With the release of Penguin 4.0, Google has announced that it will be the last release of the Penguin updates given that Penguin is now a real-time signal that is processed by its core search algorithm. The Penguin algorithm has been rolled out in all languages, as well.
Google officially made the announcement regarding Penguin 4.0 on the Google Webmaster Central Blog on September 23, 2016.
If you are concerned that your rankings may have taken a hit as a result of this latest update or you just want to find out more about these changes, we’ve got you covered. Here is what you need to know about the Penguin 4.0 update so that you can adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
What Is Google Penguin?
Penguin is a filter that was designed to capture sites that are spamming the search engines in ways that may not be anticipated by Google’s regular spam detection systems.
When a site is determined to be spammy, the Penguin filter would run and penalize the site for up to months at a time. However, with the filter not running continuously some sites would still be allowed to spam the search engines while others would continue to be penalized despite having stopped the spammy practices that caused the penalty in the first place.
In 2014, Penguin 3.0 occurred and it took sites that were hit by the update nearly two years to overcome it. This meant that a Penguin penalty could have a devastating impact on your website back then.
However, the real-time nature of Penguin 4.0 has made delays in the running of Penguin a thing of the past. This means that pages will not only be caught in real-time, they also have a chance to be released from the filter faster after they stop the spammy practices that caused them to be filtered in the first place.
Penguin 4.0 Focuses More on Specific Pages
In addition, Google has also confirmed that the Penguin update is more granular which allows it to devalue spammy pages rather than affecting the ranking of the entire site. In previous updates, Penguin was a penalty that affected the entire site. However, now it seems that it could only impact sections or specific pages of a website.
Google Discontinues Penguin Notifications
Since Penguin 4.0 is a real-time update, Google says that it will also continue notifications about Penguin updates. As a result, SEOs will have to rely on the analytics data provided by Google Search Console and other SEO tools in order to determine if a site has been affected by a Penguin 4.0 penalty.
In addition, Google has not confirmed whether or not Penguin 4.0 is fully live. They simply said that it is rolling out and did not specify how long that might take. However, with frequent crawls of your website by the search engine robots, you may see the impact quickly. If the search engine robots crawl your site infrequently, then it may take you longer to notice changes in your rankings.
How Penguin 4.0 Will Affect Your SEO
Now that Penguin is a part of the over 200 signals that Google uses as a part of its core algorithm, it is more important than ever for you to keep up with the latest updates to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to ensure that your SEO strategy follows Google’s recommendations. It’s also advantageous to take advantage of SEO tools like the email scraper we created. In addition, you can also expect that you will see updates of a similar nature from Google more frequently in the future.
Helpful Videos About Google Penguin 4.0 Real-Time
Image courtesy of Zero Gravity Marketing.
About the Author
