The Google Penguin update was an algorithm update released by Google on April 24, 2012. It was announced by Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s organic search rankings. Throughout the years, Google has released many of these, but none have been as widely discussed and controversial as this one. Just hours after the update took place there was a large amount of discussion taking place all over the world. Algorithm updates effect every website on the Internet, as they are essentially a change in the way that Google ranks their website listings. This update negatively effected most “black hat” SEO marketers who use webspam to drive results, but there were drops in rankings reported by many white hat marketers as well. With these conflicting results, what does this mean to the SEO industry?

A direct quote from Google:

our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.

Google released this statement because it is exactly what they want to see from websites. Anyone who tries to lure you in another direction, say toward black hat SEO, is going directly against what Google is clearly trying to reward. With every update Google gets closer to an algorithm that truly favors high quality websites that only partake in white hat SEO. Some exploits that have worked in the past are suddenly not working anymore and websites that abused the system are seeing the repercussions. With that being said, any exploits that exist after the Penguin update may provide short-term results, but only white hat SEO methods will sustain Google’s long-term efforts.

Google’s updates in previous years, such as the Panda update released in 2011, were only mildly successful in devaluing backlinks that are obtained through black hat SEO strategies. The Penguin update is on an entirely new playing field, and it has already forced thousands websites out of the search results. Websites that used overly aggressive SEO tactics are taking big hits.

Here’s what Google has successfully targeted with the Penguin update:

• Keyword Stuffing – Excessive tagging and high keyword density is not good web optimization, it’s spam.
• Backlinks Surrounded by Irrelevant/Spun Content – Using spun content or obtaining links from irrelevant websites has been significantly devalued. Most automated SEO software can only target irrelevant websites, so the usefulness of these tools has gone drastically down hill. This will help eliminate a lot of the spam content being distributed on the web for SEO gains.
• Excessive Anchor Text – Sites that had incoming backlinks with the majority of their anchor texts’ as targeted keyword phrases and not the name of their site, or generic phrases like “click here” were significantly devalued.
• Public Blog Networks – These networks were entirely black hat and although not taken down by the Penguin update, Google infiltrated the networks and manually de-indexed the blogs within them. This happened just days before the Penguin update was released, since these networks were a direct violation of what Google is working toward.

Here’s what SEO techniques will still work to rank websites:

• Guest Blogging – One of the most common ways to obtain white hat links is through guest blogging. You write a guest post, you contact a blog owner in the same niche as your website, and you publish the post on the site in exchange for a link back to your own site. This is the type of stuff that shows Google you mean business and are dedicated to building your brand.
• Quality Content – As always, providing high quality content that is informative and well researched is the best way to score points with search engines. Your focus should always be on the reader, so provide what a reader would love.
• Building your Brand – The websites that are thriving post-Penguin are sites that have put an effort into building their brand. Sites that have an active social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In are viewed as an actual business and highly valued.
• Not Spamming – Engaging in blatant spam techniques is one way to ensure you will never rank in Google. Remember, Google is getting closer every update to a completely white hat environment. Consider what you know as spam (anchor text manipulation, spun content, spam links, etc.) and stay far away from it.

All in all, white hat SEO is taking the reigns and this update paints a clear picture of what Google wants to see from websites. Search engines are where most websites receive their traffic so if you want to thrive online, you have to play by the rules.