It’s been over a month since Google announced the release of Penguin 4.0: a real-time version of their Penguin algorithm, which in simple terms targeted unnatural backlinks.
Unlike previous iterations of Penguin, the real time nature of Penguin 4.0 now means that recoveries from the algorithm can be seen in a matter of weeks: whereas previously you had to wait for the next Penguin update, which was often a year away.
Some SEOs have reported negative impacts from Penguin, with sites either steadily or very quickly experiencing traffic drops:
However, we want to share some of the positives we’ve seen for our clients following Penguin 4.0:
Client 1
Sector: Retail, Jewellery
Past Penguin Issues?: Penalised in 2012, however had manual action removed
Background: This client had always ranked well for long tail terms (which convert very well), but struggled with the trophy terms, which are great for brand awareness.
What happened after Penguin 4?: Highly competitive terms began to rank on page one of Google, leading to a considerate increase in daily organic visitors and a huge increase in SEO visibility:
Client 2
Sector: Retail; Home
Past Penguin Issues?: Thought to have been penalised in 2012 and had never fully recovered
Background: Having only been a client of Ricemedia for four months, we’d recently completed a technical audit of the site and worked with their developers to implement any changes. In addition to this we completed a disavow for the client (they’d never had one before!).
What happened after Penguin 4?: Rankings increased dramatically, with core terms moving from page five to pages one and two in Google.
Client 3
Sector: B2B, Events
Past Penguin Issues?: No
Background: Recently migrated to a new site with support from Rice. New site is content rich, any historic negative links were disavowed and migration was smooth
What happened after Penguin 4?: Ranking increases across the board
Client 4
Sector: B2B, Construction
Past Penguin Issues?: No
Background: Local client, with focus on local terms – these terms don’t have high search volumes, but are still very competitive. Had a new website six months ago, and has now seen increases since Penguin.
What happened after Penguin 4?: Local rankings have increased, leading to an increase in visibility
Client 5
Sector: E-commerce, Florist
Past Penguin Issues?: Penalised in 2012. Manual action was removed.
Background: Local client, that ranks well locally, but struggled with national terms.
What happened after Penguin 4?: National terms started to rank, giving a great foundation to now work from.
Not seen great results from Penguin 4? Were you expecting an uplift in traffic, which you’re yet to experience? Talk to us. We’ll give you our thoughts as to why this may be.
