First thing’s first. What is this algorithm and why should we care?
Penguin 1.0 was released back in April 2012 as a way of making sure websites were ranked based on Google’s quality guidelines, uncovering low quality backlinks, keyword stuffing and various other means of attempting to game SERPs. The aim of the Penguin algorithm is to ensure consumers are directed to high-quality, informative and relevant web content, but requires a manual refresh in order to update rankings. This means when you’re hit with a penalty, it can take a long time to recover.
Penguin 4.0 was announced in June and is aimed at speeding up the process of penalising bad links (and rewarding fixed links) in real-time. It’s said to be arriving before the end of the year, so now is the perfect time to see how Westcountry Media can help get your site into shape ready for the update.
What does Penguin 4.0 mean for your website?
As this algorithm will update in real-time, you’ll need to continually dedicate time to removing bad links and making your website as SEO-friendly as possible, which means more original, quality content. Google won’t tell you if you’ve been hit by a penalty, so you’ll need to monitor your site traffic for various factors to asses whether you need to dedicate more time to cleaning your backlinks.
If your site was previously penalised under the Penguin algorithm and you’ve fixed the spammy backlinks, you’ll see ranking changes immediately. This is both good and bad. As soon as Google becomes aware of removed or bad links you’ll be penalised immediately, but it also means you can recover really quickly too.
How to prepare:
Although there are hundreds of factors considered in site rankings, there are simple ways to get your website in a healthy shape. A thorough site audit, removing bad links pointing towards you and making sure the disavow file is up to date will help. Spammy ‘quick win’ links aren’t effective in the long term, whereas dedicating time to produce high quality and original content will get your site ranking highly on Google.
Get in touch to see how Westcountry Media can help optimise your site content for Penguin 4.0 and increase organic traffic.