Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Google Penguin, in its current form, is two years old. That’s right it’s been two years since the third version of Penguin came out. Google is now updating it again. The fourth version of the Penguin algorithm is set to make significant changes to the results that people get when they perform a Google search. Penguin 3.0 only hit 1% of websites, but this is set to be much bigger.

The biggest change of all is Penguin is going to operate in real-time. The new signal will be part of the core search algorithm, which is a big surprise to a lot of businesses. But what is this update and how will it impact search?...

Are you worried about getting an algorithmic or manual penalty? In most cases, you shouldn’t, but if you are dabbling in SEO, you need to make sure you aren’t breaking any rules.

To help you avoid any current or future Google penalties, I’ve created an infographic that shows you what you should and shouldn’t do....

Want to see the impact Google's algorithm changes have had on SEO over the years? Check out this infographic we created with Moz.

In the beginning, Google's search engine really wasn't all that good. This was back in the late 90s/early 00s, when search engines were little more than keyword-matching and link-counting machines. Ranking high in search results could be accomplished by essentially using a simple, two-step procedure:

Step 1: Stuff your keyword phrase into your page/website as many times as possible.

Step 2: Get as many gosh-darn inbound links as you possibly could.

For those early "SEO gurus" who gamed the system -- achieving high rankings while adding little value for actual searchers -- the fun wouldn't last. Every time Google found a weakness in its ability to deliver relevant, high-quality search results, it made fixes to address it. Starting in 2003 with "Boston," major changes to its algorithm are adorned with names and made regularly....