Penguin To Shift To Continuous Updates Says Google

Google has confirmed that it will now release regular updates of its Penguin algorithm. The search engine giant released a statement via its spokesperson, that the last penguin update Penguin 3.0, is still rolling out and there would not be any definitive end point to the task. Regular and continuous updates would be released to keep the optimizing going.

What is Google Penguin?

Google Penguin is the code name for the Google algorithm update that was first introduced in 2012. The algorithm aims at targeting websites that violate Google's webmaster guidelines, by using black-hat SEO techniques, which involve artificially increasing the ranking of a webpage by manipulating the number of links pointing to the page. Such tactics are commonly known as link schemes.Google's penguin tracks such websites and drop their rankings drastically.Google's penguin aims to encourage Good Quality links by Search Engine Optimization.

The Penguin updates

According to Google's estimates, Penguin affects about 3.1% of search queries in English, about 3% of queries in languages like German, Chinese, and Arabic. The second update to the algorithm; Penguin 1.1 was unveiled on May 25, 2012. After that, 3 more updates were launched during the period of 2012-2013. The latest penguin update, named as penguin 3.0 came on October 17 2014. However, another update was launched on 27th November 2014, which Google calls a part of the 3.0 update. There are speculations that 3 more penguin updates have been launched by Google in December, although nothing like that has been confirmed by Google itself.

Penguin algorithm updates have always been developed offline and released at a specific point of time. Google used to process all the Penguin data offline and then push the data live, which used to create changes in the search results. However, now Google is implying that it will change the algorithm within its live ranking processes.