Google’s Penguin update has, arguably, caused more headaches for casino affiliates than any other Google update or algorithm.
Over the past 19 months SEOs have been losing sleep (and hair) as they try to undo years worth of links in hopes of appeasing the Penguin. Although Penguin 2.1 offered a bit of relief, getting past Penguin has been anything but easy.
In a recent posting titled, The Long and Hard Road to Penguin Recovery, SearchengineJounal.com contributor Nick Stamoulis cut through the confusion with some solid tips for Penguin recovery. Here are some of his top tips.
Ditch Article Submission Sites
Back in the old days, before Penguin or Panda, article submission sites and directories were quite the rage.
Though you’ve probably not used these sites for quite some time, Stamoulis recommends deleting your profiles on them, along with any articles linking back to your site from them. Cutting loose the links generated from these sites can really boost your recovery efforts.
Disavow Whole Domains
Some SEO jobs require a scalpel, while others call for a giant chainsaw. When comes to disavowing links, Stamoulis takes the chainsaw approach by recommending you disavow whole domains, as opposed to individual links.
Like the Disavow Links Tool itself, this isn’t something you want to overuse, but if you’ve got more than a couple links coming from a spammy site, it’s worth pursuing.
Kick Spammy Bookmarking Sites to the Curb
Stamoulis isn’t suggesting that web publishers forgo quality bookmarking sites like Reddit and StumbleUpon, but he’s pretty adamant about severing ties with the lower tier sites like FolkD.
These sites generally don’t do much in the way of generating traffic, but they’ll definitely drag down your big picture SEO efforts.
Finally
Plenty of Stamoulis’ tips fall squarely in the scorched earth category, but that’s the kind of extreme action that Penguin recovery often entails. He’s very upfront about what his methods will mean for your overall link profile and the fact that Penguin recovery is a very messy affair.