Matt Cutts: Penguin 2.0 to be Released in Next Few Weeks

Matt Cutts has announced that the new generation of Penguin algorithmic updates is to be rolled out over the coming weeks.

The announcement follows speculation that a Google update had already occurred with webmasters reporting significant drops in rankings. Cutts denied any Penguin update last week but clarified that Penguin 2.0 was due to be released later this month.

Having previously forewarned webmasters of a “new generation” of Penguin last year, SEOs and webmasters have been discussing just how strict this new algorithmic update will be.

Penguin was launched in an attempt to prevent webmasters carrying out unnatural link building practices from succeeding in the rankings. Previously, webmasters could build irrelevant links to powerful sites in a spammy fashion and perform well in the SERPs. All that changed with Penguin. The link profile of a site now needs to be natural and relevant. In addition, previously built bad backlinks need to be removed.

As a result, many webmasters switched their focus to including links within relevant guest posts. However, some SEOs are now speculating that due to Google’s preoccupation with publisher authority and quality editorial content, these rich anchor text links within guest posts may be seen as spammy.

Whatever it is, Cutts promises that the impending update will be significant. Significant enough to change common link building practices as we know it? It is highly likely. In the end, the best advice is to ask yourself whether you would build the link if you didn’t think you needed to. 9 times out of 10, the answer is probably no.

Find out more about protecting yourself from Penguin here and how to recover from Penguin here.