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Google Release New Update To Core Algorithm (Penguin 4.0)

25.09.16

Not only has the autumnal weather begun to dawn upon us, the Moz weather forecast has been moving into high weather warnings as Google shakes up a core-update to their algorithm.

It’s now been almost two years since the last Google Penguin update but it’s finally here and the big news is that Penguin will now operate in real-time.

 

What is Google Penguin?

Google Penguin is an algorithm update first released in April 2012 to catch sites spamming the search results. This was brought in to combat SEO malpractices that allowed sites to jump up in the rankings without following Google guidelines and falsely creating keyword relevancy on their sites.

In 2014 Penguin was updated again with Google stating less than 1% of queries would be affected, which may not seem a great deal but this roughly translates to around 12 billion queries. With the 2016 update now operating in real-time we would now expect to see a much higher percentage affected in the future.

With the changes being rolled out slowly by Google, there’s no firm pattern yet emerging but what has been noted by SEO giant Moz is a number of local search queries and image results seeing significant shifts. Over the next few weeks we will expect to see big changes in the rankings for a number of search queries and it’ll be the sites who are consistently working on their site to abide by Google’s guidelines who will benefit most in the long run.

The perils of bad SEO

When Google rolls out a massive update such as Penguin, it will show that any site looking for quick, short-term gain will be quickly shot down and the sites that work consistently to give a genuine user experience will see longevity in the search rankings.

How will real-time affect your website?

With Google Penguin updating in real-time, changes to your website will be reflected in the rankings much quicker, even as soon as your next re-crawl rather than how it operated previously with a periodic refresh.

The way Google looks at your site will now be much more granular, with the spam signals looked at per page rather than your whole site. That means any website malpractice which is specific to one page won’t affect your whole site as it would have done previously. It would be highly likely however that we could assume the site’s overall rating will be hurt in the long run if you continue to employ spammy tactics on individual pages.

How to ensure your website benefits from Google Penguin in real-time

What Google have made clear, as they do with every update to their algorithm, is that it makes up one of over 200 signals which they use to rank your site. However, what has always been evident is that some signals bear more weight than others and the latest Penguin update is going to be an important factor to consider with any new changes to your site.

Getting this right could see a huge benefit to your position in organic search results so consultation at this early stage could put you in a great long-term position for the future.

 

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Google Release New Update To Core Algorithm (Penguin 4.0)

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