Google Penguin Update

The Google Penguin update first carried out back in 2012. It is an update to the Google search engine ranking algorithm. When it rolled out, it left massive effects on various websites. Google meant the update to combat webspam. Today, the Penguin update is a part of the core Google search engine algorithm. Updates to the Penguin algorithm now take place continually and are not manual.

Goal of Penguin Update

The Penguin update is principally aimed against webspam to optimize search results for users. This enhancement was done with higher quality content, refined technical website performance.

How Webmasters Affected

The Penguin update hits websites that do not comply with the webmaster guidelines of Google (as an instance, buy backlinks or manipulate links in some other way). In the earlier versions, the Google Penguin update devalued the whole domain if webspam was recognized. This site fine could eventually lead to suspension from the index. Nowadays the Penguin filter works on a URL basis; if the filter comes across webspam, this can result in a ranking loss for different subpages. 

With the rollout of the constant updates, there is, however, always the possibility that penalty given out to affected websites are more promptly lifted. When the updates were still taken out manually, it was significantly more difficult to be released from the penalty – this usually took a right up to the following Penguin update. 

The Penguin update had far-reaching effects for the SEO world. If a substantial part of the work of SEOs before then was still active link building and receiving backlinks via guest entries or link exchange, link building has since become more difficult. Now further efforts are being made to use high-quality content to enhance voluntary linking to your own website. At the same time, other marketing channels such as social media are being employed to improve the reach of the site and to get backlinks and traffic thereby.

What Kind of Webspam Does it Work Against?

According to the Google ”quality guidelines,” webspam is in many distinct forms. According to it, the following ways or features are deemed as webspam:

• Unnatural links: These backlinks can, for instance, be made by link purchase or link rent from link farms.
• Unnatural linking: If mainly keyword links are placed on a website, it is often a case of webspam.
• Fast link growth: If a website gets multiple incoming links quickly, Google may flag it as webspam. 

Things to do If Your Site Come Under the Radar

Those who discover Penguin hits their site should quickly work on dissecting the link structure. Links from web directories or incoming links from link farms as well as bad neighborhoods can result in devaluation. An important indicator that the Penguin filter has been activated is a notice of “unnatural links” that Google gives via the Google Search Console to webmasters.  

In this case, previous link building exercises should be studied and analyzed so that the results of Google Penguin is reduced for the affected websites.  

One possibility is for webmasters to write to the linking websites and ask for the removal of the backlinks. Beyond this, Google has given an option with the Disavow Tool. With this tool, backlinks can be directly declared as void.  

Panda and Penguin – What’s the Difference?

Since the two main Google updates focused against webspam have become part of the Google core algorithm, webmasters and SEOs are now scantily able to tell which element has just been updated accurately. It’s no longer suitable for webmasters and SEOs to rely on methods that worked out well even just a few years ago. 

Google has applied Penguin and Panda to come to a point where webmasters and SEOs concentrate on user interests and optimization no longer only takes place for search engines. Website operators are now more than ever driven to create high-quality content and technically faultless websites. Short-term SEO practices or black hat methods are becoming less and less useful or have already become worthless.