No, not that kind of penguin.
While not so adorable, Penguin 4.0 is so important to your SEO.
Launched in 2012, Google’s Penguin algorithm aims to catch sites spamming its search results through tactics such as buying links – and it just got a major makeover. Here’s what you need to know:
- Essentially, Penguin evaluates what is (or isn’t) quality content. It also reacts accordingly: punishing sites with weak links, and rewarding those with strong ones.
- It’s now updating constantly, meaning 1) If you’ve purged your page of a penalty, you won’t have to wait till the next big refresh to see results, and 2) If you start building manipulative links, you’ll be caught pretty much immediately. Basically, both good and bad SEO will be swiftly addressed.
- Penguin just became part of Google’s core algorithm. For each search query, Google has dozens of algorithms working to determine a site’s ranking in the results – and now Penguin is one of them.
So what’s the big takeaway? It’s more important than ever to publish well-researched, valuable content. Although this is considered a big update, not much has changed; in fact, Penguin’s increased integration will probably mean you’ll notice its effects even less than before…that is, if you have solid SEO on your side.
Contact us today if you need help impressing Penguin! There’s no time to waste – like we’ve said, the little guy’s faster than ever.