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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

April 25, 2012

Google Over-Optimization Algorithm Strikes

The anticipated over-optimization algorithm that Google’s Matt Cutts announced just a few week ago has now gone live. Nicknamed the "webspam algorithm update" by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, this latest algorithm update is a further attempt to combat the problem of webspam that permeates websites and search results.

A large volume of posts and complaints in the Google Search Blog shows that many have already been affected. Google has stated that they expect this newest update to affect approximately 3% of searches. From the Google Blog:

"In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content."

Webspam refers to tactics that attempt to garner better rankings through unsavory tactics such as:

Keyword stuffing
Link schemes
Cloaking
Sneaky redirects or doorway pages
Purposefully created duplicate content

For a more detailed explanation of some of these webspam tactics, check out Search Engine Land’s Violation & Search Engine Spam Penalties.

Google has been combating similar webspam tactics for several years, but it is only in the last couple that Google is finding better ways to detect such abuses with better algorithms. The targeting of webspam began in earnest with the release of the Farmer and Panda Algorithm Updates in 2010.

Many SEOs realize that it is still very possible to rank using these "blackhat tactics" and that Google cannot possibly address the problem "one fell swoop" (or even several).

It is enough for any SEO to question their usage. SEOs need to remember that Google is fully committed to eradicating webspam and will not be ceasing to do so. It may seem like a good strategy offering short term gains, but the long term penalties will certainly spell disaster when (not if) Google becomes aware of these tactics.

Google’s mandate is clear; to produce high quality, relevant, spam free search results for their millions of users. Ultimately it comes down to individuals and the tactics they decide to employ. If we can all get on board with Google’s Quality Guidelines, we will all benefit from a more useful and friendly web that we can all enjoy.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 10:46 am

Categories: Google,SEO Tips
Tags: Google algorithm, over optimization, panda update —

March 21, 2012

Google Zen – Finding Balance in Site Optimization

Finding a balance between quality content and optimization has always been a challenge to those in the SEO industry. Most of us at some point have been guilty of over-optimizing sites; either due to lack of knowledge of best practices, or as a deliberate rank sculpting technique. As a follow-up to my post on Monday regarding upcoming penalties from Google for sites that are "overly-optimized" (Newest Panda Attacks Onsite Optimization), I came across this post on SEO by the Sea in which Bill Slawski goes into more detail regarding the anticipated rollout of the Google algorithm. I have posted a portion of his post here for your convenience.

Regarding Matt Cutts statement that Google may come up with an "over-optimization" penalty in the future to help sites that aren’t showing up as highly in search results because of other sites that might have excessive links pointed to them or contain specific keywords more often, you can get the sense that this is something Google has been aiming at for years by looking at many of the patent filings and whitepapers from the company.

An aim of good SEO is to improve the quality, relevance, and usability of pages for visitors, so that the objectives of the owners of those pages are furthered, and people actually looking for what is offered on those pages are more likely to find those pages. Optimization, as a term, means to make something the best that you can, and in SEO usually aims at making a page the best that one can in terms of satisfying people using a query term that the page is about, to meet their informational or situational or transactional needs.

Some people promoting web pages attempt to use tactics like over stuffing a page with a particular keyword or pointing as many links to it as possible that use that keyword in anchor text, without necessarily attempting to make that particular page one that will satisfy visitor’s needs.

So a penalty like this might do things like ignore the value of anchor text in blog comments or forum signatures pointing to pages, lessen the value of links between sites that are related in some manner, lessen the value of keywords or related terms that appear on the same page at a very high rate, or apply some other similar approaches.

That doesn’t mean that the value of thoughtfully created, high quality pages, following best SEO practices will be harmed. The goals of that type of SEO align with the goals of search engines in helping people find pages that help meet their needs.

I anticipate a lot of upcoming discussion on this algorithm change if/when it is implemented. In much the same way that the original Panda received a lot of cooler talk, this latest rollout is going to cause many waves in many pools.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:08 am

Categories: Google,seo articles
Tags: Google algorithm, panda update —

September 15, 2011

Panda Talk

Back at SES Toronto I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with Thom Craver, Garry Przyklenk, and Terry Van Horne with Jonathan Allen moderating; chatting and answering questions about the Panda update. After that session Jonathan interviewed us about some of the key points. It’s a great 6 minutes with a large number of take-aways whether you got “bitten” or not. Enjoy.

SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 1:46 am

Categories: Google
Tags: google, panda update, ses —

June 20, 2011

Panda 2.2 – Don’t Poke the Panda

Just when you thought you had heard enough about Panda, whispers of a new update to the algorithm began a few weeks ago when webmasters began reporting more ranking fluctuations and drops in visitor numbers to their websites.

Due to the previous releases of Panda and the chaos that resulted you can’t blame people for being a little shell-shocked and perhaps jumping to conclusions. While Google did not confirm the release, Matt Cutts stated on June 6th that Google would be releasing version 2.2 of the Panda algorithm update “soon”.

Several threads on Webmaster World and Google Webmaster Help forums show webmasters claiming that the recent wild fluctuations they have been experiencing can only be due to another major algorithm update. While many webmasters are claiming that their sites are getting hit hard and taking losses in rank and traffic similar to the first releases of Panda, the main difference now is that some sites are showing gains and experiencing other positive growth.

This may be a result of the new algorithms ability to rank or to penalize sites for poor content, or it may be that sites that have been taking proactive approaches such as cleaning up low value content and hiding other thin pages from Google have begun benefitting from their efforts.

As I have said in previous posts regarding the Panda updated, by playing nice with the Panda by producing great content on your site and not poking the bear with poor content, we all benefit. Site owners are forced to create better quality content for their users and SERPs become more accurate and filled less with webspam.

Check out some of our previous blog posts for some helpful techniques and strategies for surviving the Google Panda Algorithm update:

Have You Fallen Post-Panda and Can’t Get Up?

Survive Post-Panda By Writing Awesome Content

Dr. Nick’s Post-Panda Prescription

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 6:13 pm

Categories: Google,Google
Tags: panda update, search algorithm —

June 8, 2011

Stats Show Slow Recovery From Panda

Barry Schwartz from SEO Roundtable conducted a poll a couple of weeks ago in which he asked of those who have been hit hard by the Panda update, how many have recovered? His results are in and I would like to share them here with you.

From a sample of 500 users, his breakdown of the results was as follows:

• 85% say they have seen zero improvement
• 8% say they have only had a partial recovery
• 4% state they have had a total recovery

As I mentioned in a blog post last week, it may still be too early to see the full effects of the Panda updates, or to have recovered from them. I agree that it seems odd that so many people are saying they have had any significant gains since Panda. It may be that a wider sample group is necessary to gain more accurate results, but these preliminary results are rather shocking.

Recent scuttlebutt on the Webmaster World forum is showing some indications of another possible Panda update. It may be a premature conclusion but with most of the world still shell-shocked from the previous updates, you can’t really blame people for jumping to conclusions.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 7:11 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News
Tags: panda update —

June 1, 2011

Have You Fallen Post-Panda and Can’t Get Up?

Several iterations later, the Panda update continues to cause problems for most everyone that was affected by Google’s major algorithm update. The updates came out in several releases starting in February, with the second coming in April and the Third release coming in May. Many reports from people are stating that they have to been able to recover from the Panda at all or that they have only regained a fraction of their former rankings.

Barry Schwartz of SEO Roundtable stated in a blog post that he has yet to see "any substantial proof" of a site recovering from the Panda update, and that anyone who has submitted proof of a recovery shows that it was the result of other SEO efforts.

He goes on to state as an example a WebProNews video interview with daniweb.com in which she discusses the changes she made that stopped the decline in her traffic drop, but that she is far away from a recovery.

While I don’t necessarily disagree with Mr. Schwartz, I feel that it is a non-issue. The Panda update removed copious amounts of webspam that was inundating the SERPs for years and effectively leveled the playing field. This has forced everyone to re-evaluate their content, their link building strategies and their onsite SEO tactics in an effort to regain their former status.

It only stands to reason that it will take a significant amount of time to for the cream to rise to the top of the SERPs. Of course this hits the enterprising business hard who may be reliant on web traffic to generate revenue from their website. The good news is that everyone is in the same boat. By putting on the brakes and forcing all of us to revamp our websites and re-think our web building practices. This will ultimately produced better quality search results, better content on the web and more organic link building and SEO practices.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 5:47 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Uncategorized
Tags: google, panda update —

May 25, 2011

Survive Post-Panda By Writing Awesome Content

Before the Panda Algorithm update from Google, using articles was part of an effective SEO strategy and was commonplace. Articles were submitted to syndication sites that would link back to the website specified in the article’s bio at the end of the article.

After the Panda update, major article sites such as Ezinearticles and eHow suffered huge losses in rankings and traffic. As a result SEOs have had to ask themselves whether or not article marketing should still be part of their overall link building strategy.

The quality and strength of links back to the client site was hotly debated for some time. Indicators showed that the link equity that articles provided were only of limited value. The links acted more like a pointers and helped with the discovery of your site. The real benefit came to the article site that accumulated trust, authority and PageRank due to the articles it published. Very little link juice flowed back to the client.

If you wanted to distribute your articles to more than one site, it would be treated as duplicate content. The real value from Ezinearticles was finding people who were interested in taking your content and publishing it in exchange for a link, then tracking the competition in the space to see what other link building sources/methods they were using.

Post Panda, articles are still somewhat useful, but the standards have changed. The Panda update is focused on bringing quality back to the web. AS a result of diminished rankings and penalties from Google, articles sites and the web in general have and to raise the status quo for content on their websites and articles alike.

It is also no longer worthwhile to anyone to mass distribute articles through a large syndication network. Websites are now more severally penalized for having duplicate content.

Article syndication is still a viable means of link building but is even more limited post-panda but it has resulted in a fundamental paradigm shift. The focus is now is on quality; not quantity.

Articles should only be published to 3-5 of the best ranking syndication sites. You should not publish more than 15-20 articles per year. The ROI just does not add up for the amount of effort put in to this tactic.

The most important thing to learn from the Panda update is to diversify your link building strategies with several methodologies and tactics. The sites that suffered the most from Panda update were those that put all their eggs into one basket. Produce high quality content and the visitors and rankings will follow.

Points to remember are:

Article Marketing is still a viable marketing strategy…just much less important that it was pre-Panda.
Raise the quality of your published content (in articles and onsite).
Submit to no more than 3-5 articles directories and only submit about 15-20 articles per year.
Link to your articles from your website and other sources
Don’t think of the tactic as link building, but an arrow leading back to where the quality content can be found.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 7:01 pm

Categories: link building,Rankings,seo articles,SEO Tips
Tags: content optimization, panda update —

May 2, 2011

14 Days Later – Post-Panda UK

It’s been a fortnight (two weeks) since the Panda was unleashed in the UK. As predicated, there was and still is a lot of wailing and bemoaning from sites that have been hit hardest by the newest Google algorithm update.

After the significant weeding out of spammy, low-quality content sites from the SERPs with Panda, we are seeing exactly what we expected. We are witnessing the same results we saw in the Panda US release; good quality sites are rising in rankings, while poor sites are dropping. The cream really does rise to the top!

Of course it may take more than a few weeks for the SERPs to stabilize, and some legitimate sites have been experienced a drop in ranking as well but overall it seems to have been implemented more smoothly in the UK than it was in the US.

For a very long time the search results were inundated with spammy or useless result, causing many not able to find what they were searching for. It was also leading to a move away from search engines to social search and search outsourcing using twitter etc. Google was losing traction.

The follow-up question being asked by many SEOs is: “How do I game the SERPs, post-Panda?” My answer is quite simple: “Don’t.” The Panda update is the latest move by Google to return search results to a more organic web. Google is looking for clean sites with good content, that provide a useful user experience…and they are becoming exceedingly efficient at it.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 6:43 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News,Uncategorized
Tags: panda UK, panda update —

April 19, 2011

Panda Puts “Hit” on ciao.co.uk

In a follow up to the post I published yesterday on the Top 20 “Losers” from Google’s Panda UK Update, one of the worst hit companies was Ciao.co.uk, a Microsoft owned company that was leading an EU competition case against Google. Accusations from Microsoft state that Google is purposely using the Panda algorithm update to attack Ciao in an effort to reduce its rankings.

Ciao.co.uk was involved in initiating an EU investigation into Google in November 2010. Microsoft claims that Google has used its dominant position to limit rivals products. The Panda update was designed to lower the overall positioning of content-farms and other low-quality websites and is part of a larger effort to reduce the amount of webspam that has permeated the search results for years.

Google’s head of search evaluation, Scott Huffman, said the accusation was “almost absurd” to suggest that the results were rigged. Of course "almost absurd" is no quite the same as “completely absurd.” Google and Microsoft have a great deal of animosity towards each other and are no strangers to the enmity that has existed between the two corporations for years.

Looking at the list of site that have been negatively affected by the Panda appears to show that most site on the list have been legitimately penalized by Panda. Panda was specifically designed to attack product comparison sites, reviews sites and voucher code sites; and Ciao is no different.

After taking just a precursory look at the Ciao website, the site is found to publish duplicate reviews on multiple pages and sites. Ciao is continually regurgitating massive amounts of content. This is exactly what Panda was targeting site for. One of the reviews on the site that I checked was republished in its entirety on over 30 individual pages and on no less than 3 other websites.

Majestic SEO reports 23 200 000 backlinks coming from 63 000 unique domains, which is an average of 368 links from each domain. Even when looking at the single domain: http://www.ciao.co.uk/, there are 157 049 backlinks coming from 1027 unique domains.

That averages 153 (157 049/1027=153) links form each domain.

From the backlinks analyzed from Majestic, this was the data over 10 000 incoming backlinks grouped by IP block.

IP Block	# of Links
92.122.217.*	109,721
94.245.123.*	45,810
65.55.17.*	45,588
69.175.60.*	32,634
66.216.1.*	28,385
207.218.202.*	21,540
212.227.159.*	13,800
178.79.137.*	11,100
95.154.211.*	10,428
69.163.188.*	10,266

One of the worst offenders was http://small-business-service.com/ which has over 10974 links pointing to ciao.co.uk from a single IP.

On the site, a visitor can see the huge proliferation of spammy, low-quality links that this site engages in. The total number of links to all pages on the ciao domain including sub domains and redirects was even more astonishing:

Pages Indexed: 19,174,884
# of Backlinks Links: 23,199,785
# of Unique Domains: 62,886

It would appear that the newest iteration of the Panda algorithm update form Google is doing a great job on catching the low-quality sites and dealing with them quite justly. The new algorithm certainly needs some tweaking as many quality sites took penalties as well.

As lesser quality sites are displaced, those sites that do offer a quality user experience, use legitimate linking strategies and can offer quality content will begin to see their potential rankings increase.

Beanstalk is currently in the process of testing organic vs. non-organic strategies in an attempt to challenge the effectiveness of Panda’s filtering capabilities. Watch for our 3 part blog series on this topic coming soon!

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 10:16 pm

Categories: Bing,Bing,Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News,Uncategorized,Yahoo!,Yahoo!
Tags: microsoft, panda UK, panda update —

April 18, 2011

Don’t Panic!…Panda’s UK SERP Attack

It has been a week after the Panda was released upon the UK and other English-speaking countries. The Panda Algorithm update was released internationally last Monday and created some much expected “panda-monium” in the rankings for many thousands of sites in the UK and the world. Data from Search Metrics compiled a list of the biggest “losers” and the 20 biggest “winners” of the update.

At first glance, it looks that the update did what it was intended to do by attacking many product comparison sites, reviews sites and voucher code sites. Many of these “low-quality” sites fared poorly in the wake of the Panda.

Ciao’s UK site lost 94% of its online visibility while the user recommendations site Qype lost approximately 96% of its search engine visibility following the update. Other sites saw some incredible gains. Tech Crunch realized a 41% increase in its rankings and site like Mirror.co.uk, ITV.com and Metro.co.uk all saw an increase of about 20%.

Top 20 “Losers” from Google’s Panda UK Update

Domain	New visbility	Old visibility	Change	%

moneypage.com	25	39231	-39206	-99.94
pricedash.com	127	55141	-55014	-99.77
njobs.org.uk	92	30693	-30601	-99.7
voucherstar.co.uk	126	38748	-38622	-99.67
osoyou.com	96	26668	-26572	-99.64
zath.co.uk	161	39768	-39607	-99.6
shoppingvouchers.co.uk	134	30056	-29922	-99.55
discountshoppinguk.co.uk	491	66270	-65779	-99.26
just-food.com	293	39282	-38989	-99.25
webdevelopersnotes.com	583	54948	-54365	-98.94
netvouchercodes.co.uk	1935	152376	-150441	-98.73
pocket-lint.com	2128	165956	-163828	-98.72
killerstartups.com	869	52717	-51848	-98.35
wakoopa.com	1334	71525	-70191	-98.13
aceshowbiz.com	907	46188	-45281	-98.04
everydaysale.co.uk	3822	175800	-171978	-97.83
hotfrog.co.uk	1124	44863	-43739	-97.49
phonesreview.co.uk	864	33418	-32554	-97.41
electricpig.co.uk	1678	60882	-59204	-97.24
kgbanswers.co.uk	1009	31427	-30418	-96.79

Top 20 “Winners” from Google’s Panda UK Update

domain	New visibility	Old visibility	Change	%

ebay.co.uk	1469346	1034302	435044	42.1
techcrunch.com	174797	124220	50577	40.7
national-lottery.co.uk	292053	209357	82696	39.5
econsultancy.com	186175	135804	50371	37.1
thisismoney.co.uk	234717	180377	54340	30.1
siteslike.com	175869	140279	35590	25.4
mirror.co.uk	275876	220937	54939	24.9
blogspot.com	1006719	819832	186887	22.8
mashable.com	295137	240714	54423	22.6
itv.com	345470	282300	63170	22.4
metro.co.uk	181507	149271	32236	21.6
independent.co.uk	471896	388280	83616	21.5
mozilla.org	146282	122471	23811	19.4
youtube.com	8856696	7446902	1409794	18.9
vimeo.com	168979	142182	26797	18.9
wordpress.com	331836	279738	52098	18.6
laterooms.com	150533	127297	23236	18.3
dailymotion.com	577590	490328	87262	17.8
soundcloud.com	150998	128569	22429	17.5

Some sites are not happy with the numbers being reported by Search Metrics. They feel that the numbers do not accurately reflect what certain they have experienced. Doug Scott from discountvouchers.co.uk has refuted these numbers saying that:

If anyone wished for me to send them an image of our analytics then please contact me. Our traffic levels have not changed.

I am pleased to say that our staff and customers are no longer worried. After Search Metrics published some false data I have had to calm fears. Maybe their data is not what they are stating. Check your facts guys.

Doug Scott, MD

Search Metrics explains how they arrived at these numbers and the criteria that was used to arrive at their findings

Despite some possible discrepancies, preliminary evidence shows that the Panda appears to be doing what was intended by attacking low-quality sites and penalizing those that warrant an adjustment of their rankings the most.

If what we saw in the US, in any indication of what is to come, there will undoubtedly be many fluctuations continuing over the next few weeks as the SERPs are reorganized in an attempt to level the playing field for all. The biggest thing to take away from this post is to remember: “Don’t Panic!” …SERPs should settle down soon.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 6:57 pm

Categories: Google,Google,Rankings,Search Engine News,Uncategorized
Tags: farmer uk, farmer update, panda UK, panda update, search algorithm —

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