SEO’s are gearing up for a massive Penguin update from Google. Although we can still only speculate, here are some of the things you can do to protect yourself from penalties.

1. PreparingForTheLongExpected
(And Dreaded)

2. Back in March, Matt Cutts warned SEOs to
expect a new Penguin algorithm update
later this year. Dubbed “Penguin 2.0,” this
update is expected to be a massive change
for the SEO industry.
The original Penguin
algorithm was released in
April 2012 and caused
widespread destruction
among the SEO
community, as many sites
suffered harsh penalties
and consequently dropped
in the rankings.

3. Barry Schwartz reports that after a year,
only 9% of sites that were hit with a
Penguin penalty have managed a full
recovery. That’s a dangerous algorithm!
Although we are still waiting for
this “next generation” of the
Penguin algorithm, we can guess
about what it’s going to look like
based on past algorithmic
updates. Essentially, SEOs
expect Penguin 2.0 to expand
Google’s definition of spam in
order to target black-hat SEO
practices.

4. It’s All About Links
Although you should be following this rule anyway, it’s worth
mentioning: stop using any black-hat SEO practices! The best
way to prepare for the Penguin update is to avoid keyword
stuffing, get rid of unnatural links, and make sure you don’t
have any duplicate content.

5. Penguin is one of Google’s greatest weapons against sites that ignore
Google’s guidelines, so anyone using black-hat tactics is in for trouble.
That being said, the main purpose of Penguin is to be a link quality
filter, so you can be positive that the update will continue Google’s
war on spammy links.

6. Penguin
punishes over-
optimization in
order to
achieve
Google’s goal
of displaying
only the highest
quality pages
near the top of
the rankings.
At this point, Google has become very
familiar with the patterns that indicate
bad links, which are a sure sign of over-
optimization.

7. With that in mind, now is
the time to clean up your
link profile! Penguin 2.0
will undoubtedly target link
schemes that generate low
quality or unnatural links,
including advertorial spam
and paid links. Link
networks are a definite no-
no at this point.
If you’re holding on to any
vestiges of these pre-Panda
and pre-Penguin practices,
it’s time to get rid of them!
TimeForSomeSpringCleaning!

8. There are certain link patterns that are likely to tip off the
forthcoming Penguin update as well. For instance, link velocity
is an indicator of the health of your link profile – a sudden spike
in links looks suspicious.

9. Google is also looking for link trust, which means that
you want to focus on links in good link neighborhoods as
opposed to bad link neighborhoods.
In order to avoid any of these problems, focus on
editorial links and promotional links.

10. Penguin 2.0 is also expected to create improvements in
authority indicators.
We already know that
Google is interested in
authorship and
relevance, but this
new algorithm will
also be likely to
emphasize the
importance of social
signals as a part of
authority.

11. To sum it up, it seems to me that the best way to prepare for
Penguin 2.0 is to proactively clean up your backlinks and start
producing awesome content that establishes your authority.
What do you think?
How are you preparing for the next Penguin update?

12. Content Equals Money is a content
writing service that serves a wide
variety of clients with top-shelf
shareable content. We cater to SEO
marketing agencies as well as small
business, providing content
marketing strategies applicable to
many fields. Whether you need
content for yourself or content for
your clients, Content Equals Money
is the insource Writing Service to
suit your needs!