Small Businesses Cope Post-Penguin Update

While Google is continually making adjustments and tweaking its algorithm, the recent Penguin update has been detrimental to many small business owners. It’s been especially bad for individuals who rely heavily on Google’s organic search traffic for the bulk of their overall traffic. The Penguin update, much like the Panda update in 2011 is further proof that Google is penalizing websites that use black hat SEO tactics and unnatural or spammy links.

Though different small businesses have been hit with different levels of severity, some have lost upwards of 70 percent of their organic traffic and have experienced a significant drop in sales as a result. The problem is that many small business owners don’t really understand why their search rankings have fallen and how they can restore them. While a common reaction is to try and remove bad links, experts say that this tactic might not be so effective. They emphasize that now is an excellent time to concentrate on providing a business’ target audience with the best possible content — especially since it can be very difficult to remove bad back links. For example, a Washington, D.C. medical malpractice attorney would want to write professional articles on his specialization in his geographic area rather than working on an extensive back linking campaign.

Rather than trying to employ the latest SEO tactics to appease Google, it makes more sense to focus on long-term stability by creating content for humans and not just search engines. Essentially, the Penguin update should serve as a wake-up call to small business owners who spend more time scheming and trying to manipulate search engines than striving to create great content. It’s also become more apparent that it’s not a good idea to solely rely on Google for a business’ traffic and ultimately sales. In order to cope with the Penguin update, small business owners should diversify and experiment with other traffic generation strategies.