• About Us
  • Contributors
  • Guides
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Write for The SEM Post
  • Submit a tip or contact us!
  • Newsletters

The SEM Post

Latest News About SEO, SEM, PPC & Search Engines

  • Google
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Local
  • Bing
  • Pay Per Click
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • State of the Industry
You are here: Home / Google / Google’s Penguin Algo Update is Being Worked On By Engineers

Google’s Penguin Algo Update is Being Worked On By Engineers

July 22, 2014 at 5:33 am PST By Jennifer Slegg

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Evernote
  • SMS

penguin is coming 200In yesterday’s Google Webmaster Central office hours, John Mueller commented that engineers are currently in the process of updated the Google Penguin algorithm.  This is good news for those who may have been penalized by Penguin, as it has been over 9 months since we saw the last update to the Penguin algo.

John Mueller was talking about algo updates and how frequently they occur when he brought up an upcoming Penguin algorithm update.  Here is a transcript of what he said (video is embedded below).

Some algorithms are a little bit more problematic in that we need to double check the data that they generate, for example the Penguin algorithm is something like that.  So that is something that I believe has been almost 8-9 months or something like that.  Some people probably know for sure.

That’s something I know the engineers are working on to kind of create an update to that as well.  So that is definitely coming at some point.

Unfortunately he doesn’t reveal exactly when (although I am sure Barry Schwartz will ask at a future office hours), but it is good news that it is actively being worked on.

The Penguin algo was designed to decrease the visibility of “black hat” spam sites in the search results, using both traditional spam techniques such as keyword stuffing to some of the more technical or harder-to-spot spam.

The most recent Penguin update was released on October 4, 2013, which was the 5th version of the Penguin algo, also known internally at Google as Penguin 2.1.

H/T to Glenn Gabe.

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Evernote
  • SMS
The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Latest posts by Jennifer Slegg (see all)

  • 2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates - August 1, 2022
  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines: The Low Quality 2021 Update - October 19, 2021
  • Rethinking Affiliate Sites With Google’s Product Review Update - April 23, 2021
  • New Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Update Adds Emphasis on Needs Met - October 16, 2020
  • Google Updates Experiment Statistics for Quality Raters - October 6, 2020

Filed Under: Google, SEO Tagged With: algo, algorithm, Google, Penguin algo

Sign up for our newsletter


Comments

  1. Donna says

    July 22, 2014 at 9:46 am

    It’s just crazy that it takes 9+ months for each update. Imagine getting hit, fixing problems, waiting for the next update, and then when it finally rolls around, you realize you didn’t do enough. If that happens just once, you’ll end up losing nearly 2 years of time, and if it happens more than once……yikes!

    I’d be tempted to just throw in the towel immediately if I ever got hit with Penguin, rather than suffer for that long.

  2. Thanh says

    July 22, 2014 at 6:50 pm

    So there is still time for us to modify the anchor text. I hope that the Penguins will not come too soon.

  3. Terry Van Horne says

    July 23, 2014 at 7:16 am

    Not surprising it has been 9mos. considering many SEOs have been doing negative SEO to themselves for months…. look at the YouMoz BS… absolutely that is not a good link because it is irrelevant to the “user” nor is it really germaine to the article on relationship building/marketing it was an unnecessary link…that it is a followed link on a “psuedo guest blogging network”… high quality editing does not make that link “legit” as it adds zero value to the article as a link… as a mention I see no problem… just my .02 Ca. …. and we all know what that’s worth 🙂

  4. theSEMDude007 says

    July 23, 2014 at 9:42 am

    This is precisely why you do not put all of your eggs in one basket. You never know what might go wrong if your entire foundation is based on Google with no failover. Good to hear this has changed, just saying diversity is key.

  5. Terry Van Horne says

    July 23, 2014 at 5:33 pm

    “The Penguin algo was designed to decrease the visibility of “black hat” spam sites in the search results, using both traditional spam techniques such as keyword stuffing to some of the more technical or harder-to-spot spam.”

    Jennifer great post I just think the above excerpt is kind of candy coating it. IMO, Penguin has nothing to do with blackhat as every cleanup I’ve done the sites were far from blackhat and in most cases the technique when employed was legit “at the time”. The problem is you seldom see anyone talking about future proofing their techniques ie: you use riskier techniques sparingly if at all.

    • Jennifer Slegg says

      July 23, 2014 at 6:43 pm

      Yep, I was just trying to give the simplistic version of what Penguin is without having to go into super detail and that is the easiest quickie way to describe it. And for sure, a ton of the more common techniques people call blackhat today were just regular SEO techniques a few years ago. I figure when we actually do see Penguin finally drop its update, I’ll do a more in depth piece that covers all the nuances of it.

Trackbacks

  1. SearchCap: Bing Ads Insertion Orders, Google Top In Satisfaction & Google Maps Nearby says:
    July 22, 2014 at 2:05 pm

    […] Google’s Penguin Algo Update is Being Worked On By Engineers, The SEM Post […]

  2. Why Haven't We Seen a Penguin Algo Refresh From Google? - The SEM Post says:
    August 7, 2014 at 12:15 pm

    […] just why that is.  John Mueller in a recent Google Webmaster Office Hours that engineers were working on a new Penguin update, but for those suffering in Penguin purgatory, it is an awfully long time to wait until they are […]

  3. Is Google Penguin Finally About to Update? - The SEM Post says:
    August 15, 2014 at 8:45 am

    […] month John Mueller revealed that the engineers were currently working on Penguin.  But there have been many more questions […]

  4. Google Confirms Penguin Refresh Needed to Recover - The SEM Post says:
    September 8, 2014 at 5:22 am

    […] there has been a lot of speculation about an upcoming Penguin update, including John Mueller commenting that the engineers were working on it, but a month and a half has passed since that comment was made.  So webmasters are stuck waiting […]

Founder & Editor

Jennifer Slegg (2052)

Sign up for our daily news recap & weekly newsletter.


Follow us online

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Latest News

2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates

We finally have the first Google Quality Rater Guidelines update of 2022, and like usual, it is … [Read More...]

Recent Posts

  • 2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates
  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines: The Low Quality 2021 Update
  • Rethinking Affiliate Sites With Google’s Product Review Update
  • New Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Update Adds Emphasis on Needs Met
  • Google Updates Experiment Statistics for Quality Raters
  • Analyzing “How Google Search Works” Changes from Google
  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines Update: New Introduction, Rater Bias & Political Affiliations
  • Google Updates Quality Rater Guidelines: Reputation for News Sites; Video Content Updates; Quality for Information Sites
  • Google Makes Major Changes to NoFollow, Adds Sponsored & UGC Tags
  • Google Updates Quality Rater Guidelines Targeting E-A-T, Page Quality & Interstitials

Categories

  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Amazon
  • Apple
  • Bing
  • Branding
  • Browsers
  • Chrome
  • Content Marketing
  • Design
  • Domains
  • DuckDuckGo
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Firefox
  • Foursquare
  • Google
    • Analytics
    • Google RankBrain
    • Quality Rater's Guidelines
  • History of Search
  • Industry Spotlight
  • Instagram
  • Internet Explorer
  • Links
  • Local
  • Mobile
  • Native Advertising
  • Other Search Engines
  • Pay Per Click
  • Pinterest
  • Publishers
  • Security
  • SEO
  • Snapchat
  • Social Media
  • State of the Industry
  • The SEM Post
  • Tools
  • Twitter
  • Uncategorized
  • User Experience
  • Video Marketing
  • Week in Review
  • Whitepapers
  • Wordpress
  • Yahoo
  • Yelp
  • YouTube
May 2025
MTWTFSS
« Aug  
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in