improve the quality of search results, AND it sends a lot of websites to Neverland . Some of these really deserve it, but some not so much. Maybe this Penguin algorithm is still in its baby years and Google will make it more and more performant so mistakes like these won’t occur again.
I really don’t know what will be of all of this, but at this moment, building blog backlinks is turning out to be one hell of a job. I’ve seen my blog bouncing up and down in SERPs faster than a tennis ball. And strangely enough it does better for keywords that are not so much related to my blog topic.
What was once organized and with clean rules to follow (in SEO), now seems to have turned into a complete ramble. I am just a tiny person in the eyes of Google and if my website does not appear in SERPs no one will care but me. SO, I find myself in a catch 22 situation. It seems that the old ways that would help you build blog backlinks and influence your blog page rank are not effective anymore. How else am I supposed to run a business, or make myself heard, if I have ZERO power on how I rank? I am only at the mercy of search engines?
Others say to turn to social media, and try and talk to people and create a community around your site. And if I am to think good about it, I’m starting to believe that this may be the only option.
You can’t rely on Google for traffic so much anymore, and probably I will follow the advice of PotPieGirl and break up with Google also.
I guess the only way to build blog backlinks nowadays is to actually get socially active and interact with people. For the following period (maybe permanent), maybe I should try to become more independent from Google as possible.
Easier said than done, especially when most of your traffic may come from the big G. BUT, if you’ll focus more on building a community and put more accent on the people than a “bot”, you may still have a chance. At least I really hope this is the case.
I must admit, that I am genuinely worried with this turn out of events, and I don’t know what else to expect. More important, I would appreciate your input on this subject. I would like to know what you guys think will be the future of SEO and link building.
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