Did Your Website Get Hit With the Penguin Penalty?

Published on
November 5, 2014
Contributors
Megan Malone
megan@vicimediainc.com

Megan Malone is a Founding Partner with Vici, and leads our Operations division.  Megan has both a radio and digital marketing background working for the Philadelphia Eagles, Beasley Broadcast Group, and Cox Media Group. In her career she has helped plan and implement thousands of digital media campaigns.   She holds a certification from Disney Institute’s People Management, Google Analytics, and was awarded the top 10 advertisers in Louisville from the American Advertisers Federation.  In her free time Megan is relaxing in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband Dave and toddler Zoey.

Subscribe to our newsletter
Read about our privacy policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Take a peak at your Google Analytics. If you are seeing your website traffic is at an ALL time low in the past month you may have been struck by the Penguin, or Googles’ third update to its algorithm. Colloquially known as Penguin 3.0, this update launched on October 17th (according to Google Webmaster Hangouts) and has caused many websites to lose a majority of its traffic! But why did this happen?

penguin SEO

The purpose of this update is to penalize websites using black hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, such as poor link sources and automated link building to scam networks. The penalizing causes lower rankings, while websites with a healthy link portfolio and other good SEO practices are brought higher on search engine ranks. A healthy link portfolio can consist of links from major editorial websites (e.g. CNN, local blogs posts, directories) that provide a hyperlink pointing to your website. This tells Google search bots, that you're a reputable source, allowing your website to rank higher on search engines.This update may affect your website even if you’re simply running paid ads through Google, such as product listed ads. Any hindrance on a websites reputation and relevancy on key search terms could increase costs for keywords that were otherwise cheap for your website. Take a look at the websites’ organic traffic and conversion traffic to see if it’s affected. Then, triple check your website with this free penguin penalty tool http://reconsideration.org/.

Related Posts

Tips, guides, industry best practices, and news.
Category Link
What Digital Trends Should I Use In 2025?
We wanted to dig in and give you some insights into digital marketing trends that businesses should consider in 2025, focusing on strategies such as social media video, SEO (and how AI now impacts it and zero-click searches), and OTT (over-the-top) advertising.
Greg Swiszcz
May 14, 2025
Category Link
How Connected TV Caters to Holiday Shopping for Eager Consumers
The holiday shopping season is the Super Bowl of retail. Every brand, big or small, is vying for consumer attention, and traditional advertising methods just aren’t cutting it anymore. Enter Connected TV (CTV) and Over-The-Top (OTT) advertising, a game-changing strategy that allows brands to meet shoppers right where they are—on their favorite streaming platforms.
Allison Gibson
May 14, 2025
Category Link
How can I use Social Media Stories to promote my business?
Storytelling, one of society’s greatest tools in sharing the narrative that you want people to understand, has changed a lot since the days of fireside chats and Shakespearean stages. 
Greg Swiszcz
May 14, 2025