The first place that we go to look for answers is the internet. And is there any better place than google? I don’t think so. Google is the largest and the most famous search engine in the world. It has more than 3 billion websites that users can search for information.

How do you search on google? Suppose you want to look for the best gadget in the world; you start by typing your preferred keyword or the whole sentence in the search bar. And then, with a single click on the search button. Within a fraction of a second, you will have more than a million websites displayed on your search engine page.

But what happens when you click a random link from the list of website links that were displayed? You are taken to some website that was not even relevant to your search. I am not saying that this happens all the time. But this has happened to everyone that I have spoken to. Well, at least twice in their life.

Have you faced something similar? This is because of the manipulative links that want to rank higher in the SERP of the user. To get rid of this, Google has come up with penguin Updates.

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 engines.

It was named the Webspam Algorithm Update. This means that the update was made to reduce the webspam by the unnecessary sites that were irrelevant. This increased the quality of the search results of the users.

Another objective of this update was to reduce the number of sites that appeared in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of the users that 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 benefitted 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 the sub-directory.

The biggest and the most important part of this update was that penguin became a vital part of the core algorithm. This means that the perception of Google of the algorithm has changed, and it has been recognised by the company as an integral part of the functioning of the system.

Penguin Update: Launch

The google penguin update was launched in the year 2012. At that time, it was also referred to as 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.

When it was first launched in April 2012, it was said that it affected a bit more than 3% of the google search results. Now you may think that 3% is nothing but a very small percentage.

However, when you think about the number of results that are shown by the search engine, you will realize that even 3 % of the total number of results can amount to a lot.

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 aware of the problems that the penguin updates were trying to solve.

Penguin Updates

The Google penguin has gone through several major and minor updates over all these years. Some of them are stated below in the table:

How Does It Work?

There are two specific things that are monitored by the penguin update. 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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

1. What Is Google Penguin Update?

The google penguin update was first launched in 2012. This is the update of the google search and ranking algorithm. It is now a part of the core algorithm of the Google search engine.

2. What Did Google Penguin Update Do?

The main motive of the penguin update by Google is to improve the quality of the search results of the user by making sure that only the relevant sites appear in the SERP of the user.

It also aims to reduce the number of sites that use manipulative methods like the black hat SEO linking strategy in order to influence the ranking of the search engine.

3. Does The Penguin Update Affect My Site?

If you think that your website does not spam the result page of the user, then you don’t need to worry. The latest google penguin update will not affect your site.

However, if you are using manipulative methods to influence the rankings of the google search engine, then you better watch out!

And That’s A Wrap!

Whenever we face a problem or cannot find the answer to any particular question, Google is always the first place that we go. We know that there is nothing that we cannot find on google. It literally has the answer to everything.

But there are times when we search for something, but along with the relevant search result, many other irrelevant and unnecessary sites start appearing on our web result page. For times like these, there are updates of the google search engine algorithm.

These updates make sure that we, the users, get the best and the most relevant result. The google penguin update is the core update of the google algorithm. It was first launched in 2012.

The aim of this update was to make the quality of the SERP of the users better. It reduced the appearance of the sites that manipulated the ranking of the search engines by using black hat SEO techniques.

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• Google Hummingbird Update – What Was The Key Change? Facts To Know – SEM