The team at Google have been a busy bunch these last few weeks.
Less than a week after Google announced the launch of its new Hummingbird algorithm, the search engine is rolling out the new version of Penguin.
According to Google´s head of spam team, Matt Cutts, Penguin 2.1 went live on 4 October. In May, the search engine introduced Penguin 2.0, which was an update on the previous anti-spam algorithm. But they can´t have been 100% happy with it, as it has been tweaked once again.
Cutts explained that the latest update of the algorithm was going to affect about one percent of searches “to a noticeable degree”, Search Engine Watch reported. Although officially known as Penguin 2.1, this is actually the fifth update related to Penguin. The earliest version of Penguin only looked at the home page of a site, whereas Penguin 2.0 and Penguin 2.1 delve deeper and have a more profound effect on sites, Google noted.
What does this mean for marketers? Basically, Google now aims to ensure that results appearing in SERPs are all relevant and provide quality content. Penguin is designed to detect web spam and remove it from results, which is why web masters should make sure links are relevant to their specific topics and that they have developed organically. If there is a significant increase in the number of links over a short period of time, it could result in Google devaluing these links. It may also lead to a penalty being issued as it can signal unnaturally acquired links, Search Engine Watch commented.
Two words keep appearing when it comes to Google updates: Relevance and Quality. Content on sites (not just the homepage) must be well-written and sector-related in order for Google to recognise it as a valuable. Finding the time to produce this content regularly (it is also vital that content is frequent) can be extremely challenging, especially when focusing on the day-to-day running of a business. This is where M2 Bespoke can step in: we are online content generation specialists and can provide you with a variety of content to suit your brand´s needs. Contact us today to learn more about our services, we will be happy to talk you through our packages and what we can offer you.
By Ben Hollom