It has been only couple of days since we had the Penguin update 3.0 algorithm released but many will be already wondering what made your site to disappear. Here is a quick list of stuff for your reference. If your site is affected by current penguin 3.0 update then you should be seeing one of these problems.
- Penguin update is mostly around back links pointing to your site. Do a full audit of your back links.
- Check webmaster tools manual action page for any spam complaint from Google.
- If you used a SEO company ask them for all the links they built for your website from the time your started working with them. Question them about their strategy on link building. 90% of SEO companies build links unnaturally so there is no question they would have build questionable links for you.
- Check for unnatural links in your back link profile. If you used a SEO company then most probably they did link building for you and some of them might be deemed unnatural links by Google.
- Check your back link profile for potential Spam links that might be built by your SEO company or someone whom you don’t have control over.
- Compare your links with already ranking competitor sites to see if your site has qualified links.
- Stop doing link exchanges if you already doing so.
- Don’t ignore even one bad link. If Google feels a particular link is influencing your rankings and it was built unnaturally they will take action. So never ignore any links when reviewing your back links.
- Stop all link buying if you are doing so, buying links include guest post, counter links, word-press theme links, non profit sponsor, featured links on high PR sites etc.
- Ask for expert advice on what links are causing problems. As a site owner it is easy to neglect some toxic links that could be hurting you. Yes you spent 100s of dollars getting those links but Google has changed and Penguin algorithm will always catch you.
- Negative SEO is pretty well taken care by Google in latest update. There is hardly any evidence your site might be sabotaged by third party link attack but it is always better to see if you have links from unknown spammy sources. If you have them it is better to request those sites to remove them.
- Social bookmarking links, article links are bad for your site if they are not coming from valuable resources. Check and remove them.
- Social media links can hurt too. If you do excessive social media promotion without proper social signals your site will be affected. Check your social media link sources for potential unnatural links.
- Check for links from scraper sites or sites using your blog feeds. They might actually harm you.
- Other problems like bad redirects from back link sources, site errors etc can also cause problems with penguin 3.0.
Above checklist is a ballpoint tip to see if your site is really affected. If you are affected time to clean up your back links. Google will do periodic refreshes from now on, I am sure you will regain your search engine rankings.
Bob.