Google Penguin 3 Rolls On

With fluctuations continuing to be reported by webmasters it’s been confirmed by Google that the Penguin 3.0 update continues to roll out.  There are reports of what we’ve seen repeatedly from Google over the years in a pendulum effect wherein rankings fluctuate in one direction only to be returned to their previous or close-to-previous positions shortly thereafter.

What this tell us (much to the frustration of website owners everywhere) is that Google doesn’t have a solid lock on what they’re trying to measure or how it should be calculated thus resulting in constant adjustments.  This comes on the heals of over a year delay between updates.  I feel it’s only fair to note here that, as I was once posed the legitimate question by Jeremiah Andrick back when he worked at launching Bing, “Do you know how hard it is to build a search engine?”  Valid point.  It’s very hard, but with the holiday season in full swing and major fluctuations reported over the Thanksgiving weekend, this update is taking me back to the disaster that was the Florida Update in November of 2003.  I would have thought that Google had learned that the holidays are not the time to play around with such things too much.

But … here’s where we are and rather than complain (since there’s nothing we can do about it) let’s just take this as a predictor for 2015.  Links count and bad links count more.  Not the way you want … but more.  So as you plan out your strategies and budget for the coming year remember, Google is watching and Google is putting significant time and resources into combating spam.  While Penguins mainly impact link-related factors it’s not exclusive to that so review your site, review your links and buckle up (or down).  It’s a long and winding road ahead but to be sure, it’s going to be an exciting year.

We’ll be reporting constantly as news comes out on the continuing Penguin rollout.  You can Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter if you’d like to keep updated in real-time or just pop back to our blog each day. As we know more … you’ll know more.