So yesterday I wrote about how Google’s Penguin 2.0 update, and told you I’d get back to you when the results were in. We already have a list of early losers, people who were struck hard and fast by Penguin 2.0, and the list is long and eclectic. I want to share it with you so you can check them out and make sure your own SEO services don’t get you added to the list.
The list starts with a gaming site, and goes on to hit porn sites, content aggregators, and even big names like the Salvation Army and Educational Testing Service. It was put together by SearchMetrics, using their special “SEO Visibility” benchmark. The benchmark looks at the visibility of all a company’s pages across a wide range of keywords. The metrics aren’t perfect, but they are generally considered to be the most accurate in the industry.
On his blog today, SearchMetrics founder Marcus Tober says the impact from Penguin 2.0 is significant, but smaller than most experts expected:
It’s not the update I was expecting. I thought that this Google Penguin update would have had a bigger impact similar to Panda 1. But that didn’t happen. My first analysis shows that many thin sites, sites with thin links and especially untrusted links face the problem. In addition, some small business sites were hit because they haven’t taken SEO serious enough.
Here’s the list of the biggest losers. Visit their sites and see if you can figure out why they got the hammer:
