Google Penguin Update: How To Recover From This Core Update?

It has been more than a decade since the Google Penguin Update was launched – more than a decade since Google took a strong stance on harmful link-building practices. 

The algorithm has released several updates, with the Penguin update becoming a significant part of Google’s core algorithm changes. 

As a result, penalties are now less common but continue to exist both in site-wide and partial formats. 

Moreover, Google does claim to ignore several low-quality links online but continues to stay alert for tracking unnatural patterns, including spammy link schemes, link exchanges, unnatural outbound links, and PBNs. 

And while my site wasn’t hit by the Penguin update, it did get a massive penalty from the 2024 core update due to several reasons. And spammy links were one of the reasons. 

The recovery process was difficult, not to mention time-consuming – it took me 9 months to move my site from 0 to 1,000 organic traffic. 

Today, I have finally managed to recover my site completely.

Based on my experience, I am doing my best to help everyone struggling like me – not everyone can hire a Neil Patel to help you out. 

So, here’s me trying my best to make SEO knowledge free and accessible to the world. 

Stay tuned. 

What Is The Google Penguin Update?

The Google Penguin update is the yearly update of the Google algorithm. 

It was first announced in the year 2012. The aim of the update was to resolve the issue of the decreasing ranks of the websites in the Google search engine.

Another objective of this update was to reduce the number of sites that appeared in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of users who used the Black Hat SEO strategy. 

These sites were trying to manipulate the results. It is also now part of Google’s core algorithm.

Google Penguin Update: Penguin 4.0

It is the seventh update of the algorithm of the Google search engine. 

This has greatly benefited the website creators. This is because this update made the Google authority become more selective in terms of penalties. 

In other words, instead of hitting the whole site with a penalty, the latest algorithm update has started to impose a penalty on parts of the website. 

This can be a single page of the site or even a subdirectory.

The biggest and most important part of this update was that penguin became a vital part of the core algorithm. 

Penguin Update: Launch

The Google Penguin update came out in the year 2012. At that time, it was also called the Web Spam algorithm update.

This is because of the prime motive of the update. 

It was done in order to get rid of the websites that spam the SERP of the user and use the back hat techniques to manipulate the ranking of the search engine ranking.

Now you may think that 3% is nothing but a very small percentage. 

By the end of the first year, Google had already introduced its fourth update. 

This was the Google Penguin 2.0 update. The motive of this update was to make the quality of the result page even better.

From 2012 to 2016, the algorithm went through as many as ten documented updates. 

They managed to make the SEO communities understand and be aware of the problems that the Penguin updates were trying to solve. 

The Google Penguin has gone through several major and minor updates over the years. I’ve have stated some of them below:

How Does It Work? Triggers For The Penguin Update

There are two specific things that the Penguin update monitors. They are:

1. Keyword Stuffing:

Many sites that just want to rank high in the SERP of the user use the techniques of Black Hat SEO. They use a lot of keywords that may not even be relevant to their content.  

2. Linking Motives:

The purchase of backlinks from a website that is not related to the content in order to create relevancy in the search engine is something that is tracked down by the Penguin update of the Google search engine.

If it is observed that either of these two methods has been used in order to manipulate the ranking of the search engine, Google imposes a penalty on the site. 

It can also lead to the removal or suspension of the site.

How To Identify Whether You Have Been Hit By The Penguin Update?

Firstly, it is essential to distinguish between a manual penalty and one caused by the Penguin update, and that too for any sort of unnatural linking. 

In short, Penguin happens to be Google’s own index filter that is applicable to every website. 

In contrast, manual penalties are more specific – this is applicable for a website that Google might single out for spamming. 

Moreover, manual penalties are imposed on any website that users report as spam. 

Also, in such cases, Google’s speculation plays an essential role, since they manually track some industries, such as payday loan businesses, more closely than other brands, like bakeries. 

In my experience, I have seen that your website analytics are enough to understand what’s wrong.

So, if your site experiences a significant drop in traffic or rankings on the dates associated with the update, then chances are you have been impacted. 

In addition, you can use different tools, including Google Webmaster and Ahrefs, to monitor website traffic and rankings. 

That way, you can identify any potential penalty that you might have received from the Penguin update. 

However, while doing so, ensure that you are ruling out expected fluctuations in organic traffic due to normal events like seasonality. 

Also, ensure you are careful while evaluating your linking and keyword optimization practices. So, find out whether Google thinks your pratices as spammy or safe?

How To Recover From The Google Penguin Update?

In case of any manual link penalty, you need to clean house and then send a request for reconsideration to Google. 

But in case of a penalty via the Penguin update, you don’t need to file any such requests. Instead, if you just take action to fix issues, then it will earn you Google’s forgiveness when crawlers visit your site again.

On that note, here are my go-to recovery steps that I’ve implemented multiple times – the best part? It always works!

1. Remove all unnatural links that you can control. This includes links that third-party websites have placed on your website or that you have built. 
2. Disavowal of all spammy links, especially the ones that you have no control over.
3. Revising your website’s content as a remedy for over-optimization. This will ensure that keywords in your content have been added organically. So, modify any content that shows signs of keyword stuffing for the sake of manipulating search rankings. 

Frankly, the Google Penguin Update was a remedy that aimed to solve a major weakness in the overall algorithm of the search engine giant. 

The idea that you can ‘trick’ search results with low-quality content, spammy links, and keyword stuffing was very popular. The Penguin update is Google’s response to black hat SEO.

As a result, if you don’t want Google to penalize your website for spammy practices, then ensure all content on your site has natural language. 

Also, practice link building that is safe in the eyes of Google.