Understanding Google Penguin Updates and Their Impact on SEO

One of the major topics among SEO consultants is Google’s frequent animal-themed updates. Among these, the Penguin updates have had a significant impact on the industry. Since its debut in April 2012, the Penguin updates have transformed the SEO landscape. This has made link-building, which is crucial to SEO, more complex.

In this post, we will explore the various versions of the Penguin updates since their introduction, with a particular focus on Penguin 2.1, Google’s latest update that occurred on October 4.

Before we dive into the specifics, it’s important to mention two other major Google updates that took place in the last two months for added context.

The first is Google’s transition to making all searches encrypted and secure. The main implication is that you will likely lose most, if not all, of your keyword data in Google Analytics. You will no longer have access to the keywords driving visitors to your site.

The second major update is the Hummingbird update. This is significantly different from the Penguin update, as it represents a major change to how Google’s algorithm functions, whereas Penguin is a filter that operates atop the regular algorithm to serve a specific purpose. The Hummingbird update aims to enhance speed and improve context understanding of web pages.

Understanding the Importance of Links

Prior to Google’s arrival, most search engines relied heavily on keyword density as a primary factor for determining a website’s relevance and ranking in search results. This meant that if you wanted your website to rank for the keyword ‘blue widgets,’ you would simply use that phrase more frequently on your page.

However, this approach made search results easily manipulable.

Google revolutionized the game with its PageRank algorithm. PageRank (PR), named after one of Google’s co-founders, Larry Page, draws from academic citations – the more often an academic paper is cited, the more authority it gains. Google’s PageRank algorithm ambitiously attempts to assess the authority of every page on the Internet.

The Concept of Link-Building

The more links pointing to your website, the more authoritative it appears. However, not all links hold equal weight.

A link from a reputable website carries significantly more value than one from a lesser-known source. For instance, being cited in one of Bertrand Russell’s works is far more prestigious than being referenced in a college essay of mine. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for resourceful SEOs to exploit this system.

They discovered that if a page with a PR4 linked to them, their page could achieve a PR2 or similar rating. Consequently, they began purchasing links from authoritative sites.

Buying Links

As PageRank evolved over the years, so did black hat SEO tactics – practices that violate Google’s Guidelines. SEOs now have access to software that can automate the link-building process, creating email addresses, building forum profiles, and even solving CAPTCHAs.

In essence, SEOs have become adept at generating spam.

While most of this software generates low-quality links, it can produce thousands or millions of links rapidly and with minimal effort. Together, these links would once help a website rank better in SERPs – until Google’s Penguin algorithm and other updates intervened.

An Overview of the Penguin Updates

The Penguin algorithm serves as a filter on top of Google’s regular algorithm, designed to catch link spam. Link spam refers to the manipulative tactics employed by spammers and black hat SEOs to artificially boost their rankings. This is typically achieved through software, resulting in links and content that offer little value to human readers – the very definition of spam.

Prior to Penguin, such manipulative methods worked particularly well for highly competitive search queries. Black hat SEOs could easily elevate their websites in search results, disadvantaging those who invested time in creating quality content that genuinely benefits searchers. (It’s worth noting that Penguin only penalizes links to a website; it does not evaluate the content itself. The Panda update, in contrast, targets thin and low-quality website content.)

To continue delivering optimal results for users, Google must eliminate spam from its index, or users may abandon it in favor of alternative search engines (DuckDuckGo, anyone?).

Below is a list of Penguin updates from the last year or so:

• Penguin 1.0: April 24, 2012 (affected 3.1% of queries)
• Penguin 1.2: May 26, 2012 (affected around 0.1%)
• Penguin 1.3: Oct. 5, 2012 (affected 0.3%)
• Penguin 2.0: May 22, 2013 (affected 2.3%)
• Penguin 2.1: Oct. 4, 2013 (affected 1%)

Penguin 1.0

Penguin 1.0 assessed the links pointing to a website’s home page, focusing solely on the quality of links on home pages, while ignoring inner pages. This update impacted approximately 3.1% of queries. When it launched in 2012, it dramatically reshaped the SEO industry and altered how SEO firms approach their link-building strategies.

Penguin 1.0 and its subsequent versions aimed to combat various spam techniques, including:

• Over-optimized anchor text
• Links to and from ‘bad neighborhoods’
• Excessive links from irrelevant sites

Over-Optimized Anchor Texts

The text used to link back to your website is known as anchor text, which helps search engines understand your site; the more diverse your anchor text, the better your ranking potential. Spammers have been known to build keyword-rich anchor text links to boost their rankings for competitive keywords.

The Penguin update penalizes websites with unnatural or overly optimized anchor text profiles. If you have numerous links pointing to your site, and 70% of those use keyword-rich anchor texts, there’s a high likelihood of being penalized, potentially resulting in a complete removal from Google’s results.

There is no “safe” percentage of keyword-rich anchor text to aim for now; it varies by query, making it more challenging for spammers to exploit the system.

Links To and From Bad Neighborhoods

A ‘bad neighborhood’ refers to low-quality websites or those featuring inappropriate content, such as adult content, pharmaceuticals, and gambling sites. Google may classify your site as part of a bad neighborhood if such sites link back to you. Similarly, if a link to your site appears on a page with links to these sites, you could face penalties.

Too Many Links from Irrelevant Sites

If you operate a catering website, it makes sense to receive links from other catering or related sites, but not from unrelated niches like aerospace engineering pages. Such occurrences indicate low-quality link building. This was one reason JC Penney faced penalties from Google.

The key takeaway regarding the Penguin penalty is its focus on penalizing websites with what it considers unnatural link profiles.

Penguin 2.0

Penguin 2.0, released over a year later, delved deeper into link analysis by evaluating links to your inner pages as well. This update, the fourth release, was dubbed Penguin 2.0 due to significant changes in its operational mechanics. It still targeted the same types of link spam as Penguin 1.0, but with greater depth. This update affected around 2.3% of English-language queries.

Penguin 2.1

On October 4, Google launched Penguin 2.1. It is believed that this update fulfilled Google’s intention to devalue upstream links. While it is expected to affect less than 1% of queries, it is anticipated to have a more substantial impact on SEO than Google suggests.

To grasp the full impact of Penguin 2.1, it’s crucial to understand three key aspects:

• The significance of contextual links in SEO
• Article spinning
• Tiered link building

The Importance of Contextual Links

As you may already know, links are fundamental to SEO. Despite contrary claims, they remain one of the most critical factors influencing your site’s ranking.

Contextual links are those that appear within the content of an article. These links hold more value because Google considers them harder to manipulate. To earn a contextual link from an authoritative site, your content must be both relevant and valuable. Such links are therefore highly sought after by SEOs.

Article Spinning

Creating quality content is easier said than done. It requires substantial time, effort, and expertise to develop content that attracts links. To circumvent this, some SEOs resort to writing and spinning their own articles and distributing them through article directories or Web 2.0 platforms like WordPress.com and Blogspot.com.

Article spinning involves using software that employs “spintax.” Spintax is a database of synonyms and related terms, which the software uses to replace words in the original article, generating unique articles of varying quality. While publishing duplicate articles from another site can result in penalties, this method serves as a workaround.

A single well-crafted article can generate dozens or even hundreds of unique versions. Just because an article is unique does not guarantee it is high quality or (human-)readable, but it does allow SEOs to insert links within the content.

Tiered Link Building

Tiered link building is an advanced SEO strategy involving the creation of microsites surrounding your primary site. These microsites host the previously spun articles.

These sites can be on their own domain names (example.com) or hosted on Web 2.0 properties like WordPress.com or Blogspot.com. They are referred to as Tier 1 links or Tier 1 websites because links from within the content of a site are viewed as more trustworthy by Google, reducing the risk of a Penguin penalty.

SEOs may then use automated software to generate riskier links to their Tier 1 websites, helping them get indexed and providing more link juice. Such links include those from comments and forum profiles and can number in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Tiered link building can be categorized as a grey or black hat SEO tactic.

Reports indicate that Google is targeting popular blog networks, including the SAPE network (referenced by Matt Cutts) and those utilizing tiered link building to rank websites.

Penguin 2.1 – Impact on Link Networks

Penguin 2.1, along with Google’s other updates, has complicated tiered link building. SEOs must now exercise caution to avoid detection as link networks. For instance, it is essential to use distinct domain name registrations, different email addresses, and various Google Analytics accounts. Even web hosting is becoming a significant SEO factor.

We are not suggesting that SEOs will abandon tiered link building or that it has become ineffective. However, executing it correctly has become more challenging. It wouldn’t be surprising if some enterprising SEO professional has devised a method to construct tiers that remain undetectable by Penguin 2.1.

Other Types of Link Spam Targeted

Glenn Gabe at G-Squared Interactive has conducted an analysis of 26 websites penalized by Penguin 2.1. He identified several categories of links that were targeted.

Forum Spam – Forum spam refers to links found within forums that use exact match anchor texts to link back to their primary websites.

Forum Bio Spam – Some SEOs create fake profiles on forums and include exact match anchor texts linking back to their sites.

Do-Follow Blogs – A dofollow blog is one that does not apply any nofollow tags to its links, including in the comments section (note: nofollow links prevent PageRank from being transferred). Glenn highlights resources pages as a potential issue, as they may act like directories and, if they use exact match anchors, could signal to Google that the website is solely a resource for rich anchor text links.

Blogroll Spam – While John Mueller from Google states that these links are not inherently problematic, they can become an issue if they appear on questionable websites.

Spammy Directories – Directories have long been a favorite among SEOs. They frequently appear among sites penalized by Penguin 2.1, as they are easy to obtain but come with significant penalties.

Blog Comment Signature Spam – Although most blog comments are nofollowed, Glenn’s research indicates that Google still penalizes websites featuring exact match anchor text links in comment signatures. Therefore, if you are using commenting as an SEO tactic, consider using your real name instead of a keyword.

Classified Ads Spam – This relatively new tactic involves links with exact match anchor text placed on questionable classified ads sites.

Don’t Blame Everything on the Penguin

While it may be tempting to attribute all your website’s issues to the Penguin update, this may not be the whole story. For example, Fingerfoods, an Australian catering company based in Sydney, was affected by Penguin 2.0. However, upon further investigation, they also uncovered duplicate content issues and malicious links inserted on random pages of their site.

If your website has been impacted by the latest Penguin 2.1 update, there are still steps you can take to recover. However, this process can be lengthy and challenging. In some cases, starting fresh on a new domain may be the best option if feasible. How did your website perform during the Penguin 2.1 update? Share your experience in the comments below.