Recovering from Google Penguin Penalty

The Google Penguin update that was released a few months came with a stir since various websites lost their rankings on Google. Although Google endeavors to clarify the nature and reach of changes with each update, a lot of website owners were still left reeling in confusion.

If you forget everything else, remember that Penguin has since inception targeted links. It's all about the links people! As such, you may want to scrutinize the links built into your site should you lose your ranking position on search engines.

Re-evaluating Link Profiles

Of late, there have been many website owners whose current link profiles display a history of links built from unrelated sites, particularly where there is a high concentration of keywords being sought after. Usually, these links lead to sites with slim to no chance of manual reviews. But why is this?

It is likely that such tactics were successful in times past since they were not only cheap and easily implementable, but also because they gave results, and favorable ones at that. If you examine your link profile, you may find links to websites based in other countries, which is more so if your website was developed overseas. Unfortunately, such links do not increase traffic to your site; rather, they were placed there for SEO optimization purposes. They could now be the source of your woes.

What to do?

Okay, so all that is done, how do you go back from where you are?

Well first, make sure you have a full grasp of the situation. Begin by listing all the links that currently point to your site. You can do this using Google Webmaster tools for starters, which may not furnish you with the full list. However, you can supplement what you get with other tools e.g. AHREFs, Majestic SEO, Moz among others.

Place your list on a spreadsheet for instance eliminating all duplicate links. Then begin to objectively evaluate each link for value and relevance to your website. You can use certain available automated tools to help you speed up the process - Link detox for instance. However, a step-by-step manual check, though tedious, is the best. Or you can use the tool, and then scroll through the few remaining where you don't agree and change them appropriately.

Next, highlight irrelevant links then contact the respective web owners requesting them to remove those links. Some may be unresponsive, some may ask for payment before they respond, and others may ignore you completely. Either way, note the ones that still remain.

Disavow Submission

This is the last step of the recovery process, which involves a compilation of what's known as a Disavow file. In order to give your website maximum recovery chances, this list should include links you aren't sure about - the borderline cases.

However, it is important that before submitting the file you ensure you haven't included useful sites, as this will negatively affect your ranking. Use your discretion, but it's recommended that you include social media accounts, trusted customer review sites and trusted blogspot links. Then submit your disavow list to Google (and pray that it works).

Conclusion

Even after you've done all these, there's no telling how long recovery from Google Penguin will take. However, what is almost always certain is that you will never be able to gain back your original rank. If you do it right, you may land further down on the same page, but again, not a guarantee. While quite the daunting task, recovery from Penguin is certainly possible.

Author of this article is working with TechIndiaSoftware - A SEO Company India a well known name in internet marketing field. For more details about Penguin recovery visit at - www.techindiasoftware.com

This article is written by a professional author