Yesterday, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, announced the roll-out of Penguin 2.0 which is said to affect 2.3% of all search queries on Google. To catch some of you up, Penguin 2.0 is the fourth release of Google’s spam-fighting updates. Some people will be calling it Penguin 4, but it contains Penguin 2.0 technology, which Google states is a new generation of technology that should better stop spam. That means, this is not a data refresh, however a new algorithm set to ward off spam even more and hopefully reward those of us that are actually doing SEO the correct way. With the update now live it is said that webmasters and SEOs should expect major changes to the search results.
Penguin 2.0 And It’s Predecessors
Here is a list of all the Penguin updates to date, as reported by Search Engine Land:
- Penguin 1 on April 24, 2012 (impacting ~3.1% of queries)
- Penguin 2 on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%)
- Penguin 3 on October 5, 2012 (impacting ~0.3% of queries)
- Penguin 4 on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries)
Again, Penguin 1 – 3 all used the same technology, however the new Penguin 4 has a major change, which is why it is being referred to as Penguin 2.o. Is anyone confused yet? If so it’s OK, because Google probably wants to confuse us all anyways.
What Penguin 2.0 Means To You
What does the new Google Penguin update mean to you as an SEO expert and what does it mean to the average person just trying to get their website to rank? Right now, the truth is, nobody knows and everything we say will be pure speculation. If you are on Google’s webspam team then you might and we stress might know what is going to happen from the Penguin update. When it really comes down to the future of SEO, we don’t know how this update will affect things. One thing we do know is that Penguin 2.o is here. Leap Clixx is positive that continuing to write quality content, conducting natural link building and using effective keyword research will keep your website on top of your competitors that might be using “black hat” SEO techniques.
Here is the video Matt Cutts released talking about the new Penguin 2.0 update:
For ways to Penguin Proof and Panda Proof your website click here.
