Penguin/Panda slapped anyone?

[alexcruncha]

Hi Guys(and girls),

I was wandering if anyone had noticed the Panda/Penguin algo update that was announced last week.. Im surprised no one has mentioned it here. My site seems to have taken a hit. Its not massive but Im down a few places on all of the keywords I track (yes all of them) and traffic is going south. Its not a game changer but it hurts so far.

Anyone else?

Alex

[UKCasinoOnline]

So far we haven't really noticed any changes as such, but then again www.ukcasinoonline.co.uk is still relatively new in terms of the site itself, and we have tried to do everything right from the beginning, so not a right lot to be penalised for as such....

[-Shay-]

Traffic heading North - doing things "the right way" pays off.

[F-L-C]

Can't say I have noticed anything drastic tbh

[UKCasinoOnline]

Traffic heading North - doing things "the right way" pays off.

I could not agree more with this

[GFPC]

Traffic heading North - doing things "the right way" pays off.

Just curious what have you been doing? By the "right way" what does that entail?

[lowrisk]

If we all revealed what we thought was "the right way" then everybody would start doing it, and there'd be no advantage. Also, what works now may not work in future.

[universal4]

The community was not built by those not willing to share their opinons.

Rick
Universal4

[lowrisk]

It isn't that I don't want to share my opinion, but if I did so, and somebody followed what I thought was "the right way" and then got penalised. I would feel partly responsible indirectly.

[-Shay-]

Just curious what have you been doing? By the "right way" what does that entail?

100% UNIQUE and original content, mainly.

Most of the sites I've seen/heard about who have been hit or have "went down a few places" are guilty of "lazy writing". Lazy writing means going to/sending their writer to another affiliate site and rewriting/improving upon/expanding upon someone else's articles - which whether any of us wants to admit this or not, this is rewriting and not the best way to build a site, as it doesn't do anyone any favours.

Sure, there's still crap like this and maybe of worse quality floating around the serps right now, but I have faith that penguin will handle that sooner rather than later.

So to me, "doing things the right way" equates to building truly unique, interesting, and helpful content on a truly useful and original website. For me, the rest happens on its own. For others, they fool themselves when taking short cuts and then wonder why the carpet has been pulled out from under them.

Steve, if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM or email me.

[alin04]

For 'the right way' I got 2 advices:
Find one specific niche and master that niche
Get active in other people’s communities. Get out of your own head and get into other people’s spaces.

[justbookies]

Shay, surely nobody could disagree with what you say, but how important are backlinks nowadays? Can you have great and unique content and very few backlinks and expect to do well?

[edgarf76]

that is an interesting question! I think (I am sure we all know this) the age of the site has a big part to do with it. I use market samuri to analyze other sties back links to see what they are doing to rank. One thing that I have noticed is that the older the site is, in some of the cases the less backlinks it has. Also they are all relavant backlinks.

[-Shay-]

Shay, surely nobody could disagree with what you say, but how important are backlinks nowadays? Can you have great and unique content and very few backlinks and expect to do well?

100% yes you can do quite well without backlinks with truly unique and useful content.

[justbookies]

Yes, my experience has confused me a bit. I have sites I think need backlinks to show up and others that I have done nothing with (apart from provide unique content) that have done well. Certainly, I have noticed my sites with the oldest domains need less help.

[lots0]

IMO it is not so much the age as it is the SLOW accumulation of links over time.
(With one 'Special Note', Not all Links are equal... just one link from a "Trusted" site can shoot a new page to page one in the SERP.)

Think about it... What would the "Natural" link profile look like of a site that that is 10-15 years old, provides useful content and NEVER aggressively went after Links just for SEO...
FYI - Those are the sites that are ranking.

In my professional opinion... All you have to do to get top ranking in Google(and hold it), is understand what the googlies want and then give it to them... It really is just that simple.

[justbookies]

Obviously that makes sense, but then there are so many sites that buck the trend - that have aggressively bought links, only a few years old, content is just spun and offers nothing new, banners all over the place and are top of the rankings. In fact more fit that profile than any other.

[-Shay-]

Obviously that makes sense, but then there are so many sites that buck the trend - that have aggressively bought links, only a few years old, content is just spun and offers nothing new, banners all over the place and are top of the rankings. In fact more fit that profile than any other.

Those are amongst the sites that get hit by Penguin/Panda types of updates.

[edgarf76]

I agree lotso, when I look at sites that rank and have continue to rank in google. I don't see a lot of ads on authority sites that are sidewide, and not an over abundance on anchor text. I think that a lot of the site owners own several sites and link them together.

[lots0]

Obviously that makes sense, but then there are so many sites that buck the trend - that have aggressively bought links, only a few years old, content is just spun and offers nothing new, banners all over the place and are top of the rankings. In fact more fit that profile than any other.

I really don't see the sites that "buck the trend" so much in the areas I target.
I do see them pop up, but they also disappear rather quickly as well.

With the way googles algo is, just about any moron can get a site to rank for non-compeditive keywords. Sometimes, I even see crappy and oh so obvious link networks on page one.... for NON-COMPETITIVE keywords, but they never hold the rank for long... and lets be honest, who cares what crappy site holds the #1 spot for keyword sets that brings in less than $10 a year in earnings... I sure don't.

The real money making keywords, google monitors closely(even the gambling keywords), your not going to see 'crappy' or over 'monetized' sites hold top ranking position for long, for those big money keywords.

...And holding the rank is where the REAL money is at.
Just think about it, some folks are willing to spend enormous amounts of time and effort to get rankings that they KNOW will only last for a very short time(sometimes just a few days)... Just think about HOLDING that exact same rank for an entire year or two, how much money would you make?

I learned a long time ago, it is better for your bank account(and your stress level) to work with google instead of trying to work against them by manipulating the rankings. Ya I know, google are a bunch of greedy douchbags, but they NEED people to make websites. So just give em what they want and you'll get paid.

But some people always try to take the 'easy' way to big money... even if it never seems to work.

Making big money is hard work, a little luck and lots more hard work... and then some more hard work.