Google Rolls Out Penguin 2.1

On the 4th October 2013, Google released its fifth edition of its Penguin update. Since the initial launch of the Penguin algorithm in April 2012, Penguin has improved with over 4 updates. These updates’ main job is to devalue manipulative links. It does this to penalise websites using black hat techniques that are against the Webmaster guidelines for Google. Think of the Penguin as a next generation spam sheriff, using a spam-fighting algorithm. This update is thought to be more comprehensive than the previous updates, the biggest difference being the deeper level of analysis. It has the ability to crawl and analyse to a more in depth level into pages to identify spam activities. This algorithm change is set to effect roughly 1{06e29518e582b1cc2da09f8f2ea316dadc41c520023bcca83a4deb5e6ad0a3c6} of searches which is a noticeable degree, the effect may not be higher than the 2.0 upgrade but it will have a larger impact that the previous minor refreshes.

There is a lot of talk in digital marketing about how the new Hummingbird algorithm will affect Google’s Panda and new Penguin update. This new Hummingbird algorithm update has replaced the old Google search engine algorithm. Google Penguin is incorporated but does not replace it; Penguin will continue to be updated as Hummingbird is enhanced. Sites with the right inbound links will be better of in the long run as they wont be picked up by this strict new Penguin update that focuses largely on link and keyword building amongst other tactics that create spam.

The Penguin 2.1 update and the recent Hummingbird algorithm change combined will affect SEO and inbound online marketing industry. Hummingbird is for the entire Google search engine ranking system whereas Penguin is like the spam filter for it. For us in online marketing and the SEO industry we need to stop focusing as much on the link building even though this is still a key piece in the ranking algorithm, and more on creating great content. This will benefit both our users and us with more relevant content leading to a higher natural ranking. This is something that the Penguin 2.1 update advises. Penguin is focused on cutting spam from any sites they find it on. To create successful SEO it’s important to cut anything from your site that could be seen as spam. Using techniques such as paid backlinks, low quality backlinks and excessive link exchanges is something this new update will not accept and could create a penalty. SEJ have created an article on how to remove these, although this is for advance webmasters. Social media and content marketing is the best way to gain organic links as an opposed to link building.

Many sites have been targeted and claim to have been ‘hit’ by the Penguin update. It is recommended to check your organic search engine traffic after this update to see if your traffic dramatically changes. Also checking Google Webmaster tools account to see if you have any manual penalties, this will allow you to change some of your content until it successfully follows the new Penguin 2.1 guidelines. This Penguin update has been known to penalise websites that are actually using white hat techniques; this can be devastating to a web page. Making sure you have a long-term plan that involves valuable content and quality resources should keep you away from any penalisation from Google. As SEO experts we know that Google will keep updating as an attempt to identify and remove web spam as well as targeting spammers so we need to constantly be avoiding black hat techniques and following Google’s guidelines to help our own sites and users avoiding unwanted content when using Google search.