Should I Wait Until the "Dust Settles" on the Algorithm Update or Get Busy Now?

[rdreich49]

We were hit hard on both of our sites yesterday and can't afford to wait for the dust to settle, as some folks are advising. We have been attempting to work off a penalty on one of our sites by undergoing a massive (and expensive) link removal project over the last four months.  We are on our third reconsideration request and, hopefully, this last round of link removal will have done the job.  I'm hesitant to go in and "de-optmize" the site by changing title tags and changing the anchor text until the penalty is removed, but I'm not sure if that's the right plan of action.  I am, however, going to dig into the non-penalized site and change some title tags and anchor text.

Any thoughts on this strategy would be greatly appreciated.

[myclicks-163603]

Try to generate more natural looking links. Diversify your anchor text portfolio so it looks natural and continue with your link building efforts. Do it in a way like your grandma will do it.  With or without www, capital letters in the domainname, same anchor texts to different urls, use as much reasonable permutations as possible when generating the anchor texts.  Bring good quality links, links from PR, links from guest blogging, post even more unique and genuine content. That will pay off. You can become more focused once the "dust settles". If you wait you will be definitely losing time and you will still start at the same point where you are now.

[randfish]

Richard - this is just my personal opinion, and it's not based on a ton of recent experience (I haven't had sites banned/penalized by Google in a very long time now). However, my feeling is that if you've been hit by this update, it's a great catalyst for immediate change. I'd be thinking about all of the following:

• Is now the time to start a new site that's exclusively white hat?
• Can I salvage this site and what's involved in that?
• How do I get rid of the bad links?
• How do I explain all the things I've done to Google (through reconsideration) and are they likely to let me back in?

Obviously, it depends on your long/short term goals, why you're doing web marketing in the first place, what you want to accomplish in the next few years, etc. If you're in the short-term, make money on the web fast with as little effort as possible and don't want to build a brand, then it's a question of whether 301'ing the domain to a new one and trying some tactics Google's not-yet-devalued is better than trying reconsideration and removal of bad links.

If you're thinking long term and brand building and want to put in sweat equity now that might take years to pay off, I'd be thinking around the new domain vs. trying to salvage this one (or two).

Wish you luck whatever you choose!

[rdreich49]

Rand, I appreciate your feedback.  We have been doing this for 9 years, thought we were doing a fairly decent job of building a brand (until we took a hit) and plan to continue for the long term, so I think your advice on building the new site(s) is a good one.

Once Google responds (or doesn't) to our latest request, we'll make that decision.  By the way, we have been using an SEOMoz-referred company to help us with link-removal and, despite Google's refusal to budge after a huge number of links have been removed, I think they're doing a very good job.  I know what they're up against, so I'm hoping to be able to give them rave reviews once this is done.

[randfish]

Cool - glad to hear you're having a positive experience. I think waiting until you hear from Google is a wise decision, too.

[Dr-Pete]

I'd echo Rand but will just add this. You've got two factors here:

(1) On the one hand, the "Penguin" update hit hard and it isn't going to go away, I expect. Google may make minor adjustments, but these could happen over weeks and months and the philosophy is here to stay. Keep in mind that we're over a year into Panda update snow. So, absolutely don't wait for the dust to settle.

(2) On the other hand, you're dealing with an existing penalty, and you do need to resolve that. Don't panic, in other words. Act decisively, but follow through on solving the current problem.

If you go changing things site-wide, like titles/URLs, it's going to be hard to get a clean read of the data. If you can, tackle the worst culprits proactively (a spammy home-page title, for example). Tackle anything that's obviously a win - dupe content is a great example - you know it isn't helping you. From a link-building perspective, diversify and show a positive forward path.

[rdreich49]

Thanks, Peter. I appreciate your feedback. We are going to move slowly until we get a response (or not) to our reconsideration request.