4th October: Chaos Ignited by Penguin 2.1

6:00 am, 4th October, I was enjoying a calm sleep and then, a call from my manager changed everything “Morning Sir, Google has launched another update and there is dramatic changes in Google Results since then”

Since then, I am researching and researching. Saying
“Penguin 2.1 is bigger than Penguin 1, is just a gross statement as it has completely changed pattern of SERPs without any explanation by Google till date”

Since 4th October, lots & lots of research papers have been launched but I took my time and kept on doing research before exposing my analysis and solutions.

Is all the damage done by Penguin 2.1?

Things were coming from last couple of month

Penguin 2 Update
Humming Bird Update
Penguin 2.1 Finally

Explosive was being stuffed from months and fired with Penguin 2.1

Analysis Time

Let’s analyse.

Dominancy of Big Websites

Spot 1:

Keyword in URL, Somehow Exact Match Domain (Google hit Exact Match Domains a year ago but now Exact Match Domains are ranking very strongly. I am consistently observing this niche and I have never seen this site ranking before)
Domain Age: Less Than 1 Year
Just 25 Indexed Pages (New content is added on 15th Nov, 2012. “Fresh Content, Fresh Content” I have seen Matt Cuts pointing it thousand times. Where is Fresh Content?)
78 Back-links
26 Referring Domains
20 Referring IPs
30% Money Anchor Links, 70% Random Anchor Links (Random means Brand Name, Website URL etc)
Back-links: 50% Australian Directories + 40% Brisbane Websites + 10% General Directories
50% Business Directories: Start Local, Locanto, Comonaussies & others. Mostly Free
40% Brisbane Websites: A Great SEO Company (Brisbane based company, I will not highlight them) post hidden links of this website in footer of their other Brisbane clients belong to carpet cleaning, air conditioning etc. (Google clearly states that hidden links from footer are unnatural, How they become super natural now?????)
10% General Directories: Free Directories. Common Ones

Spot 2:

Inner Page
Domain Age: 13 years
559 Indexed Pages
Big Website, operating in Queensland & New South Wales
1,271 Back-links (Surprising, around 500 back-links have been dropped in last 4 months)
35% Money Anchor Links, 65% Random Anchor Links
Back-links: 60% Paid Australian Listings + 40% Paid Blog Links + 10% Australian Directories
60% Paid Australian Listings: 90% of these listings are coming from 1 website that is forwarded to dozens of websites. Have a look, all website are same. Are these quality links???????

40% Paid Blog Links: Relevant blogs but each blog have outgoing links of multiple websites
10% Australian Directories: Mostly Free Ones

Spot 3:

Inner Page
Domain Age: 12 years
160,971 Indexed Pages
Big Big Website, Queensland Based
3675 Back-links
402 Referring Domains
339 Referring IPs
15% Money Anchor Links, 85% Random Anchor Links

Back-links:

50% Paid Listings in Australian Builders Websites
20% Paid Blog Links
20% Relevant Forum Postings
5% Directories
5% Web 2.0 Properties

Spot 4:

Home Page, Brisbane Based Builders
Domain Age: 11 years
481 Indexed Pages
89 Back-links
45 Referring Domains
43 Referring IPs
5% Money Anchor Links, 95% Random Anchor Links

Back-links:

40% Paid Listings/Ads in Australian Builders Websites
20% Local Australian Directories
20% Footer Links
20% Directories

Spot 5:

Home Page, Queensland Based
Domain Age: 13 years
124 Indexed Pages
583 Back-links
76 Referring Domains
83 Referring IPs
10% Money Anchor Links, 90% Random Anchor Links

Back-links:

20% Paid Listings/Ads in Australian Builders Websites
20% Blog Spot Links
20% Local Australian Links
20% Blog Network Links

Spot 6:

Home Page, Australia Wide Website
Domain Age: 15 years
22, 481 Indexed Pages
42, 989 Back-links
306 Referring Domains
253 Referring IPs
5% Money Anchor Links, 95% Random Anchor Links

Back-links:

20% Links from Gigardner own websites targeting various locations in Australia
20% Paid Listings/Ads in Australian Builders Websites
20% Links from Local Australian Sites
20% Blog Network Links
20% Ads from Local Websites

Spot 7:

Home Page, Queensland & New South Wales
Domain Age: 10 years
5,885Indexed Pages
357 Back-links
58 Referring Domains
52 Referring IPs
5% Money Anchor Links, 95% Random Anchor Links

Back-links:

40% Paid Listings in Australian Builders Websites
30% Local Australian Directories
20% Local Australia Directories
10% General Directories

Spot 8:

Home Page, Servicing Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast
Domain Age: 11 years
2,095 Indexed Pages
333 Back-links
69 Referring Domains
66 Referring IPs
30% Money Anchor Links, 70% Random Anchor Links
Back-links:
50% General Directories
30% Local Australian Directories
20% Paid Listings in Builder Websites

Spot 9:

Home Page, Servicing South East Queensland
Domain Age: 12 years
197 Indexed Pages
1438 Back-links (Surprisingly, Dropped from 30k to 1438 in last 8 months)
155 Referring Domains
146 Referring IPs
5% Money Anchor Links, 95% Random Anchor Links

Back-links:

70% Spun Blog Comments & Forum Profiles
20% Local Australian Directories
10% Paid Listings in Builder Websites

Dominancy of Exact Match Domains

Google penalizes so many Exact Match Domains in near past and know, there are ranking even more strongly

What to do?

No more static websites. Need to make your website big. Hundreds and hundreds of pages. Add a blog immediately if not added yet and try to add at least 2 blogs per week.
On Page SEO becomes more important. Optimised Tags, Content, URL Structure will help better than anything else.
Try to generate local links i.e Local Directories, Local Forums, Local Blogs, Local Websites etc. General links from here and there are not going to help too much
Try to create options. Besides website, try to optimize and rank you Local Directories Listings, Facebook Pages, Youtube Videos.
At least 70% back-links should be generated on random keywords like brand name, website URL etc. Too many Money Anchors Back-links have hurt so many websites since this update.
Try to get Social Shares for your pages. Google love pages that have more Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter & other shares.
Focus on quality not quantity. You can rank with few but quality links.
Best possible thing for a Brisbane website is to get links from Brisbane Directories, Forums, Websites.

If you get hit by any Google Update or not ranking, Send us email and we will get back to you with FREE Analysis.