Bonfire CEO says release of Penguin 4.0 update should mean better Google results overall

Google’s much anticipated Penguin ranking update has finally been released. It’s been a long wait for SEO agencies and website owners. Dubbed Penguin 4.0, Clay Cook (pictured), CEO of Perth digital marketing agency Bonfire, said what sets this update apart from previous updates is that it will now operate in real-time.

“In the past, websites that applied underhanded SEO techniques to manipulate the search results would be found by Google. However, Penguin only happened periodically. It would often take some months for the website to be penalised or removed from the Google results all together. Inversely, it could also take the same length of time for a website to be rewarded for their positive efforts to rectify their penalty.”

The previous release of an update was in October 2014, meaning many penalised websites have been waiting almost two years to turn their fortunes around, with many having to resort to launching new website domains to fix the issue. The introduction of Penguin 4.0 to Google’s core search algorithm means that ranking adjustments will now occur as Google re-crawls the web. This means that existing penalties will be lifted much sooner. However, instead of demoting a website, Penguin 4.0 now devalues the link spam so that it is excluded from a website’s ranking calculation.

Cook said the update is quite a breakthrough.

“Rumours of real-time updates have been circling for some time, so it’s encouraging to see that this has come to fruition.The effects of the update are already being felt. Over this past weekend, our team watched the “recovery” component of the update roll out across Australia. We’ve seen strong improvements for clients who had engaged us to help fix penalties from prior SEO activities. This vindicates a sustainable approach to SEO strategy.”

An important aspect of this update is that it has also become page-specific, meaning Google’s notoriously complicated algorithm is a little more granular. Previously, Google would demote an entire website for low quality links, now it devalues individual pages.

However, Cook also sounded a warning for webmasters.

“Real-time is going to keep us on our toes. Digital marketers and website owners will need to be extra vigilant as the impact of optimisation techniques, both good and bad, will be felt much quicker.”

He also said the inclusion of Penguin into Google’s core algorithm isn’t as easy as it might sound.

“There are many implications to consider, so it’s no surprise it’s taken two years to release. But the outcome should mean better Google results overall. And fundamentally the principles of ethical SEO hold true. Digital marketers and website owners who create engaging content and focus on high quality link acquisition should have no cause for concern.”