Weekly SEO news: 4 October 2016
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1. All you need to know about Google's Penguin 4 algorithm update

Last month, Google released the long-awaited fourth version of the Penguin algorithm. The Penguin algorithm deals with artificial backlinks and their influence on the rankings of their website. What is new in Penguin 4 and how does it affect your website rankings?

Penguin 4

The most important changes in Penguin 4

  • Penguin 4 is real-time. The Penguin algorithm runs when a page is indexed by Google's web crawlers. It is no longer a separate routine.
  • There is no more penalty. The new Penguin algorithm does not demote pages. It just removes that value of the spammy links. Note that there can still be manual penalties for website with very many spam links.
  • Penguin now operates on page level. The new Penguin algorithm operates on page level. It no longer penalizes whole websites.

The Penguin algorithm now is part of Google's core ranking algorithm. When Google's web crawlers index a page, they check the links on the page. Spammy links are ignored.

Which elements are targeted by Google's Penguin algorithm?

Although Google's previous announcements say that Penguin targets spammy techniques in general (keyword stuffing, etc.), it seems that Penguin still focuses on spammy links.

For example, automatically created backlinks, extremely keyword rich backlinks, overused comments links and social media profile links are spammy links. While these links could trigger a penalty in the past, they now have no influence at all on your website rankings.

Do you still have to use Google's disavow links tool?

Google's disavow links tool has been the main method to fix link problems. Now that websites with spammy links aren't penalized anymore, it is usually not necessary to disavow bad links. However, if your website is repeatedly violating Google's guidelines, your website might get a manual penalty and the disavow tool can help you to get out of that penalty.

  • Google recommends to submit a disavow file when you become aware of links that violate Google's guidelines.
  • Google confirms that they still penalize websites manually. The new Penguin algorithm makes it easier to detect websites that should be penalized manually.

Google's disavow links tool remains an important tool that helps you to get out of Google penalties. The Link Disinfection tool in SEOprofiler helps you to detect spammy links. It also creates a disavow file for you.

What does this mean to the rankings of your web pages?

The quality of links are a very important part of Google's core ranking algorithm. Knowing the quality of the links that point to your website has become even more important that before.

The Link Profiler tool in SEOprofiler analyzes the links that point to your website. It also evaluates these links and it shows you the category of each individual link.

The rise of white-hat SEO

If you have used SEOprofiler in the past to promote your web pages, nothing has changed. SEOprofiler only uses white-hat SEO methods that play by the rules. Google's Penguin update targets websites that use shady techniques that try to manipulate Google's algorithms.

Spamming Google has become even more difficult than before. If you want to get lasting results, avoid spamming at all costs.

Common sense leads to lasting results

SEOprofiler uses spam-free search engine optimization tools that help you to get higher rankings and more visitors. With these methods, you do not have to worry about new Google algorithms.

Google tries to put common sense into an algorithm. What is good for real website visitors is good for high rankings on Google. SEOprofiler helps you to get web pages that get high rankings on Google. If you haven't done it yet, create your SEOprofiler account now:

Test SEOprofiler now

2. Internet marketing news of the week

GoogleGoogle Penguin doesn’t penalize for bad links – or does it?

"Google launched the real-time, more granular version of Penguin on Friday. Google wrote in its announcement that it 'now devalues spam.' Many SEOs and webmasters took that to mean that Penguin no longer penalizes – and it seems like they are right.

Google’s Gary Illyes said on my public Facebook post that the new Penguin algorithm 'managed to devalue spam instead of demoting.' But he also said that Google’s recommendation for using the disavow file has not changed. In other words, you should use the disavow file to help recover from Penguin issues."


Gmail finally supports responsive design: answers to 4 burning questions

"Gmail started rolling out support for CSS media queries across its email clients around midnight last night, following through on the September 14 announcement that it would support responsive design later in the month.

With these media queries, email designers will be able to specify different display styles based on things like width, screen resolution and rotation. We’ll talk about the ramifications of this move in a second, but we should take a moment to recognize how wonderfully strange that initial announcement was."


John MuellerGoogle: You can expect more algorithm & ranking changes 

"Google's Gary Illyes said on Tuesday on Twitter that you, meaning webmasters and SEOs, 'can expect more changes' with the Google search ranking algorithm. [...]

I've been seeing lots of chatter around changes in the past 24 hours or so. I am trying to figure out if it is Penguin recoveries or something else - I am seeing signs of both - which makes it hard."

+++ SEARCH +++ ENGINE +++ NEWS +++ TICKER +++

  • New in SEOprofiler: schedule daily PDF ranking reports.
  • New in SEOprofiler: overview charts on the dashboard page.
  • Google: Penguin 3 penalties are being removed.
  • The Keyword: Google's new main blog.
  • Google displays green checkmark emoji in the search results.
  • Google: Redirects are not an SEO thing, so stop fussing.

3. Previous articles