Providing SEO Services Post Penguin 2.0
As the world’s largest and most powerful search engine, Google is able to dictate how SEO firms operate through tweaks to the Google search engine algorithms. Most of the changes are designed to keep black hat SEO firms from spamming links in an attempt to artificially inflate page rankings, but even the ethical SEO firms will feel the result of the latest changes. Adapting to the changes quickly and efficiently will allow SEO firms to continue to provide good 
quality service to their clients, and help end users find the information that they are searching for. In terms of changes to the Google algorithm in Penguin 2.0 there are several things to keep in mind.
Individual Pages
One of the most noticeable changes in Penguin 2.0 is to the indexing of individual pages. In order to be ranked, the page will need to have at least 900 words, but many in the top 3 were analyzed and had an average of 1750 words on the page, and the page will need to have much greater diversity than ever before. In terms of keywords and targeted anchor text, SEO firms will have to allow more diversity in the text of the content, often pushing the density of the keyword to 0-2.7% in order to get ranked. These numbers were derived from a case study of dozens of niche sites after the changes went live in Penguin 2.0, and all of the top ten sites for each niche in the case study used this level of density. This change is most likely to affect SEO firms that attempt to use aggressive link building in their content and spam keywords over and over in the content in an attempt to get the keyword indexed more quickly. Firms that use organic and naturally built keyword growth will not have much to worry about. It will be necessary to remind clients that moving up the page rankings takes time and that it cannot be accomplished over night. With the end of link spamming, moving up the ranks will take longer than some clients may by used to.
Quality Links
Another change that Penguin 2.0 brings is a significant change to the types of links that are indexed. Before the update it was possible to use very low quality links, such as those from social media sites, forum posts and blog comments to build the index for a site. Google recognized that these links did nothing to help the person searching for information and made the decision to start punishing SEO firms that relied on this type of linking service. Sites that rely heavily on low quality links will see their rankings plummet, but sites that are already using high quality links will not see much of a change. On the other hand, high quality links are now more valuable than before. When a site with a high Domain Authority links to a site now, the linked site receives a ranking boost. This rewards authorities on subjects that the end user cares about and devalues sites that do not offer much in the way of end user content. It is important to remember that Google is the most concerned with the person running the search at the end, not the SEO client.
Guest Posting
There have also been significant changes to the way that the guest posting services that SEO firms use to get their sites ranked up. Before the Penguin 2.0 update an SEO firm could post to any blog site and receive an increase in their rankings; however, the new Google update makes domain and page authority much more important in the development of web rankings. For the best results an SEO firm will need to make guest posts and press releases only on sites that have a minimum of 55+ PA and 50+ DA in order to see any real benefit. The bare minimum for posting should be 30+ DA, but anything lower runs the risk of being a wasted effort. SEO firms can measure the DA and PA of their targeted posting sites by utilizing the tools at SEOMOZ.
Duplication
Google is also pushing to eliminate duplicate content from website rankings and punish companies that rely on duplicate content to build their rank. Websites may find that their content has been copied by another site, and tools like Copyscape are excellent for finding the offending content on the web. If the Google web crawlers find duplicate content they will punish both sites, so it behooves webmasters to make sure that their content is protected and that there is no duplicate information on the main site.
Overall the changes to Google’s algorithm are positive for the white hat SEO firms, but can mean bad news for black hat spammers. Ethical SEO has always been about building quality content for clients, and now Google is rewarding sites for having that quality. With the changes in Penguin 2.0 end users will be able to find content more easily and the results that they see will be much more relevant to the information that they were looking for.
My name is Matthew Boley and I provided this guide as a way for an SEO firm and their clients to understand the changes that have been made to the Google algorithm with Penguin 2.0. For SEO information please take a look at our blog daily now, it will be updated with a new tip of the day or information that hit the world about marketing.
