Penguin algorithm: Success or Failure?

From its launch in 2012, it regularly kept updating itself until the most recent Penguin 3.0 launch. However, SEOs probably have a strong opinion about this but it is unclear whether majority opinion goes in a positive or negative way.

Penguin algorithm Plus points

The consistent pressure on webmasters is to produce quality content in return for valuable link building. Before the introduction of Penguin, webmasters focused on producing volume based content because that was directly related to more backlinks. Link building evolved forever after the Penguin update focused on “content is king”, hence forcing webmasters to spend more time on producing quality content rather than just volume.

Penguin has seen great success in changing the behaviour of SEO at macro level. Because of the strict penalizing involved with this algorithm, SEOs are afraid to exploit loopholes to find black hat linking alternatives. The risk and liability involved is too much. The focus for earning links has now shifted to content driven basis, which is a good thing. In the meantime, webmasters are very careful in managing backlinks, including more relevant ones and eliminating unwanted links.

Before the Penguin era, outsourcing link building to offshore service providers was very popular even amongst business owners and digital agencies. At that time Google did try to battle this but failed in doing so until the launch of Penguin. Companies don’t even consider these offshore services for link building anymore and are focusing on in-house, high quality link building.

Penguin algorithm Negative points

Penguin has proved to cause harm to small businesses. Google is more than just an extremely successful company. Googling has become a part of any minor transaction or purchase. Just like we cannot exist without transport and other commodities, the internet’s digital infrastructure cannot exist without Google. Google’s Penguin update is the backbone behind the way in which the company has influenced the global economy. Such subjective and disciplinary algorithms, along with the popularity of companies such as Google, can have a massive crushing impact on small businesses.

Because of Penguin’s penalizing system for spammy links, some people are encouraged to trigger penalties on competitor websites by sending them spam links. Although webmasters of Google have claimed that it is quite hard to successfully achieve negative SEO, communities in the search world claim that it is actually quite practical.

The disciplinary nature of the Penguin algorithm has stolen control from webmasters hands and put third parties in charge. It is very simple for anyone to link to your site, hence making it easier to obtain links you don’t want. Google does not provide the option of controlling incoming links. Instead, they want webmasters to locate those unwanted links and disavow them.

Overall, some general opinions are that Penguin would have been better if it were used to neutralize instead of penalize spam links. Further, because of the long gap in the most recent update, some believe that more time was being taken to test and fix any flaws in the algorithm. Anyhow, Penguin is here to stay and will keep evolving the SEO community.