Buckle In Because Penguin is Now Part of Google’s Core Algorithm

Today, September 23rd, 2016, Google announced that the Penguin has been rolled into the core algorithm. The Penguin update has historically focused on the quality of off-page metrics pointing to a site. This means two big things for SEOs:

1. Penguin metrics are now updated in real-time. The change means that Penguin metrics are updated when pages are recrawled and should only take a few days to make a difference (positive or negative) in the SERPs.
2. The effects of Penguin metrics are more granular. Webmasters and SEOs of old remember that Penguin updates were synonymous with penalties. It seems (for now at least) that the core algorithm rolling updates will penalize non-Penguin-friendly sites with decreased keyword rankings instead of a full penalty.

In January of this year, Panda was rolled into the core algorithm. While Panda metrics are typically focused around on-page optimizations this has brought more stability to SERPs, especially to pages putting in the effort for quality content.

The update is still rolling out, and there’s bound to be some shifting in the SERPs over the weekend and the coming week. It will be interesting to see the effects of the said update.