Ode to Penguin 3.0

And May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favour

It’s been a bit of an odd one for anyone working in SEO, with almost 350 days since the we last saw a Google Penguin update. Previously run back in October, 2013 there was the usual mixture of cries of despair, contrasted against sighs of relief as site owners were either punished or went about their day-to-day business as if nothing had happened.

But for those unhappy souls affected by the algorithm, whose hard work and relentless hours spent removing any link with the slightest shred of uncertainty behind its acquisition, the update couldn’t come any sooner. Frustratingly, those people who were affected, have had to wait all this time to see if their hard work and determination has rid themselves of their Penguin affliction. Due to it not being part of the core algorithm it needs to be manually run in order for the penalty to be removed.

We have been told many times that Google are trying their best to get Penguin 3.0 out in 2014 with countless questions around the subject asked in recent Google’s Office Hangouts with John Mueller, but we’ll have to see whether those affected get an early Christmas present or if it runs into 2015. John Mueller has said that Penguin 3.0 will likely launch this year but added the usual caveat “as always, there are always things that can happen in between.”

With countless articles around Penguin’s release dating all the way back to April and whispers from Google regarding its imminent release we will have to simply get back to clearing backlink profiles, disavowing the links you find correctly and then getting yourself some good links in place.

We’ll be following this article up with some techniques to check and audit backlinks effectively using Google Docs and how to correctly use Google’s disavow tool. If you have any questions regarding Penguin or fancy a chat feel free to contact us.