Google Penguin Update. Penguin 3 Released, Impacts 0.3% Of English-Language Queries

Our friend from Twitter, and the head of web-spam team at Google- Matt Cutts has recently announced on Twitter that Google’s Penguin 3.0 or call it the ‘data-refresh’ update was rolled out on October 5 ’2012. Now since this is the third Penguin update since the launch of Penguin algo updates in April ’2012, we are calling it Penguin 3.0. The present Penguin data-refresh algorithm update will affect search queries across multiple languages. More information is available, right after the jump.

Matt Cutts like every time used Twitter to confirm the current Penguin data-refresh update and so far is the third data-refresh update this year. The main motive of these algorithm changes remain the same, i.e to reward high quality content producing websites in Google’s search, and at the same time force low quality content websites from either not appearing or ranking far behind in search engine. While this update is said to have impacted multiple languages, we are specifically considering English search queries at this time. Google’s Penguin 3.0 is said to have impacted ~0.3% of the search in English language while Spanish impact is ~0.4% and Italian impact is ~0.3% of queries. 

Here’s a record of past Google Penguin updates in 2012.

• Penguin 1: April 24, 2012 (3.1%)
• Penguin 2: May 26, 2012 (less than 0.1%)
• Penguin 3: Oct. 5, 2012 (0.3%) 

Google Panda algorithm update 20 Released, 2.4% Of English Queries Impacted

Google has confirmed with us that on Thursday, September 27th, they released a Panda algorithm update – this would be the 20th Panda update and thus we are naming it Panda 20. This is a fairly major Panda update that impacts 2.4% of English search queries and is still rolling out. Late Friday

This is actually a Panda algorithm update, not just a data update. A lot of the most-visible differences went live Thursday 9/27, but the full rollout is baking into our index and that process will continue for another 3-4 days or so. This update affects about 2.4% of English queries to a degree that a regular user might notice, with a smaller impact in other languages (0.5% in French and Spanish, for example).

Google Algorithm Change History - 2012 Updates

 Google Algorithm Change History -  2012 Updates

Panda 3.9.2 — September 18, 2012

Google rolled out another Panda refresh, which appears to have been data-only. Ranking flux was moderate but not on par with a large-scale algorithm update.

Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012

Google rolled out yet another Panda data update, but the impact seemed to be fairly small. Since the Panda 3.0 series ran out of numbers at 3.9, the new update was dubbed 3.9.1.


7-Result SERPs — August 14, 2012

Google made a significant change to the Top 10, limiting it to 7 results for many queries. Our research showed that this change rolled out over a couple of days, finally impacting about 18% of the keywords we tracked.


DMCA Penalty — August 10, 2012

Google announced that they would start penalizing sites with repeat copyright violations, probably via DMCA takedown


June/July 86-Pack — August 10, 2012

After a summer hiatus, the June and July Search Quality Highlights were rolled out in one mega-post. Major updates included Panda data and algorithm refreshes, an improved rank-ordering function (?), a ranking boost for "trusted sources", and changes to site clustering.


Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012

A month after Panda 3.8, Google rolled out a new Panda update. Rankings fluctuated for 5-6 days, although no single day was high enough to stand out. Google claimed ~1% of queries were impacted.


Link Warnings — July 19, 2012
In a repeat of March/April, Google sent out a large number of unnatural link warnings via Google Webmaster Tools. In a complete turn-around, they then announced that these new warnings may not actually represent a serious problem.


Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012

Google rolled out another Panda data refresh, but this appeared to be data only (no algorithm changes) and had a much smaller impact than Panda 3.7.


Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012

Google rolled out yet another Panda data update, claiming that less than 1% of queries were affect. Ranking fluctuation data suggested that the impact was substantially higher than previous Panda updates (3.5, 3.6).


May 39-Pack — June 7, 2012

Google released their monthly Search Highlights, with 39 updates in May. Major changes included Penguin improvements, better link-scheme detection, changes to title/snippet rewriting, and updates to Google News.

Penguin 1.1 — May 25, 2012

Google rolled out its first targeted data update after the "Penguin" algorithm update. This confirmed that Penguin data was being processed outside of the main search index, much like Panda data.

Knowledge Graph — May 16, 2012

In a major step toward semantic search, Google started rolling out "Knowledge Graph", a SERP-integrated display providing supplemental object about certain people, places, and things. Expect to see "knowledge panels" appear on more and more SERPs over time. Also, Danny Sullivan's favorite Trek is ST:Voyager?!

April 52-Pack — May 4, 2012

Google published details of 52 updates in April, including changes that were tied to the "Penguin" update. Other highlights included a 15% larger "base" index, improved pagination handling, and a number of updates to sitelinks.

Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012

Barely a week after Panda 3.5, Google rolled out yet another Panda data update. The implications of this update were unclear, and it seemed that the impact was relatively small.

Penguin — April 24, 2012

After weeks of speculation about an "Over-optimization penalty", Google finally rolled out the "Webspam Update", which was soon after dubbed "Penguin." Penguin adjusted a number of spam factors, including keyword stuffing, and impacted an estimated 3.1% of English queries.

Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012

In the middle of a busy week for the algorthim, Google quietly rolled out a Panda data update. A mix of changes made the impact difficult to measure, but this appears to have been a fairly routine update with minimal impact.

Parked Domain Bug — April 16, 2012

After a number of webmasters reported ranking shuffles, Google confirmed that a data error had caused some domains to be mistakenly treated as parked domains (and thereby devalued). This was not an intentional algorithm change.

March 50-Pack — April 3, 2012

Google posted another batch of update highlights, covering 50 changes in March. These included confirmation of Panda 3.4, changes to anchor-text "scoring", updates to image search, and changes to how queries with local intent are interpreted.

Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012

Google announced another Panda update, this time via Twitter as the update was rolling out. Their public statements estimated that Panda 3.4 impacted about 1.6% of search results.

Search Quality Video — March 12, 2012

This wasn't an algorithm update, but Google published a rare peek into a search quality meeting. For anyone interested in the algorithm, the video provides a lot of context to both Google's process and their priorities. It's also a chance to see Amit Singhal in action.

Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012

Google rolled out another post-"flux" Panda update, which appeared to be relatively minor. This came just 3 days after the 1-year anniversary of Panda, an unprecedented lifespan for a named update.


February 40-Pack (2) — February 27, 2012

Google published a second set of "search quality highlights" at the end of the month, claiming more than 40 changes in February. Notable changes included multiple image-search updates, multiple freshness updates (including phasing out 2 old bits of the algorithm), and a Panda update.

Venice — February 27, 2012

As part of their monthly update, Google mentioned code-name "Venice". This local update appeared to more aggressively localize organic results and more tightly integrate local search data. The exact roll-out date was unclear.

February 17-Pack — February 3, 2012

Google released another round of "search quality highlights" (17 in all). Many related to speed, freshness, and spell-checking, but one major announcement was tighter integration of Panda into the main search index.

Ads Above The Fold — January 19, 2012

Google updated their page layout algorithms to devalue sites with too much ad-space above the "fold". It was previously suspected that a similar factor was in play in Panda. The update had no official name, although it was referenced as "Top Heavy" by some SEOs.

Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012

Google confirmed a Panda data update, although suggested that the algorithm hadn't changed. It was unclear how this fit into the "Panda Flux" scheme of more frequent data updates.

Search + Your World — January 10, 2012

Google announced a radical shift in personalization - aggressively pushing Google+ social data and user profiles into SERPs. Google also added a new, prominent toggle button to shut off personalization.

January 30-Pack — January 5, 2012

Google announced 30 changes over the previous month, including image search landing-page quality detection, more relevant site-links, more rich snippets, and related-query improvements. The line between an "algo update" and a "feature" got a bit more blurred.

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.

Google Panda Update Version 3.7

Official Google Panda Update Version 3.7 On June 8th

Google has confirmed the rumors of a Panda refresh happening over the weekend.
Google said this refresh started rolling out on Friday, June 8th and has an impact of less than 1% of search queries in the U.S. and about 1% worldwide.

As I said, the search forums took notice to major changes in the search results, specifically impacting sites that were originally hit by the Panda update. I reached out to Google this morning for a confirmation and they have confirmed the update.

Previously, Google pushed out Panda 3.6 on April 27th, about 6 weeks before this update. Google tends to do Panda and even Penguin refreshes every one to two months.

For more on Panda update, see our Panda update category.

Source:- http://searchengineland.com/

Google Penguin Update and the Implications for SEO

Google’s Penguin update (emerged earlier as a series of Webspam updates) is currently making a lot of online buzz. It appears there were significant number of websites that were affected and penalized for “over-optimization”.

As expected, the Penguin update was specifically aimed at sites violating Google’s quality guidelines. It’s the drama and anxiety over algorithm updates and what they mean every time Google makes an update.

Apart from Google’s recent updates being named after animals of the same color, what does this really mean for your SEO?

Apparently, though Google’s Panda/Penguin updates are implying this is about Black Hat/White Hat issues, there are still many speculations that it wasn’t completely about black hat and white hat SEO.

It will be a few more weeks before we know all of the implications involved in this update. There wasn’t much clarity with the Panda update either. But Google has made it clear that it’s targeting those violating its quality guidelines.

Google tells you what not to do and lists exactly what the quality guidelines are. There were 8 specific (classic) guidelines as you may already know, in exact words:

1. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
2. Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
3. Don’t send automated queries to Google.
4. Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.
5. Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
6. Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other malware.
7. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
8. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

To avoid the penalties of Google’s algorithm updates, the safest route is to simply stick with White Hat SEO, that means adhering to Google’s SEO guidelines and don’t do spam. Plain and simple.

Focus less on the algorithm signals and more on what you know to be good SEO practices for the end user and the search engine, the changes Google makes everyday will be less scary.

Algorithm updates are not new, Google make around 30 per month, but they do mean SEO is on a hard and fast journey with constant changes and new possibilities and opportunities.

Source:-http://www.digitalorganics.com.au/seo/google-penguin-update-what-it-is-and-its-implications-for-seo/

Google Targeted Webspam in Search Results through its Recent Launch “Penguin Update”.

With its recent updates and changes in its Algorithm, Google is back on the spotlight. This has led to a lot of tension on the internet. However, these changes have impacted many websites either positively or negatively. One of its recent changes is creating an update which is aimed to target webspam. In the past years, Google has faced a lot of challenges due to webspam which continue to grow each day. Webmasters and bloggers are now in pain only months after Google released the Panda update. Well, the Penguin update has brought a lot of changes to many websites. There are some sites that do not follow Google quality guidelines and that is the reason why Google is so determined to get rid of them. Penguin update is mainly aimed to get rid of sites that have spammy content. Since the introduction of penguin update, approximately 3% of search engine results. Just like its friend Panda update, Penguin update gets rid of sites that lack originality. However, this recent Google update has been of great help to so many website owners who for quite a long time have tried to receive higher rankings. Most website owners have complained that penguin update has had some major effects on their sites. Some of the effects include:

*providing spam notices.

*Sending automated questions to Google.

* Get rid of websites that have no content.

*Black hat SEO techniques used.

 

                                                                                                                                      

So, have you been looking for the perfect way to receive higher rankings? It is not a bad idea to use Penguin update if you want to increase your website ranking. If your site has already been affected by Google Penguin you need to stick to the below guidelines and survive it:

*Never use cheap SEO on your site

This is a grave mistake that many website owners make. When you use cheap SEO there is a likelihood that you site will be affected by black hat search engine optimization. This will give poor link building services and this will affect your site severely.

*Avoid affiliate marketing

If you want your site to eliminate poor content and spammy result you need to avoid using affiliate marketing until you have good content. Ensure that your blogs are original.

*Avoid duplicate content

Using duplicate content on your site will result to grave danger. To get rid of duplicated content you can use Google webmaster tools and alert Google.

Source:-http://www.softtrix.com/blog/tag/how-to-recover-from-googles-penguin-update/

Google’s Penguin Update Makes The Wall Street Journal

The Google Penguin Update is now mainstream after The Wall Street Journal covered it in a feature story named As Google Tweaks Searches, Some Get Lost in the Web.

The story interviews a few small business owners who were hit hard by the update. One business owner saw his sales drop to $25,000 this month, down from $68,000 the previous month. Another small website owner saw roughly 30% of his traffic disappear over night. And another lost 20% of their traffic. Most of the article goes through small business owners who lives have changed for the worse due to this update. But there are some stories that lead me to believe they are not directly related to Penguin.

Again, there were several updates last month – Penguin was happened on the 24th. But there were two Panda refreshes, link network penalties, bugs and many more updates.

Even if all those cases were not Penguin related, Penguin is now main stream after hitting a major publication like the Wall Street Journal.

Source:-http://searchengineland.com/googles-penguin-update-makes-the-wall-street-journal-121733