Have you ever tried to explain what SEO is to your mom?
I have. And when I got the inevitable “but how does Google know what sites to show?” I found it really hard not to drop the term “algorithm” into my watered down explanation (sorry mom).
So what is this algorithm?
Basically, there’s a team of Google engineers that spend their days writing computer programs and formulas with the goal to deliver the best, most relevant results to users.
Every time a search is conducted, these programs go out into Google’s giant index of web pages looking for “clues” to give users exactly what they want to see. These clues could be any combination of 200+ factors, such as the terms on a website, the freshness of the content, the amount of links to the page, and many more.
While Google’s algorithms are constantly tweaked and tested, there are a handful of major updates that anyone with a website should be familiar with:
Panda: February 23, 2011 – Affected 11.8% of queries (26 updates)
Purpose: To remove websites with poor quality content in search results and boost websites with original, relevant, helpful content.
This poor quality content could mean anything from duplicate content (content that either already exists on other pages on your site or is scraped from other sites), content that isn’t relevant to anything else on your site, keyword stuffing, and other similarly lazy content practices.
Best Practice: Produce content for the user. Make it interesting, helpful, useful, compelling and readable (proper spelling and grammar). If you need some guidance, take it from the search giant itself with Google’s Quality Guidelines.
If you suspect your site could be the victim of a Panda penalty, conduct a thorough content analysis. Check for natural sounding content, originality, and multiple pages that say the same thing. The good news is that the algorithm is updated frequently in comparison to its other animal friends, so you likely won’t have to wait terribly long to see if your efforts paid off. However, frequent updates also mean that websites that were spared in the past may not be so lucky in future updates.
Penguin: April 24, 2012 – Affected 3% of queries (5 updates)
Purpose: Like Panda, Penguin also punishes poor quality– but this time with spammy link building and other black-hat SEO practices.
Buying and selling links? Participating in forums with irrelevant comments and a link in your signature? Using a keyword 30 times on one page? Putting a white font on a white background? Yeah, Penguin is on to you.
Best Practice: Hopefully you read those tactics and thought “that’s so 2011.” If not, log in to Webmaster Tools immediately and check out “Links To Your Site.” If you see any suspicious sites with alarming numbers, you will want to familiarize yourself with the Disavow Backlinks tool to get those links removed as quickly as possible. Once they’ve been taken care of, hope that Penguin 3.0 (rumored to drop this September) will commend your efforts.
Moving forward, use anchor text that naturally describes the page you’re linking off to and don’t go crazy with the amount of links you place within your content.
Pigeon: July 24, 2014 – Percentage Affected Unknown
Purpose: Pigeon (which was actually named by Search Engine Land, not Google) simply aims to provide better local search results. It didn’t serve up the kind of alarming keyword drops that Panda and Penguin delivered, but still has some valuable takeaways for local businesses.
There are three major components of the Pigeon update. First, new and improved location and ranking parameters, meaning Google tightened the radius on what could be a consider a “local business.”
Second, local results now contain “three packs,” or show three local results as opposed to the usual seven pack.
Lastly, business directory sites (Google Places, Yelp, Yellowbook, etc.) are favored more often in search results.
Best Practice: If you’re a local business, your best bet is to embrace some good ol’ fashioned local SEO. Be sure to localize your content to better connect with your target audience and apply on-page SEO best practices when posting (anchor text, meta data, headings, etc.)
You’ll want to be sure your business listings are filled out, correct, and optimized. It also won’t hurt to stay active on key social outlets like Facebook and Google+.
While these algorithms all zone in on different search factors, Google Webmasters Trends analyst, John Mueller, recently had some words of wisdom for dealing with an algorithm penalty:
“In practice, however, things are much more involved, and improvements that you make (especially significant ones) are likely to have visible effects even outside of that single algorithm,” he said. “One part that helps to keep in mind here is that you shouldn’t be focusing on individual factors of individual algorithms, it makes much more sense to focus on your site overall – cleaning up individual issues, but not assuming that these are the only aspects worth working on.
As search engines get smarter, it’s best to stick the algorithm to the back of your mind and just do what makes sense to you— an average human being who wants to learn, purchase and be entertained.
If you think you’ve been hit with a Google penalty, contact PCG’s team of SEO experts.
About the Author
Laura is the Content Director at PCG. She likes to sew, read fiction, go on day trips, and doodle on her iPad. She is also a "Diamond Girl" (aka more than your average Neil Diamond fan).