Penguin Update

Penguin Update is an algorithmic filter designed by Google to spot and sanction web pages that use abusive SEO techniques, particularly linked to net linking.

This Google Search Engine’s Update refers to a series of algorithm updates and data refreshes. Google intends to eliminate search result manipulation and especially penalize SEO tactics that don’t appear natural.

The first launch date of April 24, 2012. To judge the power of this filter, Google has indicated that it has impacted 3 to 5% of requests.

Since this Google algorithm has been updated many times, citing new reasons.

On September 23, 2016, Google announced that the Penguin algorithm was updated in real-time. The effects of this filter are from this date continuously. This is the last announcement made public.

These Black Hat practices include, among others:

  • Misuse of link anchors,
  • Using low-quality backlinks

While Google Panda focuses on poor quality content, Google Penguin mainly focuses on over-optimizing net linking. But that’s not all, it also penalizes cloaking and abusive duplication of content.

It is not the whole site that is penalized by Penguin, but only the pages concerned. These are not blacklisted, but lose their visibility on the SERPs.

What is Google’s Penguin Algorithm Used For?

Penguin is primarily designed to clean Google’s index of sites that use fraudulent SEO practices, such as over-optimization and spamdexing, to manipulate the search engine’s algorithm.

If some of your pages have suddenly lost their visibility on the SERPs, they have likely suffered a Penguin sanction.

This is the reason why it is important to regularly monitor your positions on search results and your organic traffic.

According to Optimize. me, to see if your site has been affected by Penguin, analyzing the positioning and traffic according to the different updates is a good element.

By regularly monitoring your positions, you can easily see if on a particular date your visibility changes suddenly.

Things that are Affected by the Penguin Update

The Penguin update’s algorithms appear to be primarily concerned with a page’s backlink profile. Among other things, the following considerations are taken into account:

  • Topic relevance of the linked page to the linked page
  • Link texts with a high proportion of hard keywords (Click here, more information, so, etc.)
  • Purchased links
  • Unnatural link growth
  • Bad quality backlinks

How to Avoid a Penguin Penalty?

To prevent your website from being penalized by Google Penguin, avoid over-optimization of your netlinking at all costs.

To Do This :

  • Favor quality and relevant links,
  • Avoid the same keywords for anchors,
  • Likewise, avoid link buying and link farms,
  • Better a good inbound link than a lot of poor quality backlinks …
  • Of course, at the same time, you need to ensure that you deliver quality content and optimize the technical performance of your website.

Note: If your site has already been penalized by Penguin, here are some effective tips:

  • Analyze your backlinks and remove the poor quality ones,
  • If there are bad backlinks from Negative SEO actions, report the authors,
  • Diversify your link anchors,
  • If your anchors aren’t relevant or you used keyword stuffing, fix them.
  • Be aware that it is possible to tell Google to ignore toxic links by sending it a disallowance form, in particular via Google Search Console. But be careful, disavowing a link must be practiced with all the necessary moderation.