An official name has been released for Google’s latest webspam algorithm update: the ‘Penguin’. Following on from the decidedly zoological theme, this update pegs on nicely to the string of updates named ‘Panda’. Matt Cutts, head of webspam at Google, tweeted this unbelievably cute picture of the latest visitors to Mountain View from his Twitter account @mattcutts.
Please note, anyone unfamiliar with the term ‘algorithm’ should refer to the first part of my SEO jargonbuster.
So what is it and what does it do?
Google Penguin is an algorithm change targeted at webspam or as Google likes to call it “search spam”. Those sites who are deemed to violate quality guidelines will have their rankings decreased. In the search engine’s own words on the official Google blog: “This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.” Indeed, Google has been trying to fight web spam constantly but some of these techniques are in excess of 10 years old. Plain and simple, Google has found and is now trying to implement better methods of fighting such spam.
So what does this mean for SEO?
Matt Cutts has insisted that Google Penguin has been designed to fight spam and not SEO. The advice given is to focus on creating high quality user experiences and “amazing, compelling web sites”, rather than keyword stuffing, link schemes, cloaking and creating duplicate content.
Alas, the conclusion is this, we can continue to be encouraged in the fact that Google advocates SEO and welcomes high quality material.
Are you in SEO or digital marketing? What do you think of Google Penguin?
