Google Penguin Slaps Faster Not Harder

Google’s Gary Illyes announced this week that the real-time version of the Penguin Algorithm will be released in the “foreseeable future” and hopefully by the end of the year.

Google first launched the Penguin Update in 2012. Penguin was developed to help catch sites that Google deemed to be breaching its best practice model and spamming search results. The core focus of Penguin Updates is to find sites that have been buying links or obtaining them through link networks designed pretty much just to boost Google search rankings and have no other real value or relevance.

The current issue is that if sites get penalised for this and take appropriate action to remove bad links it can take a long time to recover — generally at least until the next Penguin update is released or refreshed. And sites that weren’t caught can retain high rankings until the next update.

Why should you care?

Well, firstly we hope that like us you use best practice SEO and this won’t be an issue.

The big plus about real time Penguin is that those sites that continue to use best practice will gain traction on search rankings while those that don’t will get caught sooner.

Likewise, if you (or your agency) have been caught by Penguin, the work you do to put things back in order will be recognised sooner and you will recover rankings quicker.

If you are concerned about a sudden drop in site visitors let us know. We can conduct an audit to see if you may have been affected.

Click here for more search marketing news.

The latest news about web marketing, SEO, PPC Advertising & Web Analytics. But only the stuff that matters from a New Zealand perspective. Delivered to your inbox each Monday.

If you found this useful, please tell your friends.