Penguin 5 is Live with the Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm

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Penguin 5 is Live with the Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm

The goal of any algorithm update is to improve search results. How about Google’s PenguinAccording to Matt Cutts, It’s been a success from our standpoint.

Latest Version of Penguin 2.1 Live Now

The release of Google’s Penguin fifth version for spam fighting algorithm has already been confirmed and is live. The confusion over numbering this update from Google can be understood by the History of Penguin Update that makes it Penguin 5 by count though Google considers it as a slightly improved version of Google’s “Penguin 2″ second-generation technology, which is known as “Penguin 2.1.” By Google’s estimates, Penguin 2.1 will affect approximately 1% of search queries in English, about the same percentile of queries in languages like German, Chinese, and Arabic, and an even bigger percentage of them in “highly spammed” languages. As the update focused on the quality of backlinks, so the result varied for different websites. Google specifically mentions that doorway pages, which are only built to attract search engine traffic, are against their webmaster guidelines. Regardless, many people still use this technique.

The Google’s web spam team head, Matt Cutts, shared the news on Twitter, saying the latest release would impact about 1 percent of all searches.

The link that Matt Cutts points at, by the way, explains what Penguin was when it was first launched. It doesn’t cover anything new or changed with the latest release.

Google’s Penguin Algorithm Updates

What Is Penguin? How to Deal with It?

What Is Penguin? How to Deal with It?

Let’s take a look at the whole “Penguin” concept, Penguin is a part of Google’s overall search algorithm that periodically checks for websites that are estimated to be spamming Google’s search results but somehow still ranking well. In general, it applies to those websites which may have purchased paid links.

Now any website that has been hit by Penguin is likely identified by remarkable drop in traffic that begins the day or later. In order to recover, you’ll need to do best is to execute remedial steps to survive Google Updates which includes disavow bad links or removed all of them manually. Since Penguin is an automated process, filing a reconsideration request wouldn’t help. Hence, the website will not recover until it sees that what it considers to be bad has been removed already.

Website that has previously hit by Penguin and have taken actions hopefully meant to fix that, today and tomorrow are the days to watch. The improvement in traffic is a sign that it has escaped Penguin.

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Why Penguin 2.1 and Penguin 5?

Google’s recent update of Penguin 2.1 or we can say Penguin 5 is sure to hurt some core areas of spamming as it is a second generation update with some improvements in previous update of Penguin.

Considering Google’s Panda algorithm designed to fight low-quality content, it called the first one simply “Panda.” So when the second came out, people referred to that as “Panda 2.” When the third came out, people called that Panda 3 — causing Google to say that the third release, because it was relatively minor, really only should be called Panda 2.1 — the “point” being used to indicate how much a minor change it was.

That worked out fine until Penguin 4, because Google typically didn’t give these updates numbers itself. It just said there was an update, and left it to us or others to attach a number to it.

But when Penguin 4 arrived, Google really wanted to stress that it was using what it deemed to be a major, next-generation change in how Penguin works. So, Google called it Penguin 2, despite all the references to a Penguin 2 already being out there, despite the fact it hadn’t really numbered many of these various updates before.

In this recent update, as can be seen above, has been dubbed Penguin 2.1 — so supposedly, it’s a relatively minor change to the previous Penguin filter that was being used. However, if it’s impacting around 1 percent of queries as Google says, that means it is more significant than what Google might have considered to be similar “minor” updates of Penguin 1.1 and Penguin 1.2.

About the Author

My name’s Semil Shah, and I pride myself on being the last digital marketer that you’ll ever need. Having worked internationally across agile and disruptive teams from San Fransico to London, I can help you take what you are doing in digital to a whole next level.

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