Google Penguin Update Response from a NJ SEO Agency
Chris Mulvaney is the CEO of CMDS. I make things... I’m the creative entrepreneur with passion for (re)making brands and inventing solutions to problems no one knows exist.
On April 24, 2012, Google released the Penguin update. As a NJ SEO agency, CMDS knew the update was on its way, but we did not worry. The penguin update was meant to detect web spam and black hat SEO techniques. As a white hat SEO agency, we knew the updates would probably help rather than hinder us. Sure enough, now over a week later, we have observed our sites and our clients’ sites, and not only are they okay, but they are actually benefiting from the update!
Were you or your clients affected by the update?
As a NJ SEO Agency, we stay ahead in the industry and have been reading the industry blogs and news on the aftermath of the update, and we found that many websites took a serious hit from Penguin. One person said their traffic was down 50% since the update, and another said their site went from being ranked in the top 10 for over 30 of their targeted keywords to being in the top 10 for only 1 of the keywords and being ranked 35 and over for the rest. Other SEOs said that their clients’ sites were down in both traffic and keyword ranking. There were many more complaints and instances of these kinds of cases, but the update only hit sites like this for specific reasons.
Why CMDS Clients Were Helped Rather Than Hindered By Penguin
The Penguin update targeted “webspam” consisting of:
- keyword stuffing
- link schemes
- cloaking (sneaky redirects and doorway pages)
- duplicate content
The above “webspam” practices are black hat techniques that we never endorse, and we never use these techniques for our clients. This is why our clients were not hurt by the update. The reason that our clients started ranking better after the update is that some of the higher-ranking websites must have been using instances of the above techniques. We have even seen that some of our clients’ competitors that were ranking very high before the update are now ranking lower than our clients, and even ranking lower than some of their other competitors.
We always avoid keyword stuffing and duplicate content. We do this by constantly producing fresh, high-quality content, and we let our keywords go throughout the content naturally while making sure they are not overused. We never use sneaky redirects and doorway pages because we aim at ranking for the actual relevant pages. We never use link schemes; instead we build high-quality links for clients ourselves.
The Penguin Update Moving Forward
The Penguin update is great for a white hat SEO agency like ours because our clients will only do better from our work as we move forward. We are looking forward to seeing even more improvement after this update as we move through the month of May. Honestly, even though many people are complaining about the update, we welcome the update and further updates that help white hat SEO agencies and hinder black hat SEO agencies. We will continue to do what we do, and we are happy that the update was beneficial for us and for our clients.
If you would like to contact CMDS to find out more about our services, call us at 732.706.5555 or visit our website.
