{"id":21737,"date":"2012-04-27T11:37:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T19:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/?p=21737"},"modified":"2014-02-20T10:04:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T18:04:41","slug":"penguins-pandas-and-spam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/penguins-pandas-and-spam\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins and Pandas: A Black and White Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news this week was that the Google \u201cover-optimization\u201d penalty that was fervently discussed over the past month or so is alive and kicking<\/a>, and goes by the name of \u201cPenguin.\u201d<\/p>\n

This morning, I was chatting with Bruce, and he said:<\/p>\n

Did you notice both the notable algorithm updates were named after animals of the same color?<\/em><\/p>\n

To which I said:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because it\u2019s a Black Hat\/White Hat issue.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lesson? Don\u2019t do spam. Plain and simple.<\/p>\n

Last week, I wrote a post <\/a>about the over-dramatization and the anxiety over algorithm updates and what they mean. Every time Google makes an update, everyone wonders if SEO is dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While we could continue to give tip after tip of how to avoid the penalties of Google\u2019s algorithm updates, the safest route is to simply stick with White Hat SEO (if you\u2019re unsure of what that means to Google, look to its SEO guide<\/a>); always trust your instinct on things that seem if-y; and be proactive about the maintenance of your site \u2013 including looking at things that may seem out of your control, like inbound links.<\/p>\n

And none of this is really new<\/em> news, which is why I\u2019m not going to get into a lengthy post here. But if you want more insight on what Bruce believes is spammy in the eyes of Google and the new algorithm updates, he offers insight in this recent video:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

So, what about those instances where it doesn\u2019t seem like a black or white issue? What if you think you\u2019ve been doing everything right and still get hit<\/a>? Like I\u2019ve said before, algorithms aren\u2019t perfect. Algo updates hit hard and fast, and then tweaks are made following the initial release for improvements to targeting.<\/p>\n

It looks like with the Penguin update, Google is gathering feedback and attempting to help those who believe their sites have been wrongly penalized by offering a place for people to complain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So to recap:<\/p>\n

\"4306244194_e1be35e41b_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

= Don\u2019t do spam.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Penguin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

= Don\u2019t do spam.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s next? According to Bruce:<\/p>\n

\"orka<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026 which will almost guaranteed mean, once again, don\u2019t do spam.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news this week was that the Google \u201cover-optimization\u201d penalty that was fervently discussed over the past month or so is alive and kicking, and goes by the name of \u201cPenguin.\u201d<\/p>\n

This morning, I was chatting with Bruce, and he said:<\/p>\n

Did you notice both the notable algorithm updates were named after animals of the same color?<\/p>\n

To which I said:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because it\u2019s a Black Hat\/White Hat issue.<\/p>\n

The lesson? Don\u2019t do spam. Plain and simple.<\/p>\n

Read more of Penguins and Pandas: A Black and White Issue<\/A>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"BruceClay - SEO - Penguins and Pandas: A Black and White Issue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda are clearly a Black Hat-White Hat issue, and mean only one thing: Don't do spam.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/penguins-pandas-and-spam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SEO - Penguins and Pandas: A Black and White Issue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda are clearly a Black Hat-White Hat issue, and mean only one thing: Don't do spam.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/penguins-pandas-and-spam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bruce Clay, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-27T19:37:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-20T18:04:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/4306244194_e1be35e41b_z.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jessica Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bzzcontent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jessica Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/penguins-pandas-and-spam\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/penguins-pandas-and-spam\/\",\"name\":\"SEO - 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