PENGUIN 4.0: THE AFTERMATH & WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
If you’ve been following our blog, you would be aware that Google’s Penguin 4.0 was recently released in September. But how exactly does it affect you and what should you do about it? Web 2.0 and press release spam links are being heavily penalised, while contextual links are still doing as well as ever. Charles Floate fills you in on the rest.
PENGUIN 4.0 RECOVERY CASE STUDIES
If you still haven’t gotten enough of Penguin 4.0 news, Marie Haynes does a great job of going through a few case studies of the impact of Penguin 4.0 on several websites that have previously been penalised.
HOW TO CRAFT THE BEST DAMN E-COMMERCE PAGE ON THE WEB
If trying to figure out how to design a highly converting e-commerce page has been keeping you up at night, then you might want to read this article from Moz. From the top navigation, to the core product information, to the types of seal-the-deal content that you should have, Rand Fishkin goes into each of them in detail.
WHAT IF YOU DIDN’T RECOVER FROM PENGUIN?
In the past, you had to wait until the next time the Penguin algorithm ran before you find out if you manage to get yourself out of a penalty. It’s been two years since the last time it ran, so you must have been waiting for a long time. But what if you didn’t see any improvements even after the September update? Dr Pete from Moz runs through several scenarios from the likely to the unlikely in this article.
GOOGLE IS SPLITTING ITS SEARCH INDEX, PRIORITISING MOBILE OVER DESKTOP
Google has announced that in the next few months, it will be splitting its search results into separate results – one for mobile users and the other for desktop users. The more interesting news is that the mobile version will be the one that is more frequently updated compared to the desktop version. This isn’t that surprising though, as Google has made several moves in improving its mobile search performance including the Mobilegeddon update and introducing Google AMP. If you want to futureproof your website, then making it better for mobile users will be key.
SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS
TWITTER CUTS OFF VINE
Four months ago, Twitter announced that it was going to increase the video limit for Vines from 6 seconds to 140 seconds. Recently though, it announced that it will be shutting down Vines in the months to come. Bought for over US$30 million, Vines has 200 million monthly active users but seems to have fallen victim to shiny new object syndrome as most users have flocked to Facebook Live, Snapchat and Instagram’s video offering. It’s not the only casualty at Twitter as the social media giant struggles to increase users and revenue. Twitter also announced that it will be cutting 350 people or 9% of its workforce in the coming months.