SEO News: Panda Is Running, Penguin is Coming

On 25th Sep, 2014 Pierre Far, representative of Google announced on his Google+ page that they have launched a slow roll out of the Panda Algorithm- algo to fight low quality content. This algorithm has woven the Webmatsres' feedback which helped to discover a few more signals of low quality content. Though this is the 27th Google Panda update after it launched first time, but Google itself called Panda 4.0 to its last update. So SEO people gave the name "Panda 4.1" to this update.

Though there isn't any official announcement, the algorithm has almost completed its roll out. It has affected 3-5% search queries depending on the region. This update is a boon for them who had a Panda hit in the last update. So if you are one of them and had made the necessary changes, you will get your rankings back. At the same time, sites with thin or duplicate content got penalty. Below is the screenshot of top 10 winners and losers published by searchmetrics.

Google Panda 4.1 Top 10 Winners List

Google Panda 4.1 Top 10 Losers List

If you will check the list closely, you will witness an honesty of Google. Google.co.in is on the 7th rank of the loser's list and have faced significant loss due to Panda. 

There is one more news from the Google's corner for the SEO industry. In Search Marketing Expo East, Gary Illyes, Google Engineer announced launch of "Google Penguin Algorithm Update" in upcoming weeks. As per his announcement, the newly developed penguin algo is going to make both users' and webmasters' life happy. Currently, it's in testing phase and if it get through the quality test, it will be launched in upcoming weeks. It can be delayed if it find any issue(s) through the testing phase. He further added, disavowing links after or before two weeks of new penguin update won't help. Although there will be frequent penguin refresh which might make recovery faster.

So brace yourself as Panda is running and Penguin is coming. Hope this article help.

Ash Vyas is working in Internet Marketing field for 6+ years. Have experience in handling projects of SEO, SMO, SEM, Content Marketing, Branding etc.
Likes : Blogging, Learning, Networking, Traveling, Photography
Connect with the author via: Twitter | LinkedIn | Google+ | Pinterest

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Posted in: google news,Losers of Google panda,Panda 4.1 algorithm,panda algo update,Penguin refresh,SEO News,Winners of Google panda

Google's update announcement for Adwords and Search Engines

I thought as Matt is on a long holiday, there will be a relaxing time slot for the SEO people who are working hard to get rankings. [P.S. A few like me give more emphasis on Branding and visitor experience. Though rankings of targeted keywords are important obviously, but if you concentrate more on creating a known "Brand" and good user experience, algo updates won't bother you more. :P] Coming back to the topic, Google has spoiled the mood of the holidays of SEOs and this time also of PPC executives. There are a few announcements of upcoming updates. I'm sharing in brief for your reference.

Future Google Updates

Google Will Launch Penguin 3
In the recent webmaster's hangout, John announced that webmaster's can expect the Google Penguin 3 update in nearer future. If you don't know about "Google Penguin" then visit: http://digital-marketing-ashvyasseo.blogspot.in/2013/10/google-news-penguin-algo-updated.html

Google AdWords Will Remove "Close Variants" Deselection Option
Currently Google Adwords gives an option to keep or ignore the close variants of the keywords. The close variants mean the plurals, misspellings and other close variants of a targeted keyword.Google has announced that in late Sep, this option will be removed. It means PPC executives won't be able to target exact match keywords without any spelling mistakes or plurals. As always, Google just imposed the usage of close variants. It means you have to pay for the keywords which you might not want to target. Hmm Google sound to be in mood of increasing its revenue.

Google Will Make HTTPs A Ranking Signal
Though this is not upcoming change, it has already been launched. The thing to consider is, it is not a major ranking signal at the moment. It has impacted less that 1% of search queries. In nearer future, it will be one of the important ranking signals. So once again, Google imposed you to get Https URL, no matter you require it or not. As many websites on the web are just information passing which don't require encryption. The amazing thing to notice here is that this announcement has been made after a few weeks of Google's cheap hosting service launch. Google has never made such announcements publicly. It seems like Google is getting into business damn seriously. :D

To epitomize the announcement, I would say there are going to be some changes in nearer future which will impose you to spend more. It will also increase the "Google's Revenues" :D

Ash Vyas is working in Internet Marketing field for 6+ years. Have experience in handling projects of SEO, SMO, SEM, Content Marketing, Branding etc.
Likes : Blogging, Learning, Networking, Traveling, Photography
Connect with the author via: Twitter | LinkedIn | Google+ | Pinterest

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Posted in: Future google updates,Google algo update,google news,google update

Google News: Google Analytics Layout Changed

Google seems to be in very aggressive mood these days. It seems like google has either decided to complete a to do task list which the google engineers might created in beginning of the year & as we are near to end of the year they are just started completing that to do list or Google has decided to cover headlines of almost all famous SEO blogs daily :)

After hummingbird, penguin update & No PR update announcement, one more change thrown by google today. Google analytics layout has been changed. Though this is not for the first time, Google is famous for back to back changes. Again withing 15 days 4 changes/announcements by google making SEO industry keep on moving.

Today's Google news is traditional google analytics navigation layout have some changes. Overview section which was showing direct, referral & organic traffic has been changed by a panel, namely, "acquisitions" which has 2 new subitems, namely, "overview & Channels"

Overview channel will give you an overview of overall performance of organic search [via search engines], direct traffic, referral traffic & social traffic with details separated in 3 parts.
1. Acquisition
Giving overview of total visits, % of new visits and new visits.
2. Behaviour
Gives an overview of bounce rate, pages/visit and avg. visit duration.
3. Conversions
Gives an overview of goal conversion rate, goal completion & goal value. This is the only section which gives you choice of selecting 1 goal out of x no of goals you have set. So you can see the performance of each goal you have set by selecting any from the small drop down buttonn.

Each of these section will give you the value in % and not in actual digits and that in horizontal bar chart.

Channel section will give you details of almost everything you might be seeking for. Channel section also have all the sections Acquisition -> overview has. The only twist is this section will give you more detailed values in form of actual digits rather than % or bar chart. You can see all the values with details so you can track from which channel out of 4 namely, organic, social, referral & direct. Again conversions have the selection option to measure the performance of individual goals.

You can navigate in traffic sources by clicking on traffic channel for more details as you were doing before. Rest of the things are as it is.

When you open the analytics, at first glance you might feel like lost in your own home. It's like after having relaxing sleep when you open your eyes interior of your house has been changed which might make you uncomfortable for a while as we used to be habitual and familiar with the old stuff and it seems bit difficult to get used to with new things. But when you take a deep breath and navigate it seems more productive, helpful and satisfying the meaning of name "analytics" which make your analysis task bit easier & more productive by comparision.

Though Google used to implement changes for better user experience for sure weather it is for normal net surfers or webmasters but back to back changes are making SEO industry bit uneasy with the stuff :)

We will wait for new changes or announcement by Google which will again rule the headlines of many authorised SEO & digital marketing blogs. And that can be expected in nearer future as per the footprints of google :)

Till then keep on reading digital marketing blogs for more updates, tips, tricks and guides on digital marketing topics. Feel free to leave your mark by leaving your questions and feedbacks in comment.

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Posted in: analytics layout change,ashseo,ashvyasseo,Google analytic appereance update,Google analytics,google news,google update,major changes by google

Google News: No Google PR Update in 2013

Google's web spam head Matt Cutts came up with new headlines of many blogs and articles on twitter when he replied to Niels's question that he would be surprised if there is any page rank update in 2013.

In detail, Niels Bosch asked Matt Cutts on social media website twitter "Will there be any PR update before 2014? And Matt simply replied "He will be surprised if that happened". Check the below image of their tweet conversation

No PR update before 2014

As the SEO industry knows it's almost more than 7 months last PR updated by Google and as per Matt, It won't get updated in nearer future. So those who were eagerly waiting for PR update have to wait more. Friendly advice I would say just stop getting worried about Page Rank because even Google might not getting much bothered about Page rank itself. And as per the symptoms of not updating PR, it seems PR will be one of the very minor factor to be considered for search engines rankings. We can also expect PR just flew away with any of Google algo bird.

What is Page Rank?
Those who are not aware of the fact that what is page rank here is brief for you. Page rank is a google toolbar digit which is kind of measurement of website having which kind of backlinks. As many well reputed & high PR websites are linking back to you as max page rank your website earn. Maximum page rank is 10 and minimum is NA or 0. Twitter has 10 Page rank. Google is very unbiased in terms of page rank as Google's own page rank is 9. Page rank is all about backlinks and have nothing to do with quality of content you have.

Page rank is topic of criticism since many years by SEO experts as higher page rank has been used by spammers to spam the net by paid links or bulk link building to get high page rank. SEO experts used to not bother much about page rank and care more for other better factors like traffic, quality, branding, reputation, etc. And I think after defending so many criticism  against page rank Matt just replied in one of his recent videos that page rank will be updated less often. Google always used to advice to be more concerned about other factors to improve user experience and rankings rather than keeping eyes on PR. Somewhere in it's support Google's own web browser Gogole chrome don't have toolbar or built in PR check tool. As we all know new hummingbird algo changes old PR algo of ranking of Google. So Indutry experts are saying it can be predictable that page rank will be updated less often and then will be thrown away.

So PR is dead?
At the moment we can't say so strongly. We can just wait and watch and focus our energy at better place rather than focusing on page ranks.

Keep sending your feedbacks in comments.

Thanks

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Posted in: ashseo,ashvyasseo,google announcement,google news,page rank,Page rank facts,PR update

Google News: Penguin Algo Updated

One more news from Google about an algorithm update. On 5th Oct, 2013, Matt Cutts, web spam head of Google announced that new version of Google penguin algo is released and it has affected 1% of search queries. Though 1% is as per Matt Cutts. Actual effect we will get to know in few days by reviews of experts & reactions of those who caught by this update. This announcement was made on social media website Twitter. Matt given it a name Penguin 2. Though many SEO experts has given it different numbers because after the first penguin update there were 4 major and few major penguin updates. Google used to announced it as penguin updated and the SEO experts given it various names by attaching different numeric digits. I think after the first penguin algorithm update this can be considered as some major change in the original penguin algo so they given it name Penguin 2. All previous updates must be the minor one so Google didn't bothered to give them numbers. So moral of the story can be rather than getting in to the confusion of numbers just focus on fact that PENGUIN IS OUT now.

Penguin 2.0 Algo Update Announcement by Matt Cutts

What is Penguin Algo Update? [Overview & History of Penguin Algo]

For those who are not from SEO field or those who never heard name of penguin algo before, I would like to say this penguin is not that black & white bird. But this penguin is that hunter who used to hunt those sites who are involved in spamming and witness of low quality SEO practice. First Penguin was announced on 24th April, 2012 and many big brands was caught by this update all over the world. It was the update which affected 3.1% of queries as per Google but I witnessed that change when so many SEO people were just clueless what is happening and what can be done next. Because at that time traffic of websites just gone 50 to 80% down who get caught by it. Of course it was quite difficult for them to figure out which links were of low quality & how to get rid from them. Even after removing those links they were just have to wait for next algo refresh to check weather the actions they took were right or not. One of the big Google penalty that was which made many SEOs reckless. After the 1st update 26th May, 2012 2nd penguin update announced which was followed by 3rd Penguin algo update announcement on 5th Oct, 2012; 4th Penguin algo update announcement on 22nd May, 2013.

Who will affected by Penguin 2 Aka 5th Penguin Update?

Those sites which has low quality backlinks or over optimized [over optimization means blind link building without checking for relevancy or quality with almost same anchor text] will get negatively affected by this update. And trust me it will hurt very badly. daily traffic goes 200 to 20 :o and it is fact.

Those who were already hurt by previous penguin updates and took necessary action to get rid of their penalty can hope for positivity and might get out of their penalty.

How to check weather your site is affected by Penguin or not?

Simple just keep watch on your traffic for 2-3 days. If you see major changes in your traffic then you are affected by Penguin. Sometime few algo update affects get visible later in other part of the world than US. So in that case keep eyes on traffic for a week. After 7 days, if you don't see any major changes then you can take deep breadth & get relaxed and focus your energy on regular progress. :) In counter-case, hope not you get caught but if you get caught then you have to pull up your shoes and need to find out all your backlinks then either you have to disavow it or have to remove it permanently and then wait for next algo refresh to check results weather your effort worked or not. When I am writing this I felt like I'm talking about some life taking disease which has no hope of survival :D and praying for God grace :) but precaution is always better so to get rid of there DO SMART SEO RATHER THAN HARD/WORTHLESS  SPAMMY SEO. 

Is Hummingbird flew away?

If you are thinking penguin will rule the Google & hummingbird just flew away than wake up time. Hummingbird is overall ranking & indexing algorithm of Google. While Penguin is just a part of main algo which will fight with low quality spammy sites. So both hummingbird & Penguin & panda & all animals of Google zoo will work together for getting best result for better user experience.

Prediction time

Though no other SEO expert stated this but my gut feeling is saying that after this 2 major updates we can expect new version of Panda or similar update in nearer future.

As any other webmaster I have checked my sites and no bad news for me or my clients. What is your status? You can give your feedback in comment and PM.

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Posted in: Effect of Penguin,Google algo update,google news,Google Penguin update,Humminbird,Penguin 2 announcement,Penguin History

Google News: Hummingbird - New Algo Announcement

Google HummingBird Algo Update

Google - The most famous and widely used search engine hosted a special event at a garage of the Menlo Park (Calif.) where Google born. On occasion of 15th anniversary of Google foundation, Google's VP Amit Singhal given more information about a new algorithm launch of a google, namely, "Hummingbird". So after having animals like panda and update, now Google has launched a bird :D This algo launched before a month and rolled up completely but officially they announce it today.

The name "Hummingbird" is derived to express fast and precise result of the Google search. This algorithm is specifically designed to improve the search result for all devices. After 2010 "Caffeine" algo launch this is the complete algo change of google. The panda and penguin were just an algo update. Means both of them were minor/major changes to the already existing algorithm. While hummingbird is completely new algorithm which will sort and display the search result.

So what about Panda and penguin update? They are uneffective? 

If you are thinking that now panda and penguin are gone and not going to affect you negatively and you got a free sky to spam the net with low quality links and content then you are going to feel bad with my upcoming lines :) The Hummingbird algo change has woven all previous updates including panda and penguin which means Google will make sure all the search result will filter out with the thumb rules of high quality content and authority. So you still have to follow the penguin and panda rules to be in top or to not get thrown out of the search result.

Why hummingbird algo launched?

Google always want to make sure that the users get the best result out for what they are searching for. And for that google used to work day and night to assure quality result serving to it's users. Of course that is the reason Google is favorite of many and home page of many :) So to make result more quality and related to the search of user Google launched this algo.

What will it do ? How will it affect the search result?

Hummingbird algo will try to understand the conversation search and deliver the best result. Now you might wonder what is conversation search? The answer is when someone insert query like conversation, for example "library near my area" "best alternative of joomla technology for website development" . In previous algorithm Google was used to go for a like query means it will show result with all those links which has any or many words from the query. but now Google will try to understand the complete query and will deliever the result as per the query. For example if someone search for  "library near my area", in previous scenario Google might show all the result having keywords "library","near", "my", "are" or any combination of it. But now-onwards Google search algorithm will try to understand the query inserted and will even be more smarter and will also try to figure out your area [could be ahmedabad for me] and then display the relevant result means in previous scenario Google might show me libraries of US and UK and are of different places but now if i'm logged in it will sort result in a way that I see library list near or in ahmedabad. isn't it cool?

If this is really what google is going to introduce then this concept sounds like graph search of Facebook to me. of course not for all queries but for few. don't you think so?

On other note it's quite cool feature from end user's perspective. I mean people who are not master in surfing the net and who are normal end user, this search algo will going to be boon for them i guess. As it will make search easier for them by serving the relevant result and excluding irrelevant results which it was showing before by it's like query practice.

Does it mean Google wont use like query? means Does google exclude result of combination of words of queries? 

No. Google will use like query and will show result with combination of words as it was showing before. But the sorting of result will be in a different way. The most relevant result will be listed first. As simple as that.

Hummingbird algo will hurt your website?

Have you noticed any drop in traffic or results in past month? No? Then it won't affect you. Because this algo rolled out before a month and the it was a smooth process so no-one noticed the change before announcement. After announcement many SEO people might dug their analytics stats :D So if there are any drop or increase in past month in your traffic stat then that's because of hummingbird change. If not, you are on safe side.

Is SEO Dead with this algo launch?

LOL. why should SEO get dead with such algos change and update? SEO is just becoming smarter day by day. Each SEO people have to go with an agenda to get the quality services for their clients and that's the only intention of Google. So if Google and SEO both will work smartly to serve the quality result they can better be friends rather than thinking to kill each other :D SEO is not massive linkbuilding tactic anymore. But in very smart way use your logic and vision with thinking of 3rd person who might looking out for a service and what that person might look for? you just need to serve that as simple as that. Because if you do so, you will rank highr in Google as that's what google want to show the users high quality and relevant result. and it will also help in lead generation and decreasing bounce rate by getting massive unrelevant traffic.
In short, SEO is and will be alive but in a smarter way ;)

What can you do to rank higher after hummingbird algo launch?

• Create good quality content and build an authority of your website.
• Try SMO to get others way open for your traffic and lead generation
• Work for user/client and not for search engine's. This is most important. I will write more on this for designer, developers and seo :)

How do I know all these? or how can you know all these?

• Reading and common sense and experience  :)
• Reading the posts and news of authorised writer. Don't read from anywhere as they will make you confuse so read from people having name or authorised in SEO industry
• Don't trust everything you read and use your common sense to conclude the facts because each person might have different analysis or point of view
• Use your or others experience and get the best

Give your queries and feedback in comments. Bye for now. :)

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Posted in: ashseo,ashvyasseo,Google algo update,google news,hummingbird algo,hummingbird algo update,SEO Tips