Since 2012, Google has released a range of different Penguin updates and Penguin 4.0 is the latest update to be added. This is Google’s fourth and final update in this series of search engine algorithm updates. Below are some of the main points you need to know about the Google Penguin 4.0 update.

Black Hat Techniques Will Be Less Likely to Succeed

The whole point of every Google algorithm is to prevent questionable internet marketing strategies from manipulating the results that appear in Google. The Penguin 4.0 update is the latest update designed to deal with this issue. Some black hat strategies continue to work, but they don’t work for long and Google’s algorithm continues to evolve and become smarter.

This is the Last Penguin Update Google Will Announce

For four years, Google has been releasing Penguin updates which has led to improved search results for users. This has changed the way website owners and online marketers approach their content creation and internet marketing activities.

A lot of hype surrounded each of these updates, but this will no longer be the case. Penguin updates are made on an ongoing basis, so there’s little point making a big announcement every time a small change is made.

The Penguin Update Is Now in Real Time

Penguin is designed to identify websites that try to manipulate the Google search engine by spamming it. Previously, when a website was penalised by previous versions of the Penguin algorithm, it could take a long time for a website to recover from this, even if the website was improved and followed Google’s rules.

This is no longer the case, because Penguin 4.0 is now working in real time. This means any penalized web pages that have been improved by a website owner will stop being penalised the next time Google crawls and re-indexes the website again. Ultimately, this means any changes that take place on a website will be noticed much quicker.

Penguin Focuses More On Web Pages Than Websites

In the past, many Google algorithm updates penalized whole websites when Google felt certain web pages on a website were breaking their rules. The Penguin 4.0 update is more specific and attempts to only penalize web pages or sections of a website it believes are spam, based on certain indicators that detect spam signals. Other web pages on a website that are not identified as spam, won’t get penalised by Google.

Google continues to improve the quality of its search engine and the Penguin 4.0 update is the latest change that is continuing this process. Thanks to this latest Google algorithm update, it’s much more difficult to trick Google with black hat tactics; search engine results are now updated in real time and this algorithm focuses more on web pages rather than penalizing a whole website. Penguin 4.0, combined with all of the updates that have been introduced in the past have made Google a more robust search engine that continues to lead the way.