Three Strategies that Google's Penguin 2.0 Rewards

Look out, web content creators! Has your content marketing strategy taken into account Google’s update to its Penguin algorithm. If you have seen a decrease in search engine ranking over the past several months, your might consider reexamining your online marketing techniques. The latest algorithm is designed to reduce the ranking of sites that employ black hat marketing techniques. Google has been on a quest to make sure that its search results feature high quality authoritative content. These updates reflect the latest attempts to develop algorithms that actually understand the meaning and value of a site to its users. If your goal is to deliver the best content to a natural community that forms around your website, then you are on the same page as Google. You can celebrate these updates because they remove the bad actors from the search results and reward sites like yours. Here are three strategies that the Penguin update rewards.

Great Content Is Rewarded

Part of Google’s aim is to eliminate content that has no value. Spammy articles stuffed with keywords are a thing of the past. Re-posting duplicate content in multiple places will not be tolerated. Google wants to reward unique, original and helpful content that brings value to readers. The quality of the content is determined by the number of sites that link back to this content. These links must be from authoritative sites with related content.

As a content creator, your goal should be to produce content that is so valuable that others in your niche will link to it. You should be involved in a conversation with content creators from other sites. This natural exchange of information and ideas will generate the kind of links that Google is looking to reward. Content creators can also engage in digital public relations to promote this content around the web. These efforts create an extensive network of natural inbound links that are favored by Google.

Earned Links Are Rewarded

Google’s algorithm is better at recognizing authoritative sites, known as hilltops. Links from these hilltops are favored by the latest Penguin algorithm. A link from a hilltop site usually means that your content is in some way remarkable and has attracted the attention of the managers of that site. In addition, Google is keen to prevent paid coverage from influencing a site’s page rank. Purchasing links or other advertising in order to boost your ranking is not tolerated. Google wants to reward those who earn links from recognized authorities.

Off-page Optimization Is Rewarded

Google’s new algorithm is more sensitive to off-page quality signals. These signals can help push a site up in the rankings. The new algorithm rewards a strategy that focuses on a large number of diverse off-page signals. One set of important signals comes from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Another important signal comes from article marketing. Writing articles for industry websites and blogs provides an important signal to Google that your site is authoritative. In addition, having your content appear on content curation and news aggregation sites demonstrates that others deem your content to be among the best in that niche. Syndication through a news feed is another important signal. All of these signals help the Penguin algorithm to determine whether a site should move up in the rankings.

If you deploy these strategies successfully, you will never have to worry about an algorithm update ruining your SEO. Google rewards those who strive to produce high quality content and engage in a natural exchange of ideas with other content creators.