Is Penguin 2.1 an actual penalty?
-
By that, I mean that does Google just devalue spammy links, or does it devalue the links and penalize your site on top of it?
Does it hit specific keywords, or does it have effects site wide?
Does penguin run constantly, or only on specific days?
If spammy links are removed, how long does it take to recover?
-
On the big question, I definitely agree with Gary - Penguin can cause an algorithmic penalty, and that can impact your entire site. It's definitely not something to mess around with. Google devalues links all the time, but that's separate from Penguin. When Penguin 1.0 launched, Google made it clear the update was punitive.
As for when Penguin runs, we're really not clear on that. Penguin data seems to be updated outside of the real-time algorithm, but it's tough to say whether that only happens during an official Penguin update or if the data is updated more frequently. My gut feeling (based partially on the few Penguin recovery stories out there) is that it has to be a bit more frequent than the confirmed updates, but it's certainly irregular. I don't think every six months is accurate, honestly.
Recovery is tricky - since Penguin is algorithmic, reconsideration shouldn't help in theory, but the reality is a bit more murky. Penguin does need to refresh, and the links do need to be re-crawled - Gary is certainly right about that. Those timelines can be highly variable, though.
-
Does Google just devalue spammy links, or does it devalue the links and penalize your site on top of it?
It will Devalue the links but also penalize your site if you have been a big abuser of unnatural links
Does it hit specific keywords, or does it have effects site wide?
It will do either of those depending on the severity and you will be able to see this in webmaster tools sometimes.
Does penguin run constantly, or only on specific days?
Penguin runs roughly twice a year currently, but is always in effect, you can get an unnatural links penalty at any time. Some have said it runs in some way with Panda
If spammy links are removed, how long does it take to recover?
If you have a Manual penalty you will need to file for a reconsideration request. Once your penalty has been revoked you will need to wait for the next Penguin refresh (My estimate is April/May)
If its an algorithmic issue, you can see changes happen once a month but you will need to wait for Google bot to crawl those changes. For example if you remove a link you will still need to wait for Google to crawl that site and see those links have been removed. And in some cases wait for a Algo update.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Would you consider these domains spammy or at risk for penguin penalty?
I'm doing a bit of competitor backlink auditing and am curious how you view these domains? I also am doing this for others as a comparison and growing reference maybe of domains that they can crosscheck with their own backlink profile and make sure these aren't on there, in preparation for penguin algo release to core. Either chime in with known domains to be spam, and I will create a live list based on answers here. Domain Domain Rating directoryworld.net 64
Link Building | | Deacyde
prlog.ru 60
torchbrowser.com 60
jzip.com 58
localbiznetwork.com 58
gimpsy.com 54
pageonepower.com 52
nashvillelife.com 49
2thetopdesign.com 49
seocounsel.com 48
healthywealthyaffiliate.com 48
hollinslegal.com 48 On a working Disavow list either in root domain or extended url form seocourt.com
wldirectory.com
onpaco.com
lostdirectory.com
ligginit.comligginit.com
alivedir.net
tiptopdirectory.com
onemilliondirectory.com
submittolinkdirectory.com I've read that sitewide footer links even from parent company sites will only count as one, regardless of how many links they have, I was wondering if that was true as well?0 -
What happens if 20 links become 1?
Dear great Moz community, I have a question regarding links. Currently my website is listed on a site that requires that I pay money every year to get my products listed there.
Link Building | | gorhansan
However, I will not be paying this year. I will still be listed on the page (1 link towards my site) but my products will no longer be displayed. (around 20 products with links). Will this affect my rankings? or is one link from the page enough. Hence: all the links from that site were pointing towards the same place, my homepage. Summary: 20 links become 1 link towards my website, will it affect the ranking of my page? Thanks for all the help I really appreciate it!! Highest Regards, Gorhansan0 -
Is There Value in Disavowing Links if you there is No Google Penalty?
I have just started using Link Detox to determine if our clients have links/domains pointing to their sites that could be harming them in organic search. In a few cases 7%-9% of links have been flagged as a high priority to be disavowed. I would be interested in your opinion on the following: If your site does not have a Google penalty is there an advantage to disavowing pages that have been flagged as high risk? When I go to those pages they look spammy and have no real value other than an inbound link. If a client acquires another website/company and that website is now 301 redirected to the client's site, would "high risk" inbound links from the acquired company cause a problem for my client? A client has taken down content from their site that was completely unrelated to their current business. Is there a benefit in disavowing those links to the old content that are deemed by Link Detox as being high risk? Thank you, Rosemary
Link Building | | RosemaryB2 -
What's Your #1 High Authority Backlink Strategy For 2015?
Hey everyone, I am gathering responses from the SEO community regarding the two questions below. I will feature your (legitmate) responses as part of a study for current SEO backlink methods being used by the SEO community. There are no wrong answers. I look forward to seeing your responses and make sure to add your social profile details. 1. What is your number 1 method of acquiring high authority backlinks?
Link Building | | kirkbowlen
2. What platforms/ software do you use or recommend as part of your method? Thanks, Kirk Bowlen0 -
Disavow data for non-manual penalty
I'm working on cleaning link profile for a client. He has lots of crappy links pointing to his site. I tried to contact site owners so that they remove those links. No go for the most part. Since it's not a manual penalty, there's no need to specify when exactly I tried to contact those site owners, add emails to my disavow file, etc. It's my understanding that it's OK to just add domains to Google's disavow tool to submit because there was no manual action and it won't be checked by a human being. Would that be the right way to go?
Link Building | | vitaliykolos0 -
Can I 301 re-direct a page to regain the authority from a penguin penalized page
I built way too many anchor text links to an internal page and was penalized for the associated keyword. However, I do rank on that page for less significant keywords that I didn't build anchor text links for, though not super high. Subsequently, I've found that the sites that rank highly for the keyword that I was looking to rank for are high domain authority with almost no links built to those pages. Can I 301 re-direct that URL to my homepage, where I'm not trying to rank for that term, to make use of that authority of the links I've built to that page and start over on the page that I was hit by penguin on? This appears to make sense to me as my pages that have been hit are specifically for the terms that I have gone overboard on anchor text links. Terms that I haven't built too many anchor text links to still rank on those pages.
Link Building | | dusty79690 -
Anchor text diversity - post penguin.
Hi, It seems that achor text diversity is hugely important post penguin but what's the best strategy? What kind of anchor text should I be going for? As I understand it more that 60% of links with the keywords in trigger a google flag. For example are the following good examples for the term 'wedding singer'? local wedding singer, best wedding singer, wedding singer website, hire wedding singer. Would these cause triggers in google as all contain the keyword 'wedding singer'? Or should I be going for: click here, visit us, listen now, view a profile Obviously these words don't contain the anchor text 'wedding singer' but with a few exact match #wedding singer' anchor texts and good on page SEO will this mix give better results?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Submitting to directories all at once? i.e. within the same week or 2?
I have found a bunch of around maybe 20-30 directories that we seem not to be in, and that seem like they might be worth it from what I am reading… My question is - is it a problem to submit to this number of directories all at once – i.e. within the same week or 2? Or should I think about spreading the submissions around a month or 2? Just worried that Google etc might through a flag with a bunch of submissions all at once… Thanks
Link Building | | inhouseninja0