Penguin rollout will take couple of weeks + refresh?!

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Just read this: https://plus.google.com/+PierreFar/posts/NURBpsNpef4

On Friday last week, we started rolling out a Penguin refresh affecting fewer than 1% of queries in US English search results. This refresh helps sites that have already cleaned up the webspam signals discovered in the previous Penguin iteration, and demotes sites with newly-discovered spam.

It's a slow worldwide rollout, so you may notice it settling down over the next few weeks.


So it's seems like it's going to take a while. Some of you will see a traffic drop, someone will see a recovery. Fingers crossed.

Also, it seems like it's rather a refresh of previous Penguin 2.1, so it's not a completely new animal (P3).
#couple #penguin #rollout #weeks
  • Profile picture of the author nik0
    Banned
    Thanks for posting, I guess blog network links are among that new type of spam as when I read blackhat world there are quite a few people tanked that had such links and a decent amount of my customers as well.

    I'll say it again though, the customers from me that had a good portion of highly relevant links did not tank at all, instead they gained rankings.

    So as always, you can get away with more spammy appearing links when other things are solid.

    I've adjusted my networks already to deal with this so I'm looking forward to the next refresh.

    As in what I adjusted precisely:

    - Using excerpts on homepage and category pages, so no more hyperlinks next to irrelevant other links/posts, in other words now only a link from the post level

    - Added web2.0's and domains dedicated for clients (no sharing with others)

    - Setup a batch of real power boosting domains and those are shared with 5 people max, again with excerpts here to keep the relevancy at a higher level.

    I have good expectations from this re-newed strategy.

    More relevant to this thread, if Google treats links on a page next to irrelevant links as spam then I suppose more links get affected by it, think of bookmark sites, web directories, local listing sites, though lately there was already a trend where links at such platforms don't show up on category pages either but just on page level.

    I realize I might be interpretating newly discovered spam in the wrong way, but there's definitely more going on in this Penguin update then what happened in previous updates.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
      Originally Posted by nik0 View Post

      Thanks for posting, I guess blog network links are among that new type of spam as when I read blackhat world there are quite a few people tanked that had such links and a decent amount of my customers as well.

      I'll say it again though, the customers from me that had a good portion of highly relevant links did not tank at all, instead they gained rankings.

      So as always, you can get away with more spammy appearing links when other things are solid.

      I've adjusted my networks already to deal with this so I'm looking forward to the next refresh.

      As in what I adjusted precisely:

      - Using excerpts on homepage and category pages, so no more hyperlinks next to irrelevant other links/posts, in other words now only a link from the post level

      - Added web2.0's and domains dedicated for clients (no sharing with others)

      - Setup a batch of real power boosting domains and those are shared with 5 people max, again with excerpts here to keep the relevancy at a higher level.

      I have good expectations from this re-newed strategy.

      More relevant to this thread, if Google treats links on a page next to irrelevant links as spam then I suppose more links get affected by it, think of bookmark sites, web directories, local listing sites, though lately there was already a trend where links at such platforms don't show up on category pages either but just on page level.

      I realize I might be interpretating newly discovered spam in the wrong way, but there's definitely more going on in this Penguin update then what happened in previous updates.
      That's very interesting indeed.

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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by nik0 View Post

      Thanks for posting, I guess blog network links are among that new type of spam as when I read blackhat world there are quite a few people tanked that had such links and a decent amount of my customers as well.

      I'll say it again though, the customers from me that had a good portion of highly relevant links did not tank at all, instead they gained rankings.

      I didn't see that. In fact one of my customers that did the best is in a very particular industrial niche where the only way we could have provided relevance was by creating an entire network just for him. He wasn't paying enough for that but he did very well over the update

      On the other hand since we have very few customers on a site (which is the opposite of how guys on Bhat operate) there is no mix of a whole heap of different subjects and anchor text on a page and that more likely is the footprint that is targeted.

      I do wish people would stop trying to claim Google can even theoretically see blog networks as spam. Thats like saying websites are seen as spam because thats all a PBN is - a bunch of websites.

      How you set them up and what footprints you leave on them is the only real thing google can target in an algo. I just have not seen private/exclusive blog owners crying in this update. For many it has been a non event or an improvement.
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      • Profile picture of the author nik0
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

        I didn't see that. In fact one of my customers that did the best is in a very particular industrial niche where the only way we could have provided relevance was by creating an entire network just for him. He wasn't paying enough for that but he did very well over the update

        On the other hand since we have very few customers on a site (which is the opposite of how guys on Bhat operate) there is no mix of a whole heap of different subjects and anchor text on a page and that more likely is the footprint that is targeted.

        I do wish people would stop trying to claim Google can even theoretically see blog networks as spam. Thats like saying websites are seen as spam because thats all a PBN is - a bunch of websites.

        How you set them up and what footprints you leave on them is the only real thing google can target in an algo. I just have not seen private/exclusive blog owners crying in this update. For many it has been a non event or an improvement.
        I covered that already further down the post, here again:

        "As in what I adjusted precisely: ...using excerpts on homepage and category pages, so no more hyperlinks next to irrelevant other links/posts.

        If Google treats links on a page next to irrelevant links as spam then I suppose more links get affected by it...."

        See with private networks dedicated to one person only the above would never be the case.

        Still these networks drive rankings very well for other clients, if it was up to me I would've taken the most obvious network down and repurpose them but that would affect rankings of the very well performing clients as well and they bring in quite a bit of money so I already discussed it with them and we decided to keep those networks alive.

        However for future monthly clients I won't use them anymore (despite excerpt usage or not) as most clients do not have enough relevant links to be able to handle the more spammy links. I have quite a few idle domains (nearly 300) and the strongest ones, PR3-PR4 like, will be dedicated with just a few customers per domain, while the weaker ones, PR1-PR2 (previously PR3's) will only host 1 client from now on.

        Already gave up on relevant commenting, forum participation, just not doable with 3rd world country VA's. Should have remembered that from when I took one of my better VAs to create an account at BHW to boost forum posts so I could take the account over at a later phase. What a failure was that. Posts were comparable to Digital Point level and what you see here as well quite a lot. Not really the reputation you want to start of with as a link provider.
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      • Profile picture of the author danparks
        Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

        I didn't see that. In fact one of my customers that did the best is in a very particular industrial niche where the only way we could have provided relevance was by creating an entire network just for him. He wasn't paying enough for that but he did very well over the update
        Hopefully you set up those niche-specific PBN sites to have the entire site be specific to his niche, rather than just page-specific. You know, so his links get a little more juice from being on an entire site in his niche Sorry Mike, I should have let it go rather than restart things, but I'm just giving you a hard time on that site-wide relevancy thing. Even though I know I'll get blasted for it. Can't help it, it's my personality
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
          Originally Posted by danparks View Post

          Hopefully you set up those niche-specific PBN sites to have the entire site be specific to his niche, rather than just page-specific. You know, so his links get a little more juice from being on an entire site in his niche
          I am thinking what I will do is setup twenty relevant subdomains on a domain all pointing to the main domain. That way it will be so brimming with relevant juice according to your theory it won't even matter that its a new domain with no links to it.

          I'll probably use a bunch of .infos and have a network for maybe $50 that will outrank Google for the term google, I owe it all to you and your teaching. You da man!
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          • Profile picture of the author danparks
            Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

            I am thinking what I will do is setup twenty relevant subdomains on a domain all pointing to the main domain. That way it will be so brimming with relevant juice according to your theory it won't even matter that its a new domain with no links to it.

            I'll probably use a bunch of .infos and have a network for maybe $50 that will outrank Google for the term google, I owe it all to you and your teaching. You da man!
            Good, I'm glad to hear you've finally seen the light!
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  • Profile picture of the author EvcRo
    There is a difference between public blog networks and private ones

    I have private ones doing just fine for 3+ years

    That's why Google is after them, because if used right, they are very powerful.
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  • Profile picture of the author linkbuildr
    Penguin rollout is done, Muller said so on the 20th.
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    • Profile picture of the author online only
      Originally Posted by linkbuildr View Post

      Penguin rollout is done, Muller said so on the 20th.
      Yes, but later on corrected himself on G+

      https://www.seroundtable.com/google-...oll-19321.html
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    • Profile picture of the author sweezeter
      Originally Posted by linkbuildr View Post

      Penguin rollout is done, Muller said so on the 20th.
      In typical Muller fashion he didn't have a clue and still doesn't have a clue.

      Trust this guys words less than Cutts. Sometimes I think they just choose the biggest bozo at Google to be their public voice. It's a joke sometimes how wrong and far off he is.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Originally Posted by sweezeter View Post

        In typical Muller fashion he didn't have a clue and still doesn't have a clue.
        Seriously I think the only time they give him news is when he over hears it at the water cooler.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    If only people actually read the threads before posting...
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    For SEO news, discussions, tactics, and more.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEOWizard417
    So it sounds like it was just a refresh and not the Penguin 3.0 everyone has been waiting for. Not sure which is true, but if it indeed was simply a refresh, no new signals were added to the algorithm, so it is the same signals the Google used last year with Penguin.
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  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    I'm pretty sure its rolled out already and Mueller was supposed to keep his mouth shut, thus the rebuttal from Pierre.

    I'm guessing just more propaganda.

    I could be wrong though, but if they were only going to "refresh" it without new signals, they could've done this a long time ago.

    Then again Christmas is just around the corner and Google stock just took a hit!
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    • Profile picture of the author CRIMSON ASH
      Originally Posted by GyuMan82 View Post

      I'm pretty sure its rolled out already and Mueller was supposed to keep his mouth shut, thus the rebuttal from Pierre.

      I'm guessing just more propaganda.
      This is exactly what I thought!

      We know churn and burn goes into overdrive after these updates and one way to slow that down is to let people believe the update is not done yet.
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  • What is the main point to follow for penguin in google ranking ?
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  • Profile picture of the author godoveryou
    Oh, Mike, but the demise!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    This refresh helps sites that have already cleaned up the webspam signals discovered in the previous Penguin iteration...
    Basically, this only matters for sites that suck at SEO.

    Seriously, raise your hand If this even matters to you.
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