The latest Penguin update, which was widely expected following comments made Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst and Search Quality Engineer, Gary Illyes, took effect late on Friday evening.
It is the third major release of Penguin, which is designed to target engineered back link activity. It comes just over a year since the previous update, which launched on 4 October 2013, and it is claimed that Google has spent close to a year on a “large rewrite” of the algorithm.
Initial indications are that this release has not had the level of impact that previous editions had, although this is likely to be due to the number of sites that have ‘cleaned up’ their act since the first edition of Penguin in April 2012. That may also reflect to comments made by Illyes that the new release of Penguin would “make webmaster’s life easier a bit”, although it is not yet clear just what percentage of search queries have been affected.
This latest release also supports faster refreshes of the Penguin algorithm in future, with suggestions that Penguin could be refreshed on a monthly basis.
Want to know more about Penguin and how it could affect your SEO strategy? Get in touch with our experts.
