It’s official! Google has just released their latest update of the Penguin algorithm – Penguin 2.0 (official). We’ve been sitting on the edge of our seats over the past few months not knowing what to expect. But so far things have been looking good for us as our site has seen increased rankings across the board. In fact, it seemed to provide the push we needed as our sites started appearing not only on the first page, but in the top spot for our keywords. All our clients’ rankings are looking good as well.
Penguin 2.0 is expected to affect 2.3% of English (US) queries to a significant degree.
Hang on… We’re not out of the water yet!
Of course, we’re still in the early days and the dust has yet to settle.
There’s more yet to come…
Google Spam Report Form
Google has also created a special spam report form for Penguin. You can get it here.
You’ll need:
- URL of the offending site
- Search query you used
- Any additional information about the result or website
While we’re still keeping our fingers crossed (and our eyes firmly on our analytics), the early data seems to validate our current SEO strategies. Good Content = Good SEO. This isn’t a new concept to anyone except certain SEOs.
Just in case this all goes away tomorrow (and Google starts ranking blank pages again), we’re going to go out and celebrate tonight. Happy Vesak Day, guys!
About Penguin 2.0
Penguin 2.0 is a filter that sits on top of the regular Google algorithm and catches webspam. Unlike the Panda update that targets thin and duplicate content that you publish, the Penguin algorithm penalises you when thin and duplicate content links back to you.
Matt Cutts initially warned that Penguin 2.0 was going to be “jarring and jolting”. We’ll understand the full impact of this release in the next few months as reports start coming in. We can’t wait to see the list of winners and losers as well as best practices going forward.
This recently released video will give you an inkling of what to expect over the next few months.