Everything you Need to Know About Penguin 4.0
There’s lots more to learn about Penguin, redirects aren’t “voodoo magic,” and you might not need to disavow those bad links anymore.
Here’s what happened this week in SEO.
Google Is Already Removing Penalties From Previous Penguin Updates
As we reported in this space, Google started rolling out the much-anticipated Penguin 4.0 update just last week.
This week, people who were penalized by previous Penguin versions got some good news.
@atmoore81 it's happening as we speak. or tweet. it will take a few more days to finish that part
— Gary Illyes (@methode) September 28, 2016
According to Google’s Gary Illyes, the search engine’s algorithm is already removing penalties from previous Penguin updates.
This past week on Twitter, someone asked Illyes when the updates will be happening. He replied: “it’s happening as we speak. or tweet. it will take a few more days to finish that part.”
So if you were slapped with a penalty from a previous Penguin update, you might see some rank improvement as early as this week.
Emphasis on “might.” Removing a penalty only devalues the bad links pointing to your site. It doesn’t guarantee a boost in the SERPs.
Penguin is a Real-Time Component of the Google Algorithm
Speaking of Penguin, it’s now an integral part of the core Google algorithm. That change went into effect this past week.
What that means is this: both positive and negative effects from the Penguin update will occur in real time. That might seem unsurprising to people unfamiliar with the history of Penguin, but it’s a big change.
In the past, webmasters had to wait until the next Penguin update to recover from any penalties. Now, updates occur as part of the core algorithm. So SEOs can get a quicker read on how the update changes their rank.
Google: Redirects Aren’t “Voodoo Magic”
If you’re given to sticking pins in dolls so that you can rank on the first page of Google, you might want to continue that practice instead of using 301 redirects. That’s according to Google’s John Mueller, who says that redirects aren’t “voodoo magic.”
It was established a while ago by Gary Illyes that all redirects pass page rank.
This week on Twitter, somebody asked if they pass equal page rank.
@jennyhalasz @JohnMu all redirects pass PageRank now
— Gary Illyes (@methode) September 28, 2016
Here’s how Mueller responded: “Are you seeing any particular issues with some of the redirects? Curious to find out more!”
Later on he tweeted: “IMO SEOs fuss too much about redirects. Use the right one for the job, it’s a technical thing, not a SEO thing; it’s not voodoo magic.”
Okay then.
Penguin Means There’s “Less Need” to Disavow Bad Links
Thanks to the advent of Penguin 4.0, you may not need to use disavow files to tell Google to ignore backlink spam.
That’s because Google automatically ignores backlink spam.
According to Gary Illyes, the new algorithm “devalues” bad links as opposed to “demoting” bad pages.
That’s a distinction with a significant difference.
Illyes says that the algorithm will simply disregard spammy links so they don’t affect rank at all. So it doesn’t demote sites with bad links, it just ignores the links completely.
That doesn’t mean you won’t need to do any disavowing, though. There’s just “less need,” according to Illyes. He also said webmasters can help out by using disavow files.
Illyes also said that Google will also continue to issue manual actions against sites that are “systematically trying to spam.”
Google Won’t Send Manual Action Notices for Penguin Penalties
Some SEOs are under the impression that if they’re hit by the new Penguin 4.0 algorithm, then they’ll receive a manual action notice.
The reason that a manual action is called a “manual action” is because it’s based on a decision made by a human being. It’s not automatic and it’s not driven by an algorithm.
When webmasters do receive a manual action, though, they will still receive a notification. But there’s no notification sent when Penguin 4.0 devalues some of the links pointing to a site.
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