Google finally announced Penguin 2.0 at the end of May; it was a big announcement that normally implies a significant change in the way websites are monitored and ranked. It is important that we understand what changes really mean.
- Less than 3% of pages were affected
- Focus on content and link farms, negatively rating them
- Low quality link building to be penalised
- Author ranking now plays a more significant part in overall ranking
Not so ground-breaking, unless you’ve been bending the Google rules by buying or acquiring lots of low quality links (which lots had). Google generally goes after the top few percent of sites that it feels are bending the rules and simply makes it harder for them to succeed with their tactics.
Longer-term, it’s about content quality and that means you should focus on quality and original content on your web-site and stress less about pointless inbound links and guest blogging.
Rumoured to be due soon is the much larger update that’s going to effect how non-mobile sites are treated by Google; expect to see a scramble towards mobile optimisation in the next quarter.
“Keep the white hat on, folks”
