You may have read a number of articles in the past that have encouraged you to hire an SEO company to help you market your company online. Perhaps you hired a local SEO agency as suggested, or maybe you brushed it off. After all, who could understand how to market your business better than you? This position has always been debatable, but due to a recent change in the world of search engine optimization and digital marketing, it is almost certainly false. Thanks to Google’s recent release of Penguin 3.0, an update to their search algorithm, you definitely need to hire SEO professionals to help your business succeed online.
After over a year without an update, Google finally released their latest changes to what has long been known as the “Penguin” algorithm on October 17. Originally launched in 2012, Penguin is designed to identify webspam and penalize websites who use manipulative techniques to improve their search rankings. In the world of search engine optimization, which is filled with both benevolent and malicious practitioners, the Penguin updates are essentially the closest thing the industry has to regulation. However, because the algorithm and its updates are always released without announcement or fanfare, even the top SEO agency can be caught unawares. And every website, even those who have not knowingly used manipulative SEO tactics, might be affected.
While the impact and nature of Penguin 3.0 is still being realized, SEO experts have already verified that this update is much more sophisticated than its predecessors: it appears to go for quality over quantity, reducing the search rankings of a relatively small amount of sites, but causing significant damage to some of the worst offenders on the web. However, Google has confirmed that they are rolling out Penguin 3.0 gradually, meaning that the full extent of the update likely has yet to be realized.
“So why do I need to hire SEO professionals?” you may be wondering. Well, because the full impact of the Penguin 3.0 update has not been unveiled, you will likely need to work with someone who has the time and experience to protect you against any nasty surprises. What’s more, if your website uses bad links, hidden texts, link cloaking or keyword stuffing, it will require significant work to meet Penguin’s new requirements. After the initial steps of disavowing bad links and repairing previous damage, a professional SEO agency will also be able to assist you in formulating a new strategy that can help you avoid these bad SEO steps in the future, whether that new strategy involves mobile optimization, social media or even better online content. Don’t let the new Penguin update or detrimental digital marketing habits hold you back: hire SEO professionals today to help your website succeed.
