We handle all of our partner’s website marketing, including all SEO activities to help their biggest keywords rank high on search engines. As part of this, we are constantly keeping aware of any Google algorithm changes. The big change was a recent improvement to their Penguin algorithm. Let’s dive into the specifics.

In general, the Google Penguin algorithm was introduced to fight against websites that violate Google’s Webmaster rules, usually through buying links or selling that aimed to influence and improve rankings. This game changing Google algorithm was announced in April 2012, the 24th to be exact. Within a few months after its introduction, a frenzied mass of website and business owners started wondering why their rankings were moving from up to down. As usual with Google, the updates were deployed and confirmed, as is the way it was at the time, but these days, it is often more alert. But to be honest, you do not know if you have been hit once the rankings have settled down.

Google’s Penguin is a major release because it showed real intent to fight against Google purchased links and of course sold, with established websites guilty of doing such things affected. Of course, these are different manual penalties where an employee on Google’s web spam team slaps a manual penalty on your website. As with any algorithm, it is entirely controlled by a few thousand computers somewhere in Google’s huge footprint. Although the update was not always correct in the measures taken, some claiming to have been unfairly penalized, generally 3.1% of English-based search results, have been affected by the shake. When you think how many searches are made on Google, this equates to a lot of movement for a large number of sites.

On Friday, September 23rd of this year, rumblings began in the SEO sphere with fluctuations in the ranking of Google. At the beginning of the following week, it was confirmed: The latest Google Penguin update was deployed, adding features in real time.

Many sites have since then seen their ranks drop drastically, but for most of the results were mixed.

How Penguin Used To Work

  • Backlinks were always assessed every time a new version was rolled out
  • Penalties were given once to twice per year
  • Penalties were lifted once to twice per year
  • Penalties affected domains as a whole
  • Penalties did require a reconsideration request to be removed

Therefore, the Penguin update that rocked the SEO world fought web spam and cut the legs out from under BlackHat SEO….but it was far from a perfect solution, and updates tried to correct some of the significant problems.

What The New Penguin 4.0 Is All About

The latest update comes with big changes!

  • Penguin 4.0 is integrated with Google’s core algorithm
  • Penguin 4.0 will update in real time.
  • Penguin 4.0 affect specific pages, not the entire domain
  • Penguin 4.0 is supposed to be the FINAL Penguin update!

Since all Penguin updates will now happen in real time, you can be rest assured that if you get your penalty removed, it will be forever removed.

What Does It Mean For You

As long as you’ve been avoiding black hat SEO practices, this should mean almost nothing regarding business as usual. Keep calm, carry on, and get your site ranking.

Now, your site has struggled penalty in the past, however, Penguin 4.0 is probably mixed news. Provided that you have cleaned up their act since 2014 (and if not, why not now?), then this update should go some way to help their recovery. If you were hoping for a recovery, it is now when you should start to fix it.

And above all, do not build thin content and/or spam links on your website.

Conclusion

If you are a small business struggling to boost your search engine traffic, guess what? Now is the time to act. Removal of bad links now will take immediate and lasting effect. Some businesses are already feeling that impact.