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It’s Official! Google Penguin 3.0 Update has been Rolled Out
It seems that another Penguin update has been rolled out by Google on 17th October, 2014 which is aimed at websites that violate Google’s webmaster guidelines, especially those sites that manipulate the number of links pointing to their web page. Penguin 3.0 update’s imminent arrival was announced by Google engineer Pierre Far in his Google+ post. According to Far, the new algorithm update is not a fully fledged update, but a refresh that will websites to clean up their web spam penalties incurred in previous iterations of Penguin. He also points out that one of the objectives of this Penguin refresh is to have websites with newly-discovered spam gets stripped of their search result rankings.
In addition, the new Penguin algorithm will affect less than 1% of US English queries in the first phase. For those who do not the difference between an ‘update’ and a ‘refresh’ is that an update adds new ranking signals to the algorithm but a refresh doesn’t. With a refresh, Google will run the algorithm again in order to downgrade the websites that use black-hat SEO techniques since the last algorithm refresh, as well as help websites that have rectified their spam issues since the last Penguin refresh.
Slow Global Roll Out of Penguin 3.0
According to his Google+ post, Pierre Far describes the rolling out strategy as a “slow worldwide rollout” which is said in the last few weeks after its initial launch. This means that webmasters won’t get the necessary information about the full impact of the refresh for a quite a while yet. If your site is affected by the previous Penguin update or refresh, and you have been working hard to remove all the spammy links, then you will have to wait for a few weeks of seeing the signs of recovery due to the new Penguin refresh. Also, those websites which evaded this refresh will not be breathing a sigh of relief as this roll-out is happening over few weeks there will be plenty of time for these sites to get demoted.
What this Roll Out Means to You
This new algorithm roll out can be viewed as your opportunity to see if you have been keeping a clean link profile. If you see any changes in your rankings (good or bad) or in your PR, chances are that you have some SEO analysis to do. You need to take time to fully understand what happened and then make the necessary improvements to rectify the errors. There are many articles that fully describe Penguin penalty removal or you can consult with specialists who are experts in this field. It is also worth noting that if you do see a drop in your website rankings, it doesn’t necessarily mean you were directly hit with Penguin refresh. Because the Penguin 3.0 update will make changes to links that count and that don’t, you could simply be seeing the effects of a few links that no longer count in the same way they once did.
If your site is demoted by Google due to the after effect of Penguin roll out, it is recommended that you seek help from experts who are qualified and experienced in offering Penguin penalty recovery solutions in a highly competitive budget.
