Not since Danny Devito’s sewer-dwelling Gotham hoodlum has there been so much trepidation at the mere mention of a penguin. Google Penguin is indeed the catalyst, the villain of 2012—at least to web marketers and company owners who now have to evaluate their SEO on a regular basis.
Well don’t relax yet, even if you have done a complete site overhaul. Google’s Matt Cutts has announced plans to continue to improve the Penguin algorithm. The update is being called the Penguin Jolt, since Cutts stated that in the coming months the search site would be giving out “jolts” of changes.
Google has publicly stated that the Penguin algorithm is still in its experimental stages, and thus the Internet should prepare themselves for these jolts. Cutts reiterated that when a major algorithm update is released, as Panda and Penguin, the first impact is great, and then additional algorithm updates have less impact over time. What appears to be happening is stability; the algorithm changes are stabilizing, as designers fix glitches and redefine parameters.
Remember that Google itself does not consider Penguin a penalty update, but an adjustment. The aim, while imperfect at the moment, is to draw more attention to sites with quality content and less spamming or recycling content. So what does all of this mean for you as a small to midrange business owner? Is now the time to shrink back or to invest more in this endeavor? Well, at this precise moment now is the time to prepare for Google algorithm updates, and have a strategy in place for whenever you feel the effects. It doesn’t take a visionary to foresee a glimpse into the near future. The search engines are responsible to the public. They want the public to continue using search sites in order to find the most specific information and the more detailed information.
Ideally, what you want to plan for, if not short-term then long-term, is either to hire a social networking and blogging manager, or outsource the assignments to a freelance writer. The Google brand is larger than any publishing house in the world, so we are expected to vastly improve the quality of our content, making it comparable or something close to magazine quality writing.
The only sure way to stay clear of the almighty penguin peck is to start planning now for your online expansion. Make noise on the Internet and keep the volume up. You can work with an SEO firm that ensures that your writing quality remains at a high level and that it is considered timely, news-oriented and always written with an expert’s voice. Now is the time to start planning ahead, even as you brace yourself for the upcoming “jolts” proclaimed for the rest of 2012.
