The Return of Google Penguin – 2.1 Strikes

Google Penguin 2.1 is scheduled to launch today, as said by Mr Matt Cutts, Google’s search spam head. The new instalment of the second generation Penguin algorithm is designed to target webspam and 1% of searches are seeming to be affected.

With the release of the first Penguin update on 24th April 2012, it was looking as if the search engine optimization industry was on the verge of ending. And for many of those who were indulging in unscrupulous ways of link building, it was a fact. According to the reports given by Matt Cutts, 3.1% of the search queries were hit by Penguin 2.1. However, the new release of this algorithm is less impactful than the former ones.

Since the release of Penguin in 2012, there have been four other algorithm updates and Penguin 2.1 is the latest one. Keep in mind that Google will move to the next number only when they feel that a considerable amount of changes have been made to the existing number of the algorithm to consider it a full update.

What Is Penguin 2.1 Looking for?

In all likeliness, Penguin 2.1 is looking for all that its predecessor was looking for. No one knew what would first Penguin algorithm come with. With the time passing by, there were some symptoms noticed when a considerable change in the ranking of a website was seen. What no one had anticipated was that the Penguin algorithm took action against those backlinks which were pointing to the homepage or the major pages of a site. This was not realized until Penguin 2.0. was released and Matt Cutts stated that Penguin 2 went deeper into the website than the first instalment.

Of what we have seen, the Penguin algorithm targets the following:

* Spammy links
* Low quality links
* Paid links that are not “Nofollow”
* Black hat SEO techniques
* Links from Article syndication
* Abusing blog posting or forum
* Too many exact match keywords used in external links
* Too many backlinks from one website
* Aggressive exchange of links
* Anything that was listed on the Google Link Schemes page.

There is no human interference here. Penguin is just an algorithm. It works on a formula that is developed by the engineers of Google and monitors how a website or web page ranks. It is said that the Penguin algorithm is a signalling system for the Google Search Quality team, making them aware of the happenings of unnatural linking.