Penguin Has Updated: Should Your Content Marketing Strategy Change?

Google has recently updated its Penguin algorithm. Dubbed Penguin 4.0, the new algorithm received a number of changes that make the algorithm much smarter in analysing sites for search engine purposes. One of those new features is real-time updates, allowing Penguin to capture the changes you make to your site and your online presence; these changes will not influence your site’s overall SEO performance right away.

What do these changes mean for site owners? Should your content marketing strategy change with the new update? Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

A Shift Towards Quality

A lot of site owners still focus their content marketing strategy on quantity. The more updates get posted and the more traffic they can generate, (allegedly) mean better SEO performance for the site. Although this is true to some degree, the introduction of Penguin 4.0 will shift the balance more towards quality.

Producing a lot of content is no longer enough. You need to provide value, write and publish content that visitors actually enjoy and pay closer attention to things like readability in order to achieve a high level of SEO performance. Combined with over 200 other signals used by Google to rank sites, Penguin can now tap into these aspects.

The length and structure of the articles will also play a bigger part. Long-form articles with clear subheadings and better paragraph structure are now producing the most impact, both in the eyes of viewers and search engines.

Sharing is Caring

Writing great articles is just the first half of a relatively long equation. The next step is sharing those articles, and reaching the right target audience. It is also beneficial to get backlinks from other sites in the same industry. Similar to the content itself, the outreach process of your content marketing strategy must also focus on quality.

One of the features introduced with Penguin 4.0 is better spam identification. Google is actively downgrading sites that spam the internet with low-quality linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. and promotional campaigns with the help of this algorithm. Now that Penguin gets updated in real-time, those same penalties will also have a direct impact on your SEO performance in real-time.

You can change your strategy more towards building relationships. Instead of spamming your social media followers with links, engage them more and ignite conversations. Get in touch with other site owners or bloggers for the possibilities of getting quoted – with backlinks, of course.

Long-Term Content Marketing Strategy

The algorithms and signals behind Google’s search engine are changing frequently, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a long-term content marketing strategy. In fact, the new signals – and the latest version of Penguin – appreciate consistency even more than before.

Continue writing quality content and work on your outreach strategy for more backlinks. Spend more time to connect with your viewers through social media as well. Tie the strategy together with good engagement on your site and you will get better SEO performance in return. Leave the old, spamming-and-keyword-stuffing ways behind and you don’t have to worry about getting penalised at all