Google Penguin is Back! (But Just a Data Refresh)

Omri Shabath

The Penguin is Back!The sky is falling, oceans are flooding the lands, darkness spreading across the bests of hearts and Satan’s demons ravaging all the remains. Or perhaps this is actually a good day? It is really hard to tell accurately at this point, but what is clear is that it has finally arrived.

Google Penguin data refresh is finally here. All hail the return of our algorithmic ruler!

After over five long months since the previous (and first) Penguin data refresh, Google discharged the second data refresh of the infamous algorithm. It is actually quite odd that it is just a data refresh, considering that SpamCop Cutts had stated back in August that the next Penguin update will be relatively a big one.

The nearly half of year waiting also contributed to the overall sentiment and suspense that some algorithmic alteration and additional signals would have accompanied the next Penguin, but yet, eventually it seems that it’s just a data refresh. WTF Google? If it’s merely a data refresh, why have you waited so long to refresh it?

Of course, there’s also the possibility in which Google will release a Penguin update (with changes to the algorithm itself) soon enough and won’t disclose it, just as they did with the last Panda update about a week ago. Pretty hard to say at this point what’s going to happen at the GoogleZoo…

Another conspicuous issue from this Penguin weather report, is that the refresh has a relatively minuscule effect of 0.3% on all English search queries. You would think that after such a long while, the flux will be much greater but I guess the meager percentage effect proves that it’s very difficult to overcome the Penguin (at least in its current form).

What will happen next? No one except Matt Cutts and his team knows (perhaps they even don’t know yet), and after the last pretty crazy week at the GoogleZoo which also included the EMD update, I don’t think it will be appropriate to speculate anything now.

Everything is possible. No one is safe. Things changing rapidly. Once all-mighty traffic kings drops in an algorithmic heartbeat, as others take their place and rise to glory. Hold tight, it’s definitely going to be a bumpy ride.