Google Confirms Penguin 4.0 Update: Penguin In Now Real-Time

After almost two years of wait, Google has finally confirmed its Penguin algorithm update. It has been the fourth major release making Penguin a real-time signal processed into its core search algorithm. As it is the last update, there will be no confirmation about the next Penguin updates. The updates will be a constant process, so it does not make any sense to update every time.

This update is probably not fully live yet, as Google said “we are now rolling out an update to the Penguin algorithm in all languages”. It is not confirmed how long it will take to roll out, but it won’t take that long.

What is Penguin?

Google’s Penguin was launched on April 24, 2012 and after that we have seen 6 updates. It was launched to catch sites spamming the search results. Most of the sites which used link schemes to manipulate search rankings were hold guilty. It hunts down the inorganic links, especially the ones which are used for simply improving search rankings.

What to expect from Penguin 4.0

Penguin is now real-time –

There were many sites, which have been hit by the last Penguin update. If any site has been hit by the last update will get a chance to get free. According to Google, with this latest release, Google will recrawl and reindex pages constantly. Once a webmaster improves their site and its presence on the internet, Google’s algorithm will take it into consideration fast. So, pages will get caught or freed regularly.

Penguin is now more granular –

Google also said that new algorithm is more granular. It will devalue spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals rather than affecting ranking of the complete site. Earlier, Penguin used to be a sitewide penalty, but it will be more granular this time.