Google Penguin 2.0 Update is Coming Soon
Google has officially announced that their latest search engine algorithm update is on the way, the latest version of last years Penguin update is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks, probably hitting the UK version of Google in early to mid June.
When the first version of Penguin launched at the end of 2012, around 100,000 UK websites suffered a drop in the rankings, some drops were dramatic and some websites have still not recovered.
It expected that the latest version of Penguin (named Penguin 2.0), will be more comprehensive and delve far deeper into the quality of a websites SEO. Googles head of webspam Matt Cutts has confirmed that it will continue to target websites using black hat and spammy SEO techniques.
When Penguin 2.0 is rolled out, there is bound to be a shake up in the rankings for many UK websites and it is important that website owners take steps to ensure they are well prepared and do all they can to protect their positions online.
What to do ahead of Penguin 2.0
Penguin 2.0 is designed to analyze the backlinks coming into your website and will mainly try to identify any spammy links, steps should be taken to identify any such links as early as possible and to ensure they can be removed and no further spammy backlinks are created.
The sort of links Penguin 2.0 is likely to target are:
* Links that come from websites built only for SEO purposes
* Links from bad neighbourhoods (for example, on websites with questionable content)
* Links from totally irrelevant websites to your own
* Links with over optimised anchor text
If you find that you have links that may have the potential to cause an issue, steps need to be taken to remove them, this can be done by contacting the webmasters of the sites with the links on, or, in exceptional circumstances, using the Google Disavow Tool to have the link/s ignored by Google.
Penguin 2.0 is mainly designed to target spammy backlinks, but it will likely also likely target websites that have a high keyword density and carry duplicate content across multiple pages, so it is important to make sure the content on your site is as Google friendly as possible.
What to do now
It is important not to panic, Google has updated their algorithm on numerous occasions and website owners who follow the Google guidelines will usually not be affected, however, even websites that do not engage in spammy SEO tactics can have issues, sometimes without the owner of the site even being aware.
If SEO is being done properly, Penguin 2.0 should be seen as an opportunity to get higher in the Google rankings.
If you would like an evaluation of your website to see whether you have any potential issues ahead of Penguin 2.0 or whether your site can rank higher in Google please use the form at the top of this page to request a free review of your site as soon as possible.
