The newest Google algorithm update, termed Penguin, has been referred to as a web spam algorithm. Link spam is the target of this rollout though, and while search engine optimizers focus largely on inbound and outbound links, you will only really have to worry if you are linking to irrelevant, low authority websites, which you shouldn’t be anyway!
It should be always be important to track where your backlinks are coming from, and now more than ever with this penguin update, it’s becoming even more important to make sure the source site for the links bringing traffic to your site are high quality.
Google’s Gary Illyes said that though links seem to be the focus, that’s not all penguin is about. “It looks at a bunch of different things related to the source site. Links is just the most visible thing and the one that we decided to talk most about because we already talked about about links in general,” he said. “But it looks at different things on the source site, not on the target site, and then makes decisions based on those special signals.”
As quoted by Search Engine Land, Illyes said Penguin essentially ignores the links, rather than lowering the ranking of the entire website the links sits on or sends to.
Penguin debuted in spring of 2012, and it sought to punish pages that boasted a variety of “spammy” practices in effort to increase their ranking on the Google search engine results pages. Such optimization mistakes included keyword stuffing, also known as “cloaking,” as well as purchasing links or obtaining them through link networks designed just for the purpose of boosting Google rankings; the aforementioned are all in direct violation of Google’s guidelines.
While, we have noted in the past that link building is a necessary part of any SEO campaign, it’s imperative to stay current on any changes in Google algorithms and to always practice honest and straightforward SEO. The internet landscape will always be growing and changing, which is why you should leave your online marketing, SEO and website maintenance to the experts at Liquori Co.