Confirmed: Google Penguin 3.0 released late Friday Night (17th October)

[Robert Charlton]

Per Barry, it's now official, but details still forthcoming...

Confirmed: Google Penguin 3.0 Released Late Friday Night
updated midday Sun Oct 19, 2014
by Barry Schwartz
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-3-19313.html [seroundtable.com]

Update & Confirmed: Google Sunday afternoon has confirmed they have done a Penguin update. I am trying to get more details at this moment.

From Barry's original report, dated Oct 18...

Special Report: Google Penguin 3.0 Likely Released Saturday Morning

I am working on getting confirmation from Google but I have never seen the forums light up as much as they are now...

...It is unclear if this is a refresh to the Penguin algorithm or a revised algorithm update. Again, I am waiting to get more details from Google on this.

But it seems like 90%+ of SEOs are in agreement that Google refreshed Penguin over the weekend. Will they reverse it? Was it a test? Will it stick? That is the big question.

PS: Thanks to member elguiri for spotting this in the Google Updates thread [webmasterworld.com...]

[teokolo]

I see a huge crawling spike 17-18-19 October, traffic started increasing 22 October, +20% +30%.
This site received a manual penalty on march 2013, revoked some months later, then it was penguinized for individual keywords losing about 80% of organic traffic. Some of those keywords are now back in top 50, traffic is still down -50% compared to early 2013.
I am disavowing bad links since 1 year and it seems it has worked.

[Hollywood]

Teokolo, your story sound similar to mine, but I have only seen...

1) Tiny, tiny increases in traffic
2) The end to more drops after new Penguin and Panda updates...
3) I have only gained back about 15% of my traffic from pre Penguin/Panda

I do not have any penalties and the site has been 90% revamped to equal --> clean. Wrote also about 30 very well composed articles.

Still crossing fingers something gives, barely making it after 15 years of very hard work building my business. It's depressing. :|

[Lorel]

I noticed that several of my $$ keywords pages increased in rank with Panda (i've been de-opting those pages and increasing or changing content on those pages several times this last year).

But then they dropped with Penguin (I had filed a disavow last Oct and cleaned up a lot of links), but now those keywords are back to the Panda level, about 1/2 of which are above their original level last Oct.

So it appears to me that Panda increased the rank on several keywords (due to de-opting pages) then Penguin came along and shot them down but shortly thereafter they bounced back, better than ever.

Seems to me that Panda is carrying more weight or else Penguin is still rolling out.

The problem is I don't see an increase in traffic.

service business USA.

[samwest]

We're all being crushed by the trend. You either become the trend or get pushed out of the way. It's a basic law of the modern jungle.

Happily trends don't always last.

[gjensen]

Has anyone else seen a large number of visitors to homepage at the same time like 87, then they just vanish, none go to sub pages -- seen in Google real time.

I have seen this 3 nights in a row, part of google update? Or?

[Nutterum]

More like one or more of your keywords spiked overnight. Seen it happen in the last penguin update but it should not last.

[IamnotMattCutts]

is anyone still seeing flux in ranks & traffic?

[freshpaul]

All the keywords I've been checking have stuck, but my traffic is definitely fluctuating from day to day. Monday high, yesterday low.

(Penguin recoveree)

[Wilburforce]

is anyone still seeing flux in ranks & traffic?

Ranks, no: monitored terms have been stable (+/- 1 place) since whatever-penguin-we-are-calling-this started.

Traffic, yes: unusually quiet Monday, above average yesterday, even more unusually quiet so far today. I haven't any clear view of what might be causing this.

[freshpaul]

Horribly high bounce rate so far today.

[SnowMan68]

but my traffic is definitely fluctuating from day to day. Monday high, yesterday low.

Same here. And the bounce rate is a little bit higher so far. We are US based and it is early. Generally it will get better as the day goes on. Overnight searchers tend to bounce quicker than the people during the day.

I would expect the SERP's to remain fairly consistent until Thurs-Friday. That seems to be when they like to roll out changes to the Penguin over the last couple weeks.

[chalkywhite]

Dont know what has happened but seeing 40% gains today on same time as last week, this yo-yoing is getting tiresome, its like penguin came, stayed a week then went home.

[RedBar]

is anyone still seeing flux in ranks & traffic?

Mine seem to have settled down now. I have two .co.uk sites that have definitely benefitted, one 14 years old and hardly touched since launch and back on 1st/2nd pages again, the other about 4 years old and untouched and is now ranking where it deserves to be, definitely being one of the best sites for its widgets.

I also have a 16 year old .com trade widget directory site which has increased its traffic but I never know how much of it is students doing homework or actual business traffic at this time of year!

[freshpaul]

Today has not been great. Traffic definitely down.

[RedBar]

Very strange day, my logs do not agree with Google AdSense whatsoever.

[mrengine]

I actually see some slight improvement from those farther down the supply chain in my industry. That is the first positive sign I've seen from Google in years.

[Nutterum]

Less traffic for the niche I monitor as well. On the up side more conversions (not only in % but in numbers!) so I am happy. Do you think the combined Panda + Penguin optimized the personalized search hence why many people are seeing less traffic overall?

[IamnotMattCutts]

Nothing consistent in regards to traffic this end, but over the past day or so rankings did seem to hold. However this morning i'm seeing movement in rank across a few websites. Like everyone, I'm just trying to gauge if the update has been rolled out yet or if it's still ongoing.

The communication from Google is a disgrace. For something that impacts so many people, I really don't see why so much secrecy has to surround updates.

Google try so hard to be seen as cool with their slides and beanbags. But you know what isn't cool Google - treating people with contempt. (apologies for the mini rant)

[RedBar]

My numbers came back to normal overnight except for one specific site which seems to have had a boost this week from Sunday onwards, up about 30%.

or if it's still ongoing.

I feel it must be, I can't see any other reason why I have had a boost on this site considering it's 16 years old!

[YJunK]

Sometimes I wish Google algorithm updates worked like Apple announcements. Huge conference where they share all the updates and details.
What a world that would be.

[EditorialGuy]

Sometimes I wish Google algorithm updates worked like Apple announcements. Huge conference where they share all the updates and details.

Or maybe the other way around, with Apple giving out iPhones, iPads, and Macbook Airs for free. :-)

[RedBar]

+1

I could make some money out of those:-)

[rish3]

Or maybe the other way around, with Apple giving out iPhones, iPads, and Macbook Airs for free. :-)

I assume you're referring to Google giving away their "cloud based" software services for free?

Not sure I get the comparison. Google doesn't give away hardware (Chromebooks, for example), and Apple offers "cloud based software" for free (iCloud). So, both are the same in that respect.

The chief difference, to me, is that when Apple gives something for free, their hidden motive is to sell you hardware. Google's motive is to sell data about you to advertisers.

[SnowMan68]

He is referring to their organic results being free.

[rish3]

He is referring to their organic results being free.

Oh, yes...that's right. Many site owners allow Google to index and serve snippets of their content for free.

[IamnotMattCutts]

I've never got the whole 'organic results are free' concept, always found it rather naive to think that way. Organic search is how they got people to the door and what drives the machine.

If Google never had organic listings, they wouldn't be who they are today, a 'SEARCH ENGINE'. Just another paid directory of adverts no one cares for. We are a necessary evil, they need us to function, so how can that be free.

[EditorialGuy]

I've never got the whole 'organic results are free' concept, always found it rather naive to think that way. Organic search is how they got people to the door and what drives the machine.

So what? They aren't charging you to be included in their organic search results. That's "free" by any rational definiton.

[IamnotMattCutts]

Free means getting something for nothing. We are allowing (giving) Google to use our websites to attract traffic - hardly free. If they never had them, they couldn't be what they are.

[rish3]

That's "free" by any rational definiton.

Most people don't describe quid-pro-quo relationships that way.

It's Latin for "something for something". Free is "something for nothing".

[EditorialGuy]

Getting back to the topic of this thread, our free or quid pro quo organic traffic from Google has been pretty steady since Panda 4.0 and its immediate aftermath. Penguin 3.0 continues to be a non-event for us (as it is for most sites, if we're to believe Google's estimates of the impact).

Now, if I could just get Apple to give me an iPhone, an iPad, or a Macbook Air in return for letting its bot crawl my site....