There doesn’t seem to be a week or month that goes by when Google is announcing or rolling out some kind of update. In the past we have experienced the likes of RankBrain and Panda to name but a few.
Recently there has been an announcement of another penguin update – a summary of what to expect and what this means can be viewed here.
The main question on many people’s minds is that it is all well and good having different types of updates but:
1) What are the consequences for not following these updates (and more importantly…)
2) If you make changes, how can ensure you do not continue to be further penalised once you have followed the rules?
In terms of answering point 1 this is fairly simple. Websites can be given penalties which can harm your status and position on search engine websites. We have seen many examples of this in the past. However answering point 2 is not so simple.
Google has now finally clarified the answer to the above, which was confirmed by Garry Illyes in a tweet answer to a question. Recoveries in terms of the new penguin update are already happening and should be completed soon he said. This means that if a previous penguin update has caught you out and you have taken the necessary steps to remedy this, you should be noticing an overall and welcome improvement.
The effect of this is simple with regards to this update. If you have removed bad links then there may be a slight improvement to your website. If however you have both removed bad links and taken action to get good links aswell, you may well notice a much bigger and positive boost.
At last we can really say with some evidence that obeying updates really is the best practice!
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