Google’s Penguin 3 Update – Data Refresh

Google's hot Penguin update has begun its "data refresh" over the weekend, as a slight change to the algorithm caused concern among site owners.

A further upgrade to Google’s search criteria was declared delayed on Weekend 5th Oct 2012, this one will be the next to second significant version of its type this year, known as Penguin 3. The Penguin renew will clearly impact 0.3% of Search engines queries, and took impact around Weekend 6th Oct.

"Swapping a 10 result for a different 10 result might not be noticeable. Swapping out in (say) top 5  more noticeable."

Weather report: Penguin data refresh coming today. 0.3% of English queries noticeably affected.

This is the latest ‘data reload’ in Google’s fight against spam websites and links. The first Penguin update was released on April 24th 2012, with an iteration of Penguin v1 following on the 25th May 2012. The current update has seen a less in noticeable search ranking changes; the April update was said by Google to affect 3.1% of searches, compared to 0.3% this time around.

It is of interest to know how Google defines what is meant by a ‘noticeable’ change in search results, to better understand how many search results are potentially affected by the update. Google asserts that a switch in the website ranking for another of a #10 website is not noticeably different. A change in the website position in top #5 with another is defined as a noticeably different ranking position. Penguin has become a source of concern to site owners for a number of reasons. Firstly, those who have engaged in 'bad' linking practices, keyword stuffing or other tactics frowned upon by Google were the main targets, and as such would have worried about plummeting in the rankings.

In this case although 0.3 % sounds like a small change, it is likely to affect quite a few search rankings, considering the volumes of websites on the web that is competition for a top 5 position. However, there should be no need to panic if one is conducting a good SEO campaign. That said, with just about every Google update there are claims of ‘friendly fire’, with webmasters that swear blind they have only ever used organic, ethical SEO tactics seeing their SERPS drop drastically.

We could create a whole publish on how to stay safe in the sight of Search engines, however, in brief, notice on top excellent material, don’t ‘buy’ hyperlinks, earn them. By concentrating on top excellent techniques, like material marketing, group building, and stunning up connections with trusted industry blog owners, and you should be fine.