Penguin Is Fully Live - Confirmed By Google

by dp40oz
64 replies
  • SEO
  • |
So the update is now fully in action:

Sometimes it can take a few days for an update to fully rollout across all Google’s various data centers, which in turn means impacting all its search results. In this case, the rollout is complete. Google confirms that Penguin is fully live.
My advice to those who were hit is start taking the less is more approach. Get high PR links through either guest posting or a quality private network, build relevant web 2.0's that will take the brunt of your link building. Buffer sites are working better then ever. The game is virtually the same but the days of hitting your money site in the face with links is either over or coming to an end. Diversify your anchor text more then you think and add your URL, domain name and generic anchor text. Google also stated penalties from this update will not be overturned by a reconsideration request. Its entirely algorithmic which means you either have to go in and remove links or start over.

Because this is an algorithmic change, Google has no plans to make manual exceptions. Webmasters cannot ask for reconsideration of their site, but we’re happy to hear feedback about the change on our webmaster forum.
In my opinion this was just a strict penalty update, rolling through and harshly penalizing sites that they feel violate their guidelines. Those who have links they can't get rid of are pretty much forever screwed. Although I think they missed the boat tremendously, there is now no doubt that negative SEO is possible and will become part of the game now. If Google is openly punishing sites for "web spam" then its only a matter of time before negative SEO starts becoming more and more apparent.
#confirmed #fully #google #live #penguin
  • Profile picture of the author wAvision
    LOL....is this for real
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    • Profile picture of the author Liam Hamer
      That seems to be a highly reputable and respected source, but I'd rather see/hear it from Google themselves. Hard to believe things are going to stay like this.
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    • Profile picture of the author cooler1
      Originally Posted by wAvision View Post

      LOL....is this for real
      I wish it was April 1st then this might make some sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Dude,

    In my opinion this was just a strict penalty update, rolling through and harshly penalizing sites that they feel violate their guidelines. Although I think they missed the boat tremendously, there is now no doubt that negative SEO is possible and will become part of the game now. If Google is openly punishing sites for "web spam" then its only a matter of time before negative SEO starts becoming more and more apparent.
    .... you better stop making clever observations in here.
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  • Profile picture of the author DPM70
    Remember this? - LOL!!

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    • Profile picture of the author StevenJones
      Originally Posted by DPM70 View Post

      Remember this? - LOL!!

      So the next update will be either lion or frog atleast we know the name
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      • Profile picture of the author JeepDriver
        If they are not careful it will be called "Lemming"
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      • Profile picture of the author WeExist
        Originally Posted by DPM70 View Post

        Remember this? - LOL!!

        Originally Posted by StevenJones View Post

        So the next update will be either lion or frog atleast we know the name

        Penguin part 2
        then Koala bear then Toad buy replica handbags here then Simba then the Raven
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  • Profile picture of the author teachingking
    Can someone please explain the term 'Negative SEO'?
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by teachingking View Post

      Can someone please explain the term 'Negative SEO'?
      It means ****ing up a competitor's ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author Canuckystan
    Where did these quotes come from exactly? Never have I heard that you "can't" ask for reconsideration.

    Originally Posted by dp40oz View Post

    So the update is now fully in action:



    My advice to those who were hit is start taking the less is more approach. Get high PR links through either guest posting or a quality private network, build relevant web 2.0's that will take the brunt of your link building. Buffer sites are working better then ever. The game is virtually the same but the days of hitting your money site in the face with links is either over or coming to an end. Diversify your anchor text more then you think and add your URL, domain name and generic anchor text. Google also stated penalties from this update will not be overturned by a reconsideration request. Its entirely algorithmic which means you either have to go in and remove links or start over.



    In my opinion this was just a strict penalty update, rolling through and harshly penalizing sites that they feel violate their guidelines. Those who have links they can't get rid of are pretty much forever screwed. Although I think they missed the boat tremendously, there is now no doubt that negative SEO is possible and will become part of the game now. If Google is openly punishing sites for "web spam" then its only a matter of time before negative SEO starts becoming more and more apparent.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by Canuckystan View Post

      Where did these quotes come from exactly? Never have I heard that you "can't" ask for reconsideration.
      You've never been able to ask for a reconsideration for an algo change. You could ask it if there was a particularly penalty apply beyond the algo but if the algo doesn't rank you - you just don't rank.
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  • Profile picture of the author wAvision
    so thats it huh......its nice to know that i cannot outrank a blank website in my niche...that by the way is like the make money site.....on the 1st page
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    • Profile picture of the author dp40oz
      Originally Posted by Canuckystan View Post

      Where did these quotes come from exactly? Never have I heard that you "can't" ask for reconsideration.
      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      You've never been able to ask for a reconsideration for an algo change. You could ask it if there was a particularly penalty apply beyond the algo but if the algo doesn't rank you - you just don't rank.
      From Search Engine Land. And yep Mike, there are very few reasons a reconsideration request will actually do anything. Almost all penalties are algorithmic.
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    • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
      Originally Posted by wAvision View Post

      so thats it huh......its nice to know that i cannot outrank a blank website in my niche...that by the way is like the make money site.....on the 1st page
      I don't see that site anymore.

      Google has been all over the place for a few days. I'm assuming they'll stabilize here soon. (Hopefully.)
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  • Profile picture of the author stayfocusedonthis
    And the penguin is met with an icy reception...
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  • Profile picture of the author codecreative
    we need batman
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    • Profile picture of the author cooler1
      Originally Posted by codecreative View Post

      we need batman
      and robin.

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  • Profile picture of the author emigre
    Penguin is fully live...confirmed by all my sites dropping off into the abyss.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bambu
    Unless something has changed, I thought that algorithmic penalties expire after X period of time and manual penalties do not expire until the issue has been addressed and reconsideration granted.
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  • Profile picture of the author josephseeley
    Also, we can <s>confirm your site is low quality</s> report mistakes to Google here:

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...aTBQbkE6MQ&ifq

    (I know my sites hit were using artificial links so won't be using it. I just needed to build more links from more varied sources with more varied anchors.)
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    I cant believe they've "called it"

    Heres two sites that are direct copies of mine, that are both ranking first page.

    The original sources have been smashed.

    website purchase agreement sales contract
    Start An SEO Business | SEO Business Startup Kit |
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    • Profile picture of the author JeepDriver
      And im still seeing dud sites ranking thus giving poor user experience. Gut feeling says algo tweaks are in order.
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  • Profile picture of the author lancejeffersons
    Yah, Penguin is already up..I have read a post on Seomoz about what changes we need to do on our site to be not affected by this Google Penguin, This will be very beneficial for our sites 6 Changes Every SEO Should Make BEFORE the Over-Optimization Penalty Hits - Whiteboard Friday | SEOmoz
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  • Profile picture of the author Mantasmo
    OK so this sucks and doesn't suck at the same time. No more buying links on forums and ranking #1 for most of you, time to look for a job or build real businesses (building a business is hard).
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    • Profile picture of the author mosthost
      Originally Posted by bnetwork View Post

      OK so this sucks and doesn't suck at the same time. No more buying links on forums and ranking #1 for most of you, time to look for a job or build real businesses (building a business is hard).
      From Link Building To Burger Flipping
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      • Profile picture of the author Mantasmo
        Originally Posted by mosthost View Post

        From Link Building To Burger Flipping
        From link packet buying to burger flipping.*

        Though in all honesty I disagree with what Google has done this time. It's a mess, a lot of legit, small business hit in the process, SERPs are still cluttered with crap (in more cases than there should be). Strange, I expected better. They'll patch it up, but still.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Black cat world is ranking nicely on a lot of terms.

    Go figure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
      Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

      Black cat world is ranking nicely on a lot of terms.

      Go figure.
      Watching the same in Portugal... sadly.
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  • Profile picture of the author cooler1
    The stupid thing about this update is that Google is assuming that an "over optimized" site means poor content. Someone can have excellent, relevant, well written content but have it optimized with use of the keyword in header tags, etc.. without it being unreadable at all. This update isn't just bad from an IM's perspective but also from a searchers perspective because a load of junk is appearing on 1st page.

    What I don't understand at all is that I have some blogger blogs which use exactly the same on page SEO as my self hosted websites do, but their rankings haven't been effected like my sites have. Why has this update effected self hosted sites, but blogger blogs remain uneffected?
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    • Profile picture of the author mosthost
      Originally Posted by cooler1 View Post

      The stupid thing about this update is that Google is assuming that an "over optimized" site means poor content. Someone can have excellent, relevant, well written content but have it optimized with use of the keyword in header tags, etc.. without it being unreadable at all. This update isn't just bad from an IM's perspective but also from a searchers perspective because a load of junk is appearing on 1st page.

      What I don't understand at all is that I have some blogger blogs which use exactly the same on page SEO as my self hosted websites do, but their rankings haven't been effected like my sites have. Why has this update effected self hosted sites, but blogger blogs remain uneffected?
      Because Google owns Blogger and they give preferential treatment to their own properties.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author ankushkohli
    I would say, if something is bad implemented by Google update then definitely, they'll correct ASAP.
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  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    Ronald McDonald is waitting ahahahaha. Seriously guys too much drama, I never ever sh*t spammed my sites and I'm ranking pretty good. Some off my client sites got on page 2 from nowhere today too.
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    • Profile picture of the author mosthost
      Originally Posted by cooler1 View Post

      Get searching.

      DuckDuckGo
      Damn I love their results for my websites! Go duck GO!
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    • Profile picture of the author Zibblu
      Originally Posted by cooler1 View Post

      Get searching.

      DuckDuckGo
      I love this search engine. I rank #1 and #2 for my main target keyword... on Google not in first two pages.

      ~~~

      Maybe the key is trying to get people to leave Google. We should all band together to spread an alternative. I'm good with DuckDuckGo.com personally (and really... I just did a few other searches and their results are more relevant than Google's time after time... no college websites ranking for "Viagra" for example)
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
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        Originally Posted by Zibblu View Post

        I love this search engine. I rank #1 and #2 for my main target keyword... on Google not in first two pages.

        ~~~

        Maybe the key is trying to get people to leave Google. We should all band together to spread an alternative. I'm good with DuckDuckGo.com personally (and really... I just did a few other searches and their results are more relevant than Google's time after time... no college websites ranking for "Viagra" for example)
        Ha, Ha

        When you do a search on duckduckgo everybody has a first page rank, the page scrolls on forever...

        I'm waiting for someone to start selling first page ranking on duckduckgo SERPs, LMAO!

        Reminds my of pick-up-ducks at the carnival when I was a little kid "EVERBODY'S A WINNER!", best game in the world, you can never lose.
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        • Profile picture of the author Zibblu
          Originally Posted by yukon View Post

          Ha, Ha

          When you do a search on duckduckgo everybody has a first page rank, the page scrolls on forever...

          True! That's one of the things I really like about it actually. It's way more convenient than clicking through page after page (of course Google likes the page after page so they can keep hitting you with AdWords...)
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          • Profile picture of the author bcmwp
            Well, fully rolled out doesn't necessarily mean that the dancing is over, just that the changes are live on every one of their servers. I've had one page of my site nuked by a single scoop.it link (not by me, but by one of my readers), which makes me think that everything that had a spammy link has been dropped.

            This is normal for a dance, though. Google identifies spamminess, drops something and then re-evaluates a few weeks later. I can't imagine they'd actually keep it this way, or negative SEO will completely take over.
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            • Profile picture of the author stevo235
              rofl that hitler video is priceless
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    • Profile picture of the author daisy172
      Originally Posted by cooler1 View Post

      Get searching.

      DuckDuckGo
      You are aware I hope that all the Amazon listings on DuckDuckGo are actually amazon affiliate listings, right? Just do a search and hover over the link and you see their affiliate id of duckduckgo-d-20.

      All they need is to sign up to walmart, target and the rest and it's just another affiliate engine pretending to be a search page. Good luck to any affiliate sites wanting to compete with that. Makes the whole business of G "pushing" their own shopping results at the top of the serps look rather mild, no?

      Oh, and they get their search results from Bing. Why not just use Bing? At least their amazon listings arn't affiliate links
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  • Profile picture of the author redfeilds18
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    • Profile picture of the author Theeban
      Originally Posted by redfeilds18 View Post

      search "Viagra" again and you'll see this link "eval.nku.edu/" Northern Kentucky University on the Top of 2nd page!! WOW! Thanks Google! you are doing a great job!
      That is really funny
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    so....what do we do now?
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    • Profile picture of the author cooler1
      Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

      so....what do we do now?
      Start packing grocery bags.
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  • Profile picture of the author wAvision
    i just really do not see how these results can stay as is....
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  • Profile picture of the author redfeilds18
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author ian a birch
      Originally Posted by redfeilds18 View Post

      and there are more universities in 2nd, 3rd page .... so if you want to search for any university or school then search for Viagra you'll get your desired results
      Its a Real cock up...lol
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  • Profile picture of the author redfeilds18
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  • Profile picture of the author Green Moon
    We mostly hear from sites that got hit. Funny thing about numbers, though. 10 is 10 no matter how you slice it. There are still 10 sites in the top 10, so for every site that dropped from page 1, another took its place. Sure, some bad sites moved up, but random examples out of billions of potential searches don't really prove anything.

    When the dust settles and the next couple of tweaks of the algo are released, only then will we see what the real effect of Penquin is, and whether Google was successful in combating what it calls web spam.

    Anyone who got their sites promoted based on purchased links, blog networks, article directories, forum signatures or anything else that didn't constitute third parties linked to your site based on good content have NO REASON TO COMPLAIN. If you tried to find shortcuts to getting ranked quickly, ahead of other more established sites, then finding out that the shortcuts have been shut off and you have been re-routed should not come as a surprise.

    I am not saying that G did this right. Applying any mathematical formula is going to have some unintended consequences when applied to billions of webpages. Hopefully, they will continue to improve the outcome of the Penguin update. But if you know that you got where you are by taking shortcuts, know that the rules have changed and that you should concentrate on improving your content rather than looking for the next way to get ahead through a loophole.
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  • Profile picture of the author Web Hosting
    I am finding it hard to believe that they are going to significantly penalize for bad links. For example, what is to stop a penalized webmaster from blasting his/her competition with the same links that might have gotten them in trouble in the first place.

    Sounds like the link wars are just going to begin?!

    I could imagine people offering services to create spammy links to target peoples competition.

    This is unfortunate, but I think if anything they just need to devalue certain links.
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  • Profile picture of the author OneManSEO
    Hmmmm....I wonder. After seeing lots of .gov and .edu websites at the very top of competitive keyword groups, are they even vulnerable to negative SEO?

    How hard would it be to spam the hell out of a .gov website to put it into this algorithmic penalty? Perhaps the name of the game is to attack the sites Google is trying to give preference to..

    I've never looked into negative SEO, because its just not something I could ever be okay with - but if its to a .gov site, then I think I could actually live with myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarvyDery
    this will hurt google and i know they are working on it ASAP to resolve irregularities
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  • Profile picture of the author gardenkeeper
    Does it look like an all-around occupying activity? lol, I just heard someone wants to occupy Google.
    Clearly, I don't know too much about the penguin update this time.
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