Penguin Lite: Latest Google Changes
Frustration and Change
The last few months have been busy, busy for people with websites and blogs, and people who work with those sites. Lots of frustration has been evident in blog posts and comments around the blogosphere. In short, Google has sure been keeping everybody on their toes!
As we spent most of May re-learning what we thought we knew—which is what Google really wants from all of us—they were planning these latest changes, that they claim only will affect one tenth of one percent of all English-language searches. Back up on those toes—stretch!
Moving On
Now that this refresh is officially live, after some live testing that caused blogs and websites to bounce around a little for the past couple of weeks, one thing is certain. Website and blog owners and webmasters must learn to roll with the punches as they come. We have heard many warnings about Google’s algorithm changes, but not many come right from the horse’s mouth, as this one. These changes are just the beginning, and Google is going to stay on top of those people who try to cheat their system. Doing things the right way—which everyone should have been doing all along—seems to be the ONLY way that will be acceptable going forward.
Give Up or Adapt
“Unnatural backlinks” are Google’s natural enemy, as evidenced by the notices sent to many webmasters who did things the “spammy” way for many years. No longer is keyword stuffing the way to make a boatload of money on the internet—webmasters will be working hard for every dollar earned from here forward. In fact, if you frequent any of the large forums, you will see posts by webmasters throwing in the tool. I predict we will probably see quite a bit more of that in the near future, because some people just cannot adapt that easily, and others will not want to start over and learn the right way to do things. Besides, the money will just not be the same until the sites build back into the authority levels they artificially enjoyed previously.
For some website owners, all of this is decidedly no big deal. Those owners and webmasters are the ones that write their content for people, and not for the search engines and Adsense marketing purposes. It is some vindication for those of us who faithfully ferret out good information and pass it on to our readers—and always wondered why those junk sites with one post on them ranked higher in the SERPs. I have seen sites dinged from PR4 to PR0 in the last month—with legitimate reason.
Writing about what you know makes it easier to write, and naturally draws people to your blog or web content. For instance, I know a lot about writing, but along with that has come extensive knowledge of SEO and social media, and I am finding that writing about those things brings even more readers to my writing blog. Focusing on content and natural linking, like guest posting and commenting on other related blogs, will serve us all well as Google continues to “crack down.”
Forget about building dozens of websites and having a little empire—instead focus on the content on one or two things that you really know well and enjoy. This tactic will help your sites rank higher, naturally—the way Google intended in the first place.
Author Bio:Denise Gabbard is a Professional Writer and Social Media Devotee. She writes about a range of topics—SEO, social media, writing, and finance topics, like finding a great deal on a mortgage using a comparison site like Tomorrow Finance.
