A Phantom & Penguin One-Two Punch Updates From Google

Phantom and Penguin were two major updates from Google in the month of May which had its consequence on webmasters, SEO professionals and business owners. Phantom was updated on May 8th and its effect was heavy where in it targeted only content but not links. While Penguin 2.0 was updated on May 22nd and it went deeper than previous Penguin updates which targets unnatural links.

 Phanteguin is most powerful one-two punch from Google:

It is very tough for business owners whose sites are hit by Panda, Penguin or Phantom algorithm updates. These are worst situations for the online businesses who do not understand exactly what had happened, what to do, how to recover and at the same time they will be losing their businesses every hour.
But it can get worse:
It is the nastiest situation to get hit by two algorithms one after other rather than only one algorithm. Last year the same happened with updations of Panda and Penguin known as Pandeguin. At present these two punch updates are known as Phanteguin, which has its consequence severely on site.

Google Penguin and Phantom: Digging into deeper

Penguin and Phantom each of these algorithms has their own set of uniqueness and targets according to which they were updated. Penguin 2.0 went in to deeper that is it took internal pages also in to account and is very finely tuned to knock all unnatural links. Penguin aims at penalizing websites having unnatural links that uses exact match anchor text from low quality sites.

   Penguin 2.0 covered unnatural links from blogs, spam directories, spam comments, link networks of public and private and so on. While Phantom focused highly on content rather than links and is much similar to Panda than Penguin. Just a day after Phantom update we were able to see a severe drop in organic traffic that was hit by the update. There was a traffic drop of 25 to 45 percent for the websites that were affected by this update. Below is one of the examples of Phantom update.

Insights of Phantom:

On May 9th we could see amazing and incredible for confirming that there was a significant algorithm update.

As the analysis goes on the sites that were affected by Phantom we could be able to see more like above. Phantom just concentrated only on content but not links. Phantom has taken into account a number of content issues which ranges from thin content, affiliate content, scraped content, low-quality content, etc. It also considered heavy cross-linking from company-owned domains that used exact match anchor text.

Panda Greased the Skids for Phantom:

It was observed that most of the sites which were hit by Phantom were previously hit by Panda update also. It also shows that these sites had struggled with quality content issues but in the mean time again they were hit by Phantom.

Indentifying Phanteguin:

Effects of any algorithmic updates on sites can be easily found out using Google webmaster tools and Google analytics as these tools help us to identify traffic drop on particular days. Now to check whether a site is affected by Phantom or Penguin updates we need to check if there is drop in traffic on May 8th or May 22nd respectively. If a site is affected by both updates then it will be Phanteguin.

We can find if there is drop only from mobile search or image search or only web etc, using filters in Analytics. It is important to note the date on which traffic is dropped so we will be able to know which update has affected the site.

To check affect of Phantom using Location Filters:

Another important aspect is that we need to check drop of traffic using location filters because if all countries are taken into account we may not be able to see drop in traffic.  If we notice drop then we can be able to compare time-period after traffic drop to time-period before traffic drop. By exporting data from Google webmaster tools as soon as a site is hit by algorithm updates we can analyze them clearly. Because in webmaster tools we will not be able to see previous data but we can see only data of 30 days.

Analyzing using Google Analytics:

Google analytics will help us to analyze using advanced segments which is an added advantage. We can start by separating Google organic search traffic and then need to view tending graph. For analyzing Phantom update we need to check drop in traffic from certain keywords and landing pages. This helps to identify possible content issues and pages to analyze further. Advanced segments will let us slice and dice traffic and helps us gain a solid view of traffic drops over time.

Analyzing Phanteguin is not an easy task:

If the site has hit by two updates then we need to analyze in both aspects. That is Phantom has to be analyzed using quality content filter while Penguin has to be examined for unnatural links. But it is better to analyze Penguin update first. To do analysis of Penguin affect we need to analyze inbound links, then flag those unnatural links, organize them and the last step is to remove them.
To analyze Phantom affect there is a need to objectively review whole content of site and identify the risks. Next step is to come up with refining or gutting site content.

What to do if you’ve been hit by Phanteguin:

• If a site is hit by Phanteguin, here are some tips which help us to move in right direction:
• It is important to identify which algorithm update(s) has hit the site. This is essentially important as both of these algorithm update targets different factors.
• In case of Penguin update, we need to concentrate on analyzing link profile and flag spammy links. Then remove those links the best you can. If we are unable to remove links then we can add the links to disavow file.
• While in Phantom update, we need to heavily analyze content, and make analysis of the pages that dropped significantly after the Phantom update. 
• Once we completed analysis and taken action, there is a need to wait for another algorithm update (Penguin, Phantom, or Panda). Panda is now rolled out once per month over 10 days, and the next Penguin update refreshes soon.