Google Takes a SEO Plunge with ‘Penguin’

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May 03 2012 | Flimp Video Solutions Blog - Melissa Tiburzio
In 2009, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, created a video answering the following question, “Is over optimization bad for a website (i.e. excessive use of nofollow)?” His response:

If it’s your website you can use nofollow all you want. You don’t need to worry there’s no penalty for excessive use of nofollow. You’re not going to get into trouble because of that. On the other hand, over optimization there is nothing in Google that we have like an over optimization penalty core. But a lot of the times over optimization is kind of a euphemism for a little bit spamy. You know, “Oh my keyword density is a little high.” I’m over optimized for keyword density often means, “Yeaaa I repeat my keywords so many times” that regular users get annoyed and competitors are like “Ugh where did this content come from?” So there is nothing that says this has the hallmarks of SEO site but if you have over optimized often you end up with a site that people don’t necessarily really like or that looks junky or skuzzy, or scummy or you know just bad in some way. It’s not as if we are going to say “We detect signs of SEO with this site.” But certainly you can go overboard and have too many keywords, keyword stuffing, or hidden text, that kind of stuff. So if you are worried about that, just come back a little bit, edge back, try and make it better for users. But don’t worry about having too many no following tags or anything like that. That won’t get you any sort of penalty.

Fast forward to 2012 with Google’s new mindset to over optimization. Have you noticed anything different with your Google rankings? In case you were unaware, Google implemented a new algorithm, Penguin, at 12am on April 24th. What did Penguin do aside ruining many people’s rankings? This update was targeted at web spammers and keyword stuffers. The purpose behind Penguin was to “level the playing field.” In reality, it got rid of most the small guys who tried to equalize the lack of brand with cheap SEO tricks. Seems fair right? As a result, companies who have built their brands and have the funds to spend, don’t need to worry about competition. “Leveling the playing field” seems more uneven than before. Over the next few weeks it will be very interesting to see people’s reactions to the new update.

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