Written by Merlijn Broersma 18 August 2022
A high ranking on Google is a golden ticket to success for any business, even for the most bizarre ideas

Companies spend fortunes on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Google advertising to improve their rank in search results and to raise awareness about their website. However, Google is fully aware that companies are willing to do almost anything to get to be on top on the first page of search results. Consequently, Google started to introduce strict regulations to ensure that high-ranking websites are not only free of spam but also contain “high quality” content.

A high ranking on Google is a golden ticket to success for any business, even for the most bizarre ideas
What are the 3 main Google algorithms?

Google manages three core algorithms to determine its ranking system (besides hundreds of other less important criteria). These 3 algorithms are: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird.

In this article we will present the main principles of the Google Panda and Google Penguin algorithms.

  • 1
    Poor content

    Poor content means that the websites contains little to no value for its readers / users.

  • 2
    The extensive development of website content

    For the most part this criterium involves integrated software in websites, which, in turn, is connected to the content of other sources. This provides such websites with a lot of content, but this is only copied content, which is not accepted by search engines. Google Panda eliminates websites that use content scraped or copied from other websites.

  • 3
    High Bounce Rate

    In order to track the pace of legitimate visitors to a website, bounce rate has been integrated into Google Analytics and in the search algorithm. Bounce rate is determined by the time that visitors are spending on one’s website. A high bounce rate means that the website is not actually visited by real visitors, but rather by robots that are just visiting it to increase the website’s visitor count.

  • 1
    Identify websites with poor backlinking

    Link building is another “cornerstone” for those who are promoting a website. However, because of the desire to build a lot of links in a short period of time, many developers have resorted to strategies that led to poor backlinking quality. Simply put, low backlinking quality means that the links leading to your website are irrelevant.

  • 2
    Identify Anchor text (the text within a link) that is over-optimized

    Penguin indicates that the anchor text must be used in association with about a thousand links and not be linked to sites that are not relevant to your website. Otherwise it will be flagged by Penguin.

  • 3
    Over use of keywords in the content

    This is not a new criterium for Google, but it is accentuated in Google’s Penguin algorithm. The websites that use keywords in excess in their content will be strictly observed by Google, and downgraded if the excessive use of keywords lack purpose.