by Jake Brenner
Unfortunately, yes. Far from being the helpful hero they intended, Google’s new search algorithm, ‘Penguin’, has morphed from super-update to super-fiend (thus far). On April 24th, Google made the decision to unleash Penguin from its lair. Since then, no site has been safe and it’s taken the Internet by storm. From flipped rankings, to accidental site ‘Blacklisting’ Penguin’s devious ways seem to have been enough to confound even the most brilliant of Google engineers.
Like the officials of Gotham City, initially denying that Penguin was the one to blame, Google did eventually come out and say that the new algorithm was responsible for the “accidental” blacklisting of numerous sites during the switch. Even though that does little to help the websites affected during the takeover, many of which are signing the “Please kill your Penguin update” petition. Where’s Batman when you need him?
Our advice to you: keep a close eye on your traffic and your rankings. If you find that your site has completely dropped off, or the majority of your rankings don’t come back in a week or two, it’s possible to re-submit it for review by Google, although it’s unclear to us if they are still currently accepting submissions.
One helpful lesson to be learned from this, that we’ve preached since the beginning of time…or the Internet at least, is to NOT DEPEND SOLELY ON ONE MARKETING CHANNEL. Yes, SEO is crucial to the success of a website, but just like any investor will tell you, diversification is the best long-term strategy.
Going forward, we do expect rankings to come back up to normal, but for now we’re doing our part to monitor the airwaves as best we can and ensure we stick to our usual routine of excellence. If we come across anything relevant you’ll be the first to know. So for now, stay tuned for more. Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
