I can proudly say that I have never been responsible for the website that punished by Google Algorithm updates i.e Panda/Penguin
Sometimes I surprised to hear from new clients saying that they don't know the reason behind their website ranking sudden falls down or penalized. Even I also faced same with SEO professionals saying "Why it's happened? What's the reason Behind that? How to overcome or fix? How much it costs to client?
How can you claim yourself SEO professional or marketing expert if you don't know the reason behind that.
The reason behind all that queries is only one i.e. lack of Google Algorithm updates panda/penguin knowledge. If you are internet marketing professional you must aware of all that. You must have knowledge about all latest SEO methods, their implementation and also concern about output.
Now I want to ask some questions?
1. Do you follow any SEO blog for updates?
2. Do you know the SEO methods you are following beneficial or not?
3. Content you are writing and submitting, Really works for you?
4. Do you analyse On Page before starting SEO Off Page?
5. Do you analyse what's your strategy?
Mostly I notice that the person who are working hard for the website and still not getting results, looking for the reason behind that.
Here are the few old SEO methods which are now useless for you if you are using and also get to know how you can do better:
Article Submission
If the word "EzineArticles" raise in your mind when you talk about article submission then just stop right now. It was only a way to get quick backlink to your site, nothing else.
I understand that link building is not easy. It takes time and efforts.
Instead of wasting time on all these why don't you prefer link building through bloggers and make use of guest posting which gives value to your site and build audience, traffic to your website.
Comments on irrelevant category
I'm sure if you are a site owner then thousand of this type of links you have. If still your are doing this then stop right here. It's just wasting of time. Mostly sites have anti spam detection which will not approve you link and in case your link is being auto approved then still not beneficial. Consider thousand of people doing same thing like you, how much outbound links think you will have.
Directory Submissions
It make me think about one of my staff member. Like most online SEO expert, He submit his site to thousand of directory sites having auto and manually submission. He was getting good traffic but around 1.5 years ago, his site got punished by Google. The keywords ranking on Google First Page now no where to be found in search results. That sure taught a lesson to him and something to me also.
Link Exchange
When I start my career in SEO, link exchange was so popular. Few of sites was there, you have to submit your link and next day lots of website owners send you email regarding link exchange and if you want then you could exchanged with relevant sites. But now it's no more. Trust me because Google can easy catch that you are doing link exchange by analysis site value like Page Rank, Domain and Page Authority.
Value to Quantity over quality
Mostly people think that more the links pointing to your site more you rank on Google search results. I analysed this all by creating thousand of links from articles, bookmarking, press release and commenting etc. It was worked but now it's not. Today few of them work but still not effective and I'm sure that Google will soon categorized this all as spam or may be as a black hat technique.
This all are the old SEO methods and answer to your queries. Mostly of them considered as spam. Just time wastage, If you are still doing all this then it's good time to stop all this. And if all this technology and Social media keep changes, I'm sure in future search results will no longer depends on Backlinks. It will depend on the Social Media and site content.
These are my personal experience or assumptions, if you have any other opinion feel free to write me at agaurav167@gmail.com. I will share with others.
