Google Penguin: Why an Ongoing Update Could be Good for SEO

Since first appearing on the scene back in 2012, Penguin has made a habit of rubbing SEOs up the wrong way. Version 1.0, which effectively signalled the beginning of the end for classic black hat methods like keyword stuffing and link buying, affected 3.1% of all search queries. A year later, also hell bent on stopping practitioners of the dark arts, Penguin 2.0 hit 2.3% of all queries with its iron flipper. Fast forward another year and Penguin came back with a vengeance in 2014 – more determined to bring down the SEO bad guys than Bruce Willis in Die Hard.

In classic Google fashion, Penguin 3.0 brought a data “refresh” that the company didn’t tell us anything about, but the impact wasn’t quite as bad as many industry-types were expecting – only around 1% of queries feeling the effects. Not bad considering the long wait. Well, not bad if you weren’t affected of course.

Typically, when a Penguin update drops the whole SEO industry goes into panic mode and those hit go into recovery mode. Then, after a long, hard slog for some, things calm down, the tremors subside, a formal notification of completion is released by Google and webmasters get back to their – now decidedly more quality focussed – ways. This time, though, things are different and if you’ve been awaiting a message from Google, you’ll be waiting on long time.

Call this a throwaway line if you like, but I wouldn’t recommend you ignore it. During a Webmaster Central Hangout late last year, Google’s John Mueller basically confirmed the continued rollout of Penguin 3.0 and followed it up by saying: “we’re hoping that these things will just keep on updating.”

The company’s intentions were reiterated more recently by Gary Illyes at SMX Advanced, as covered by Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz here.

A Penguin update with no end in sight? Are these guys sadists?

Quite possibly.

But what if I told you that an ongoing update isn’t quite as infuriating as face value dictates. What if I told you – and don’t close your browser on me when I say this – that an ever-present Penguin could be a good thing.

Think about it…what’s the biggest current threat to your Google search ranking?

Penguin.

What if there was something there to constantly remind you that your standards mustn’t drop?

Penguin could be that thing.

Google is watching

Search engine optimisation is an ever-growing and changing landscape in which you can never rest on your laurels.

You can’t cut corners in this game; doing so could kill your business.

With Penguin always looking over your shoulder and threatening to take you down if you even think about doing anything unethical, your SEO would always be on point – there wouldn’t be any other choice.

No more getting a penalty, recovering from a penalty and slowly getting pulled back towards the dark-side – the all-seeing Penguin eye would prevent it, Big Brother-style.

Moreover, if you do find a way to deceive the flightless bird and get caught, constant updates might work in your favour too, helping your website overcome a penalty faster – so long as you put the work in, that is.

Of course, this would also work the other way too…try anything untoward and you’ll get caught faster, and knowing this should be enough to keep you right on top of those links.

So, just like Shaggy has Scooby and Hans Solo has Chewbacca, a consistent Penguin update will see you have an animal sidekick of your own – just don’t expect this one to have your back when things go wrong.