Google’s Latest Penguin & Panda Updates

Google changes its algorithm about 500 times a year.  Most changes are so minor that they are not even noticeable.  But every few months, an update comes along that has a major impact on the ranking results of many websites.  These big updates, usually named after black and white animals, make webmasters uneasy and keep them wondering what is going to happen next.

Google’s two most recent algorithm changes are the Panda and the Penguin.  Typically the search engine pushes out algorithm updates for each about once a month.

The Panda was first released in February 2011, and there have been about 13 data refreshes of it since then.  The update aims to promote high quality content sites by cracking down on sites with low quality content, specifically thin, stolen or duplicate quality as well as sites with a high ad-to-content ratio.  It has reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12% of all search results.

To prevent their sites from being affected by the Panda, one of the first things that many webmasters and SEOs did was separate out low quality content.  Instead of stealing articles and posting auto-generated content, they have focused on creating unique content.  They have also evened out their ad-to-content ratio so that their sites are not filled with overwhelming amounts of cheap ads.

The Panda was most recently refreshed on June 25 and this was announced by Google in a tweet.  They said there were no updates to the algorithm or changes in the signals.  It was simply a basic data refresh where the algorithm was run again.

The Penguin was first released in April 2012 with the intention of reducing web spam and promoting high quality content in search results.  It has cracked down on sites that violate Google’s quality guidelines by creating or supporting spam to increase their rankings in search engines.  This includes using unnatural links, keyword stuffing and content spinning.  It is said that the update has impacted about 3.1% of web queries, particularly those with unnatural links.

In an effort to make Google happy and avoid being affected by the Penguin update, webmasters have recently worked harder to gather quality links, utilize social media and create better content.  They have also been more careful with keyword stuffing, making sure not to go overboard with keywords or overload meta tags, heading and body copy so much that they are hard for people to read.

The most recent Penguin update was released over Memorial Day weekend. 

The update is not an actual change to the Penguin algorithm, but a data refresh. Matt Cutts defines this as a small refresh of data within the existing algorithm.  It has affected less than 0.1% of all English searches, so few websites are being impacted.