2 years down the line, SEO conversations have unanimously been dominated by one question. When will Google update Penguin? Well, Google has finally confirmed that it has rolled out a Penguin algorithm update.
Penguin?
Google first launched Penguin update in April 2012, in an effort to curb and eliminate spamming sites, particularly so, those that used black hat SEO. By this, I mean those that used manipulative link scheme methods solely for search rankings.
Victims of this monster have gradually been declining. After the release of the Penguin, web owners have wised up and are now getting rid of bad links.
Penguin 1.0 hit approximately 37 billion queries, while the latest Penguin 3.0 hit 12 billion queries. It`s expected that figures associated with the recently released Penguin 4.0 will fall drastically.
Penguin fishes out sites with inorganic links, those bought and those with content solely for search ranking purposes.
What makes any Penguin update a dreadful moment for any site is not only due to ranking factors but also due to the marketing campaign.
Before the onset on Penguin, corrupt links were simply devaluated and what one needed was just a mere replacement.
Google has put forward that the impact of the Penguin 4.0 will be gradual, as they have to re-crawl the entire system. Most importantly, to root out the deep links.
2 Things to Expect These from Penguin 4.0
1) Penguin 4.0 is now real time
Initially, lists of websites affected by Penguin were occasionally restored at the same time.
Once a site was given a clean bill health by improving the site and making it visible, Google algorithms would reward the site instantly, but others, such as Penguin, would wait until a refresh is done for the site to be considered.
With the update, the changes will be effected and visible within a short span of time.
2) Penguin is more granular
Spam will now be devalued by adjusting the ranking based on spam signal, instead of wholly affecting the site.
Use of the web has drastically changed. Due to this reason, webmasters should focus on creating superb and organic content. Despite all this, it`s important to note that Penguin is only, among the 200+Google uses for raking factors.
Sekou McHenry 