What is Google Penguin?

Google Penguin is a filter in Google’s ranking algorithm that targets websites using spammy, manipulative tactics such as black-hat techniques. The websites which identified as being guilty are penalised by Google Penguin and which can decrease their search engine rankings.

Google recently announced the new launch, named Google Penguin 3.0, to reduce the amount of spam on the internet and offer a better search experience for internet users.  While Penguin 3.0 is estimated to impact only 1% of English search queries, many businesses are keen to learn more about the changes in order to shift their marketing tactics if necessary.

1. Spammy links

The new algorithm helps sites that have cleaned up their webspam signals since the last update, and

also penalize sites with newly-discovered spam.

Penguin 3.0 has finally acknowledged hours of hard work to clean up inbound links. In fact, some websites has increased significantly in search engine ranking after the update. On the other hand, if your site ranking has dropped over these few weeks, you may still need clean up work to do.
 

2. A worldwide rollout

Unlike some of Google’s other algorithm updates, such as Google Panda, Penguin update launches globally. It means that sites in any language and any region could potentially have an impact on Penguin. As Penguin targets spam links, it doesn’t really need to worry about language.


3. Still in progress

The roll out is not completed yet and Google estimates it will take few weeks for the updates to finish. So it is important to know that search results are likely to continue to fluctuate during this time.

Although the roll out is still in progress, you should carefully watch your analytics over the next few weeks for any sudden changes. If you notice that your rankings have dropped significantly or the amount of organic traffic has been decreasing over the past few days, Penguin 3.0 could be to blame.


Even if you weren’t affected, it is a great opportunity to review your website to make sure there are no bad inbound links pointing to your website. Bad links include links posted in irrelevant conversations, links in non-industry specific directories and links you paid for directly other than advertising. This will protect you against future penalties, and also position yourself to recover when the next Penguin update is launched.