For many site owners, Google’s Penguin algorithm update which launched on April 24th, is the worst horrible nightmare coming to life. In a matter of just a few hours, they’ve lost a big part (for some, most) of their traffic and thus sadly, their livelihood.
The impact of the Penguin update was so drastic for some site owners that even the Wall Street Journal, which normally doesn’t discuss about specific search tweaks, highlighted it in a story about the Penguin update and its huge affect on small business owners.
Just like in any other major event in any other niche, the Penguin update is also leading to a mass reporting and analysis on the web. The problem is that while there are some great articles out there which can truly help to understand this algorithmic update better, unsurprisingly, the web’s assholes also rises here.
Some people exploits the deep craving for more knowledge and the desperation of Penguin-affected site owners to promote their own interests manipulatively. Just to be clear, I don’t talk about bloggers which tries to dig into Google’s search unfamiliar chasm to bring some insights and speculations (hell, I’m one of those bloggers).
I’m talking about those fuckers that consciously misleads and lies for the sake of selling their fake products and/or to increase their precious site’s pageviews. I’m so agitated by that because I already saw many legitimate business owners that have families to provide falls into the trap of those exploiters of despair.
To stress my point, here are couple of examples for Penguin update misleading contents from the web:
In this thread on the Warrior Forum, which is one of the most popular marketing forums online, some fucking scammer is claiming he can recover websites that were hit from the Penguin IN 14 DAYS, although “usually” it only takes a MATTER OF DAYS. All you have to do is just contact the shitface, pay him up and you’ll be saved…
Yes! Finally Salvation! At last, a brave hero come to the rescue! Thank you so much for saving our lives and not just taking more out of the already dwindling family’s cash box! Oh, and you even offer to get our money back if somehow your magic won’t work! That’s sounds so fantastically reliable!
The sad part about this dirtbag, is that sometimes he actually DOE’S captures desperate people in his disgusting cobweb. And there are many more douchebags like him roaming the internet’s hills.
Other examples for a Penguin misleading contents online, though more subtle, are alleged “recovery stories”. Again, don’t get me wrong, there are obviously true Penguin recovery stories like the case of WPMU.org. But there are also people who will maliciously lie about that just to get more pageviews- Heroic recovery stories tends to attract a lot of traffic, you know.
Take for instance this post from Search Engine People, which is a pretty popular SEO site. The author of the post claims he recovered not one, but two websites from the evil grip of the Penguin on two different time-frames. That’s indeed could have been a great story, only if it had just the smallest amount of… truth. (but who really cares about that, right?)
Hi Mr. Penguin rescuer, I find it a little odd that you recovered two websites in two different occasions when up until you published your courageous story there was only one Penguin data refresh… That’s a bit strange, wouldn’t you say? I mean, there’s absolutely no way you changed the facts a bit so they will fit your legendary tale…
I’m sorry to disappoint you, but if you thought you’ll find here (or in any other place on the web for that matter) the “secret formula” for Google rankings success, you were very wrong. The simple truth is that there isn’t any long-lasting formula or magically recovery service for $1.99…
Apologies for the slightly pessimistic tone in the end, but I honestly believe that only hard work and staying on the legit side of SEO can eventually pay off.
(I added no-follow attributes to the example links, I don’t want to pass them any link juice)