Google Penguin 4.0 Update: What You Need to Know
Firstly, you may ask, what exactly is Google Penguin? Google Penguin is merely a codename for an algorithm that Google webmasters have developed that is able to punish websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Google Penguin works by decreasing the search engine rankings of websites that violate the aforementioned Google’s guidelines. Websites violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines specifically by using black hat SEO techniques, meaning that they deliberately manipulate search engine indexes, making their website’s search engine ranking go up. The rank of a webpage artificially and illegally increases through the use of link schemes, or the increase of the links that are pointing to a page.
Google penguin, in more simpler terms, acts as a filter for sites that spam Google’s search engines. Although there exists a regular Google spamming system, Google Penguin is still needed to detect some spam techniques that the former isn’t able to detect. The Google Penguin filter runs periodically, and in the process catches sites that are routinely spammy, giving the sites a chance to improve their websites until the next time that Google penguin filter runs.
Google penguin has been around since 2012, and so far there have been about 7 confirmed Google Penguin updates, and these have been periodically released, although the latest one has been released after a 2 year period. The latest Google Penguin is named Penguin 7, or otherwise known as Penguin 4.0, and was released recently, namely September 23, 2016, including major updates in its wake.
Google Penguin 4.0 has now a significant feature that is a big improvement from its previous counterparts and it is the ability to work in real time. Google Penguin, unlike its previous versions now run constantly, in comparison to previous counterparts running on a periodical basis. Google Penguin 4.0 is now able to capture, free as well as recapture any site caught violating Google’s spam algorithm and guidelines. After Google Penguin 4.0 evaluates a site, the changes set in effect will now take effect visibly faster, and will subsequently take effect in a much shorter time than before. Google Penguin 4.0 is able to catch websites that violates guidelines by using spam link and black hat SEO methods in a much more quick manner as possibly as they can, and is also able to keep low quality sites rankings relatively low.
So with Google Penguin’s latest update, you have to improve your site and use fair and tested techniques in order for your site to rank well in their search engines. Moreover, you have to routinely check up your website’s content by auditing it constantly, and perform necessary and consistent cleanups on your website.
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